Page 22 - RD_March_2013.pdf

DUFAYCOLOR
Developed in England by Dufay-Chromex Ltd. In the early 1930s. Dufaycolor became available to
home movie makers on both 16mm and 9.5mm. The process was simple; a large number on red,
green and blue 'filters' were embossed onto the surface of the film, the emulsion was coated onto
the opposite side of the film. The film was loaded into the camera (and projector) with the color
filters closest to the lens. The emulsion was therefore exposed through the color filters, each tiny
color element of the image being recorded by the black and white emulsion. There were
approximately one million color elements per square inch.

Left: 16mm frames from a Dufaycolor home movie.
Above: Enlarged portion showing the color reseau
pattern.

Dufaycolor was used in two British-made 35mm feature films during the 1930s. Radio Parade of
1935 (1934) contained two color sequences. Sons of the Sea (1939) was the only full length color
film made in the process.

For the home movie market, Dufaycolor was a reversal film, there being no negative involved.
16mm and 9.5mm Dufaycolor films are often found in collections of home movies. As stated above
in relation to Kodacolor, for the same reason, they are often poorly exposed and quite dark. A
well exposed Dufaycolor film will give quite pleasing color rendition, but the pattern formed by
the color filters can be seen on all but the smallest screens.

KODACHROME
Introduced in 1935 by Kodak. Kodachrome was the film of choice for most home movie and color
slide photographers. Except for that made in the first few years of production, its color retention
and reproduction is very good. It was available as 16mm, 9.5mm and 8mm movie film, as well
as 35mm slides, At a later date a variant was produced for use as a print film.
It was also available as 35mm motion picture film, and used by Technicolor for their Technicolor
Monopack process. The Monopack film being used to make the three color matrices to eventually
produce the Technicolor release print. The Monopack system was frequently the method by
which Technicolor ‘actuality’ films were shot.