Kodacolor Gold 400 Kodacolor Gold 1600 I [{•] »7iW«]" Kodacolor Gold 400 Kodacolor Gold 1600 78 PHOTOgraphic/September 1989 welcome addition. sharpness between the 400 Gold and by Jack and Sue Drafahl We noticed a tremendous difference its slower siblings. When we look at when color printing this new film. The the ISO 400 color films of ten years previous emulsions tended to be denser ago, it's hard to believe that the only Everyone has a fami- and printed much cooler than the oth- difference today between the ISO 400 ly tree, which ex- er Gold films. The appearance of the and 100 films is in the degree of en- pands and spreads in ISO 100, 200 and 400 films is so much largement recommended. different directions alike that you must read the film edge with each new addition. Kodak is to verify the emulsion type when print- NEW 1600 GOLD proud to announce it is adding two ing the negatives. A welcome surprise is the high- new members to its Gold family of speed ISO 1600. Kodak states that this films. With over 100 million color neg- new addition has borrowed technology atives taken by consumers every year, from the Ektar 1000, but we suspect there comes a need to provide a variety that some help also was derived from of color negative films in order to sat- the Ektapress 1600 research. As the isfy every photographic situation. newer cameras increase their shutter Presently the Gold family tree in- speeds to '/sooo, there comes the poten- cludes ISO 100, 200, 400, and 1000 tial of photographing very-high-speed members. These four films have been action in lower light. In order to fill on the market for some time, and have this void, Kodak has taken advantage proven very successful for Kodak. The of the T-grain technology and de- Ektapress and Ektar branches of the signed an extremely fast color film that Kodak tree share their new technolo- has excellent color saturation, sharp gies, helping the Gold family expand image quality, and a grain pattern that and grow. is similar to the earlier version of the ISO 400 color negative film. An extra-sensitive blue layer is incorporated to off- set the rich reds found in tungsten lighting. The film layers were also rear- ranged; instead of pairing the fast and slow layers to- gether, Kodak moved the fast cyan layer up under- neath the fast magenta layer. This Two New High-Speed Winners way, the cyan layer receives more light from above and reflected from the fast magenta layer underneath, resulting in NEW IMPROVED 400 GOLD an increased film speed. DIR and DI- In an effort to make an all-purpose AR couplers are also used to keep low-light action film, Kodak incorpo- couplers from drifting between layers, rated some of the technology from the resulting in Kodak's famous "Sharper Ektar family to create an ISO 400 film Colors." that has image quality typical of much 1600 GOLD FILM TESTS slower films. Most of the layers in the new 400 Gold use the new T-grain Not too long ago, we reserved the technology, and take advantage of use of ISO 1600 color negative film for some of the new color couplers devel- those last-resort situations. This was oped for the Ektar family. Exposure usually due to the loss of color, huge latitude is somewhat less than the pre- grain, and lack of acceptable sharp- vious ISO 400 films' (V/i stops under ness. More recently though, Kodak and 3 stops over), but the improved and other film manufacturers have broken the speed barrier with their sharpness, color saturation, and tight 400 GOLD FIELD TESTS grain certainly make this new film a first super-fast emulsions. Granted, The Rose Festival in Portland, Ore- the first emulsions still had much gon, was our testing ground for the room for improvement, but now we Gold films. We found the new 400 are starting to see qualities once found 1. New Kodacolor Gold 1600 is excellent for existing-light candid shots, permitting Gold emulsion perfect for capturing only in ISO 400 emulsions. handholdable shutter speeds and ade- many of the high-speed outdoor events Many photo situations that we quate depth of field, and providing good during the festivities. Even though the might have avoided before are now image quality. slower films could be exposed at ac- easily and accurately recorded on this 2. For daylit moving subjects, new Koda- ceptable shutter speeds in sunlight, the new and improved super-speed film. color Gold 400 provides excellent image ISO 400 speed gave us that extra edge, The most obvious use for this film is in quality and action-freezing speed. 