Guide to IdentifyingColor Movie Film StocksThis page is intended to be used by the collector of16mmfilms to aid in the identification of the various kinds of film stockthatone is likely to encounter. Please let me know if I have includedany errors in this page.

1. Double 8mm Film
2. 8mm Movie Film

Super 8mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older 'Double' or 'Regular' 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8mm wide, the same as older formatted 8mm film, but the dimensions of the rectangular perforations along one edge are smaller, which allows for a greater exposed area. The Super 8 standard also allocates the. Download Free Film Grain and Light Leaks. When used well, a touch of film grain and a well placed light leak can really perfect a look. When used badly it can be carelessly sloshed all over your edit, leaving every transition relying on a blur of bright light.

I am always trying to improve this page,andappreciateany suggestions. If you have comments please.TechnicolorBlue Track TechnicolorClear Edge (double rank) TechnicolorBlack Edge (single rank) TechnicolorBritish Technicolor with black edgeBritish Technicolor with clear edge (special thanks to JohnSchulien)Technicolor: Called 'IB Technicolor' for Imbibition. The mostfade resistant color process. Found in 16mm from the mid 1940's to theearly 1970's. A dye transfer process.

The soundtrack is printed byitselfonto black and white stock. The colors are mechanically printed fromgelatinrelief matrices onto this blank film. Three matrices are made fromseparationnegatives for yellow, cyan and magenta. The film usually has no markingon the edges. The edges are usually clear.

The soundtrack looksgrey,and the film looks from the edge like black and white stock. EarlyTechnicolor16mm prints from the 1940's often had blue sound tracks instead ofgrey.Some prints have a grey stripe along the opposite edge from the soundtrackdepending on its position in the printer.

I have been told thattheclear edge prints are double rank prints, made 2 at a time and thenslitin 2, and the the black edge prints are single rank, but clearedge prints can be single rank also, in particular pre-1963prints. Single rank prints supposedlyhave better color registration than the black edge single rank prints,but this is debatable.

Technicolor prints made in the U.S. Do nothave any marking. British made Technicolor prints areusuallyblack around the perforations like Kodachrome, and are marked'TechnicolorSafety'. Some of the British Technicolor prints have clearedges, with black lettering. British Technicolor also often has alacquer coating to protect the emulsion.Scan of single rank 16mm Technicolor prior to slitting(specialthanksto Brian Phillips)Kodachrome and Eastman ReversalKodachrome with 'Yellow' (Sulphite) soundtrackEastman Reversal (Grey Track Kodachrome)Kodachrome: A reversal (direct positive) process.

1936 to 2009.Never used for 35mm release prints, only 16mm and 8mm. (There was aspecial version known as Technicolor Monopack which was used for a few cameraoriginals in the 1940s). Virtually fade proof.Mostcommonly used for amateur films for direct projection. I haven't seenanyrelease prints made on Kodachrome since the 1970’s. Identified by beingcompletely black around the perforations, with white (or similar lightcolor) markings. Print stock comes in 2 types, ordinary Kodachrome,marked'Kodachrome Safety', which has a brownish (sulfite) soundtrack, and'EastmanRev Color Safety Film', which has a grey silver soundtrack, similar toTechnicolor.Kodachrome is high in contrast, and the contrast increases in printing,causing the shadows to be quite dark. For longevity of color,thisis the next best thing to Technicolor.

There are reports of thefirstproduction of Kodachrome having fading problems, but this was fixedaround1938.Faded Kodachrome?In the samples of silent film above, on was shot on Kodachrome with a datecode of 1936 (shortly after introduction). The color has faded quitesignificantly. Another sample above shows Kodachrome with a date code of1937. It shows no sign of fading. This indicates that the fadingproblem was fixed pretty early in the production of Kodachrome.AnscochromeAnscochrome: A reversal process. Similar in appearance toKodachrome,except for the markings.

Not seen in a grey track version. Ansco from the 1950’s doesn't seem to fade, but some Anscofrom the 1940’s has a fading problem.CinecolorCinecolorCinecolor: An early color process, used in the 1940's andearly1950's. Cinecolor is a 2 color process. The blue emulsion is on onesideof the film, and the red emulsion is on the other side. The sound trackis usually blue, and the film is marked 'Kodak Safety'. Cinecolor isfaderesistant, but the colors are not very accurate. Most commonly seenusedfor cartoons.

There is also a 3 color process called SuperCinecolor,but it is relatively rare. I don't know if any 16mm prints wereever made in Super Cinecolor.More about Cinecolor:There was probably never Super Cinecolor in 16mm, only35mm. Cinecolor is notorious for 'yellow laddering,' adeterioration thathappens given the fact that many Cinecolor prints had a yellow layeradded to them to give better color rendition that seeps on frames thatwere wound next to them. As these frames are not exactly lined up, itgives a weird yellow image that ghosts its way up and down the film.Not fixable. Not all Cinecolor prints do this, but many do. Cinecoloris also notable for having Eastman edge codes that are usually brightred or blue.

There was, however, 16mm Trucolor. Trucolor was aDupont processwith a blue track and it does fade. You'll find Republic releases onTrucolor. There was alsoa Super Trucolor in 1953-4, which also fades a hair, and it usedDupont's two-color stock with a DYE TRANSFER (!) yellow layer. Ihave not seen this on 16mm, but have on 35mm.(Thanks to Eric Grayson).EktachromeEktachrome: A reversal process.

Similar in appearance toKodachrome,except for the markings. Occasionally seen in a grey (silver) soundtrackversion.

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The scan above has a silver sulfite track1950’s to present. The lower scan has a silver track, and is marked'Eastman Safety' It does not say Ektachrome anywhere. Thissample dates from 1979 Another sample from the same time is markedEP. Most commonly used for camera originals forduplicationor direct projection. Favorite of TV news crews in the magnetic soundversion.Unusual on release prints.

Ektachrome from the 1960’s and newer seemstohold up OK, but Ektachrome from the 1950’s is fading badly.A Red Herring: What is this? It looks like Agfa-Gevaert with at greytrack! Is it possible? Nope, it's a trap for the unwary filmidentifier. A leader printed on A-G is attached to a camera original onEktachrome. A release print is made on Ektachrome print stock with thelight extending to the sprocket edges, which copies the edge codes from theoriginal.EastmancolorEastmancolor: What is usually called Eastman color is theprintstock made from the mid 1950’s to the early 1980’s. This is apositive-negativeprocess.

Clear around the perforations with a very light pink or orangecast. Markings along the edge in red, sometimes very small.Eastmancolor is the stockmostprone to fading. Some later versions (sometimes erroneously called'4b')seem to hold up better, similar to SP.

Many films have turned so thatnothingbut red is left. Rate of fading depends on the quality ofprocessingas well as storage conditions. Color film emulsions aremade up of cyan, yellow and magenta layers. The cyan layerwill fade first.

This initially causes the shadows to go maroon,then blue skies turn white, and eventually all you have left isred.The 4b MysterySome prints are reported to be on Eastman '4b' stock, which is claimedby some to be a relatively low fade stock. What people call '4b'is a code on the edge of Eastmancolor stock that consists of variouslinesand/or dots. Sometimes these look vaguely like the characters'4b'.It is believed that these codes indicate the slitter machine when thefilm stock is cut down from a wide roll to 16mm width. There areseveral different codes that appear on various Eastman stocks over manyyears.

Tom Robinson at the Oregon Historic Photo Archive has puttogether a chart of the various slit codes he has seen. '4b' isnoton his chart, but by extrapolating his chart, it would mean slitter46. Here is the link to his chart, which also includes Eastmandatecodes:Thank you Tom!Around the time that this code was appearing on thefilm, Eastmanwas making small quantities of a stock with improvements to the cyanstability,but these were not specially marked. I have seen some badly fadedprints marked with the code identified as '4b', so this is not really asign of a low fade print.

Double 8mm Film

Most of these are also only a littlemorethan 20 years old, so if they were stored properly, fading should bejuststarting.One thing that I have noticed is that for stock made in thelate 1970's,the '4b' (46) marking appears more frequently than other codes.More about EastmancolorEastman Kodak introduced two low fade 16MM stocks in 1979, EastmanColor LF Print film 7378 and Eastman Color LFSP film 7379. The latterfilmused the higher temperature ECP-2 process whereas the 7378 used thestandardECP Process.