3. Bright colors are accurately reproduced allowing improved sharpness and extremely low light. You would expect by Kodacolor Gold 400. making the difference between the av- that. But where we really enjoyed this 4. Heron departing Willamette River on erage shot and the great action shot. film was in lighting situations halfway overcast day was captured at Viooo and f/8 Equally important, we found very between sunlight and low light, where on Kodacolor Gold 1600. little difference in color saturation and (Continued on page 82) PHOTOgraphic/Seplember 1989 79 • •• f •••i 1 KODAK EKTAR KODACOLOR •••1' GOLD FILMS HONORS namic negative. You can easily im- (Continued from page 79) press your friends when you show action was intense, or the lenses were Jean Shifrin, a staff photographer at them a beautiful 20X24 grainless col- slow. One example was a shooting ex- The Kansas City Star, has been chosen or print made from a 35mm Ektar 25 pedition on the Willamette River, pho- as the winner of the 1989 National negative. tographing herons. These are nervous Press Photographers Association/Ni- birds that can only be approached by kon $10,000 Documentary Sabbatical EKTAR 125 FILM water. The day was heavily overcast, Award. Ms. Shifrin will use the grant When we first reviewed the original the lens an f/8 500mm handheld. It to complete her winning project, "Par- Ektar 25 film we noted that in order to was an impossible shot for slower ents Again—Grandparents Who Raise gain the highest quality possible, expo- films, but the 1600 Gold gave us sharp Their Grandchildren," during a three- sure latitude and film speed had to be pictures at '/iooo and f/8. True, the month sabbatical... Amy Deputy at sacrificed to create such a film. It grain was more pronounced than the Western Kentucky University in seems that Kodak wasn't happy with ISO 400 film's, but when choosing be- Bowling Green, KY, was named first- this trade-off and made several unique tween getting or not getting the shot, changes to their Ektar technology. The we say go for the Gold 1600! results were an extremely high-quality film with increased speed and a wider CONCLUSIONS exposure latitude. Doesn't seem possi- Every time Kodak improves their ble, does it? emulsions, even a little, we're the win- This amazing feat was accomplished ners. We just keep taking those blue- by first rearranging the eleven layers in ribbon photos and Kodak keeps mak- the film. The first difference is in the ing it easier. Looking back at the emul- blue layers. Ektar 125 has two (one sions of ten years ago, we begin to fast, one slow) blue layers slightly really appreciate how far we've come. thicker than the single blue, slow layer But look out world, because who found in Ektar 25. Second, there is an knows where we're going to go! ffl extra inter-layer between the two green layers which restricts color couplers from migrating into each oth- COMING NEXT MONTH er, thus increasing the film's sharp- ness. For the first time, a new type of NEW FILMS magenta color coupler has been used POLAROID ONEFILM which has the ability to enhance the place portfolio winner in the 44th-An- speed of the T-grain emulsion. The SCOTCH CHROME 400 nual College Photographer of the Year two red layers contain the same DIAR USER REPORTS competition—sponsored by Kappa Al- couplers found in Ektar 25, which in- pha Mu, the National Press Photogra- hibit dye formation wherever appro- CANON EOS-1 phers Association, and the University priate, increasing color saturation in RICOH MIRAI 105 of Missouri School of Journaliam. the final image. Put it all together and & RICOH SHOTMASTERS Eastman Kodak and Canon U.S.A. you've got one heck of a great film. were sponsors. AETNA OPTIX STUDIO KIT FIELD TESTING EKTAR 125 BESELER 45V-XL Sorry Kodak, but we think you HISTORIC went a little too far. Why would you HOW TO make a film so much better than your COLORVISION PRESERVATION other 100-speed films that you become How to make your colors sizzle. your own best competitor? As much as The National Trust for Historic we enjoyed shooting Kodacolor Gold Preservation is a private, nonprofit 100 and Ektapress 100, Ektar 125 is so membership organization with more superior in our opinion, that we again CONCLUSIONS than 220,000 individual and 3000 or- find ourselves in the same spot we These two films fill in the gaps in ganizational members. It was char- were in years ago when we refused to the Ektar family, and now give the tered by Congress in 1949 to encour- use anything but Kodachrome. more serious photographer a choice of age the public to participate in the We tried to discover any flaws in film speed, quality, and consistency.