These films had much improved cyan-layer fadingcharacteristicsthan the 7381/7383 stocks. As far as I know, these were notmarkedin any special way, and were available in parallel with the standardEastmancolor,possibly at a higher price. These films were discontinued about1982/83when KODAK introduced their 5384/7384 Eastman Color Print film withexcellentlow fade properties (LPP) and this film was used for making practicallyall prints from 16mm and 35mm color negatives. (Thanks, Peter,forthe information on these).Kodak SPKodak SP: Stands for 'Special Process'. I thought it was'SlowPhade'.

8mm Movie Film

Marked 'Safety Film Kodak SP'. Mostly used in the 1970’s. Holdsup better than standard Eastmancolor. Tends to turn brownish in theshadows.Some of it has held up quite well, others are noticeablybrown.In the particular sample in the scan, the greenish-gray backgroundaroundthe perforations indicates that it was printed to show edge numberingfromthe negative. This type of printing is found on many types ofneg/posstock, not just SP, and not all SP is printed like this.

In thelowerpicture there is marking in white. This is from the negative, notthe positive print. This can be confusing. The soundtrackisa dual bilateral variable area.

It is not stereo, both tracks areidentical.More about SP:SP was introduced about 1974, at about the timethat KODAK introduced their then new Eastman Color Negative II5247/7247films. According to KODAK the only difference between SP (7383)andtheir standard Eastman Color print film (7381) is that it used a highertemperature processing bath and a shorter processing time. Kodakprobably did not make any claims that this film had better fadingcharacteristicscompared to their standard Eastman Color print film (7381).(ThanksPeter).Eastman LPPEastman LPP: Stands for 'Lowfade Positive Print'.Marked'Eastman LPP Safety'. Used since the early 1980’s. Possibly the bestdyepermanence of the negative/positive processes. Nice, rich colorswithoutexcessive contrast. In the early 1990s Kodak changed their edgemarkingsystem, and newer prints aren't marked LPP, even though they are, andsomeuse the new stock code system.

See Kodak's web site for details.LPP is type 5384/7384 and was replaced around 1998 with the KodakVisionseries.Eastman Post-LppRecent Eastman film is no longer marked LPP, though it isconsidered a low fade stock. Note that the year of manufacture isno longer a code.KodacolorKodacolor movie film is really strange stuff. It was made from about1928 to the early 1930s. It is an additive process where the film has ablack and white emulsion. The film has lenticular ridges on the baseside.

It is exposed through the base with a special filter on the lenshaving red green and blue stripes. The ridges on the base cause the red,green and blue content of the image to be exposed in vertical stripes under thefilters.

A matching filter is on the projection lens.FujiFuji: Generally good fading characteristics, but some of theolder stuff can fade slowly, tending toward the Purple. Marked 'FujiSafety'or 'Fuji Film Safety'.

There is a date code with the 2 digitsrepresentingthe year of manufacture.More about Fuji:Fuji had a competitive process with SP that was marked HP,approximately the same years. It, too, fares a bit better thanregular Fuji. Fuji changed chemistry in 1982 or 1984 along withEastmanand has sincegotten the same excellent low-fade characteristics. Beware1978-79 Fuji. There is some weird chemical that causes itto grow mold and deteriorate wildly.

Can be nasty. (Thanks to EricGrayson).Agfa-GevaertAgfa-Gevaert: Usually as fade resistant as LPP. Marked 'AG1S','AG 2S', Earlier films are sometimes spelled out 'Agfa –Gevaert'. If it is marked just 'Agfa' or just 'Gevaert', it waslikely produced prior to the merger of Agfa and Gevaert in 1964.Sometimes it's just marked '1S' or '2S' without the 'AG'. Ithink it holds up better than Fuji. When it fades, it tends to losesome color saturation, but does not turn red. I have no idea whatthe 1S and 2Smean.It is reported that some of the earlier stuff fades a bit, but not verymuch, and the newer stuff is very good.

I have been told that the1S and 2S designation indicates single or double rank printing stock,can anyone confirm or deny this?3-M (Ferrania)3-M: Colors sometimes hold up OK, sometimes turn red as a beet.Usually turn brownish. Sometimes marked '3M', sometimes not marked atall.Earlier (and current, if they are making any movie stock) stock wasmarked Ferrania. 3-M bought Ferrania around 1960, and spun it offagain recently.CRICRI: This is not a print stock, but is used in anintermediateprocess. It stands for Color Reversal Intermediate.

It was a specialfilmstock used for making internegatives. The purpose of this was toavoid the extra step of making an interpositive, so that aninternegativecould be made directly from the camera negative. Most CRI prints are onEastmancolor, Sometimes a later process such as SP or LPP, but oftenonplain old Eastman, though it can also be Agfa-Gevaert or Fuji.Thisprocess was used mostly between 1968 and 1987, so later prints madefroma CRI haven't faded much yet.

It still has no bearing on faderesistance,and is often confusing. Sometimes prints made from a CRI aregrainierthan those using other intermediates. The internegatives on CRIwerereputed to fade quite badly.Sound TracksDespite differing appearances, all 16mm optical sound tracks arecompatible with standard sound projectors. Projectors with theability to play magnetic sound tracks are less common.Variable Density SoundtrackVariable Density track is an older type, originally the 'WesternElectric'track. It is found mostly on B&W films, though it issometimesseen on Kodachrome films, or on later reprints from older negatives.Single Variable Area SoundtrackEnlargement of a single variable area sound track.

This wasoriginallythe RCA type of track, though it could also be made with Maurer andlaterWestern Electric sound recorders. This example is on A-G stock,butcould be on any stock. The dual variable area track is more common.Dual Variable Area SoundtrackDual Variable Area is the most common type of soundtrack. Bothtracks are identical. It is not stereo.

There are rumorsthatthere was a brief experiment with Dolby stereo soundtracks in 16mm, andsome prints were made for the U.S. Military, but none of these havebeenseen by collectors. Stereo tracks in 35mm look similar to this,but the modulations will be different on each track.Multiple Variable Area (Maurer) SoundtrackThe above picture shows a Maurer multiple VA track. There are6 identical tracks. This just happens to be on a piece of LPPstock,which is actually unusual, since this type of track was most popularlongbefore LPP was available.More about the Maurer Soundtrack:From “Audio Cyclopedia”, by Howard M Tremaine (1969 Howard M.Sams)Page 915.“In Multiple Variable-area sound-track recording, six or more identicalbilateral sound tracks are recorded side by side. Such soundtracksare generally used with 16-mm photographic sound recording. Theadvantagesclaimed for this method of recording are that because the tracks arequitenarrow, distortion caused by azimuth deviation and uneven slitilluminationis considerably reduced, and the signal-to-noise ratio isincreased.This type sound track is used by Maurer, and the GermanTobias-Klang-filmCo.

A method of recording 13 sound tracks, developed bySiemens-Halske,also of Germany, has been described in the literature.”Unilateral Sound TrackThe unilateral sound track is less common than other types ofoptical tracks. It had pretty much fallen out of use by the1950s. It was also used in the Auricon direct sound-on-filmcamera which was produced mainly in the 1950s. Many of these wereconverted to use in kinescope recording (filming of television pictureand sound), so some kinescope recordings are found with unilateraltracks.Dual Unilateral Sound TrackThis looks like a negative of a single variable area track, butnotice how the white portion gets narrower in quiet passage as noisereduction. Not a very common track type, but more common thansingle unilateral.Magnetic Sound TrackMagnetic track is brown, usually a balance stripe is on the other edgefor even winding. Sometimes it is half width to add a secondlanguageand still have an optical track. Requires a projector withmagneticplayback capability.

The picture above is on Ektachrome.This was commonly used for TV news gathering with 'single system'cameras that recorded sound in the camera.Silent Film StockSilent film differs from sound film in that it has perforations onboth edges. The scan above is on Kodachrome.Film BaseThe plastic film base for 16mm is either Acetate or Polyester.No 16mm stock was manufactured on Nitrate base, though it was used for35mm films until 1950.

Acetate is theearliermaterial, and is susceptible to 'Vinegar Syndrome', a deterioration ofthe base, emitting a vinegar odor and causing warping andshrinking.Polyester was introduced in the 1970s and is much more stable.Polyesteris frequently referred to by Kodak's trade name of 'Estar'.Anon-destructive method to tell Polyester(Estar,etc.) from AcetateOne technique is to use crossed polarizers, such as camera filtersor 3-D glasses. Overlap the polarizers, and orient them so thattheyare opaque. Place the film between them. If it is acetate,it will appear opaque.

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