Shooting/processing vintage 40s-60s era Kodak colour film: Part 1 Kodacolor

Over the past 8 months I’ve been hooked on shooting vintage Kodak colour films from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s as I’ve discovered through some peoples photos on Flickr like this (1962 Kodak Ektacolor) and through my own trial and error and some tech help from experts and Kodak colour literature on (Photographic Memorabilia) site that these old films can still work or semi work by simply overexposing them while shooting and processing them cold in modern colour chemistry like C-41.

I shot/processed my very first vintage colour film back in April which was an early 60s Kodak Kodacolor 120, I overexposed it to 1/5 sec shutter at f-8 in bright cloudy weather and did my shots in Kiama and I processed it cold in C-41 colour developing for 20 min at 20 deg C and blixing for 8 min at the same temp and 1.5 min stabilize and to my delight it worked, plus it was only my 3rd film I processed in C-41, I was totally new to colour developing at that stage! The whole album from this roll can be seen here (1960s Kodak Kodacolor 120) and here below is an exposure:

So that kickstarted my interest in shooting/processing vintage Kodak colour film and have shot many many Kodak Kodacolor, Ektachrome and Ektacolor films from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and have processed them with varying degrees of success so here’s my blog on shooting these vintage films and what to expect when processing them. Just to mention too my method of processing these films is not the proper method using original chemistry and as a disclaimer I can’t guarantee the films won’t discolour over time or deteriorate due to issues such as retained silver halides and other things plus they are no good for doing an analog colour print as digital post processing such as colour correction and balancing is required but for the purpose of getting an image on these films and getting a colourful end result after digital scanning/correction my methods will be of good use to you. This blog I present to you is a three part series which I will discuss Kodacolor, Ektachrome and Ektacolor and how I shoot and process it and the resulting images. Starting with part 1 I will be discussing Kodacolor.

Firstly I will start with Kodak Kodacolor and the oldest one I shot which is a Kodacolor 120 that expired in May 1945!

Now this an extremely old colour film from WWII era, there is no exact literature of what process was used so it was a shot in the dark whether this film would actually work or not but I was willing to give it a go! I questioned Michael Talbert who contributed this great article (Early Kodak Colour) on Photographic Memorabilia site on processing this film, he suggested I process it cold in C-41 around 17 deg C for 20 min and hope for the best. So in May I shot this film up in Sydney and around Wollongong using f-5.6 aperture and 1 sec shutter and once finished the roll I processed the film in C-41 using the following parameters:
Colour develop 20 min at 17 deg C
Wash 4 min
Blix 8 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And low and behold I got pictures!!! 😀 The negatives were blue and the colour wasn’t obvious so I wasn’t sure if I was gonna get colour on scanning but once scanned I did see colour though very discoloured and quite a bit of Photoshop colour correction and balancing was required to get the colours looking somewhat plausible but there is some colour there in the film which is really really cool, plus the discoloration does make these photos a lomographic masterpiece from an artsy perspective! 🙂 There was also major discoloration at the outer regions of the film, that’s due to age deterioration of the film which commonly the outer regions deteriorate first before the middle region. Anyways, so processing the film in C-41 semi worked for this film. Prior to commercially available C-22 processing kits for Kodacolor introduced in 1956 the Kodacolor process was done at Kodak plants and there were 3 generations of Kodacolor types and processes, this particular film was the (2nd generation Kodacolor) type used from 1944 to 1949. I have uploaded the entire album to Flickr for all to see 1945 expired (Kodak Kodacolor 120) and here below are a couple of photos from the film along with a video:

 

Also check out my (1947 expired Kodak Kodacolor 620) film on Flickr too, I processed that the same way and got very similar results!

Now onto the 1950s era of Kodak Kodacolor film. Between 1949 and 1955 was the (3rd generation of Kodak Kodacolor) film which used yet different film layout and process and I have to say I was in for some trouble with this generation of Kodacolor film!!!

I bought a few 50s Kodak Kodacolor films off a local Ebay seller and shot them all locally around the Illawarra region in sunny weather using f-6.3 aperture and 1 sec exposure. The first film I shot was a total failure due to me shooting it in my Brownie SIX-20 which I thought the shutter was on bulb but it wasn’t so hence no pictures on processing so no need to talk about that one. The 2nd film I shot which was a Kodacolor 120 that expired in March 1954 I processed it in C-41 using the following parameters:
Colour develop 20 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Blix 8 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And the results, very faded barely recognizable yellow negatives!

What can be barely made out is the Nan Tien Buddhist Pagoda in Unanderra. At the time of shooting this film I didn’t have a film scanner so it was impossible for me to get pictures using my then method of scanning films (overhead projector light and phone camera) but when I got my Epson V550 scanner and scanned this film in, to my delight it managed to scan those faded pictures and in colour too with colours even more plausible than the 40s Kodacolor films!!! The major side effect though is there’s excessive grain in the picture along with the scanner’s artifacts which happens when scanning faded film! Here is the entire album on Flickr (1954 expired Kodak Kodacolor 120 film) and below are is a sample image from the set:

I decided to at that point really investigate this film type and do some test developing. On my next 1954 Kodak Kodacolor 120 film I did some test exposures prior to shooting and cut them into quarters and did test develops and figured out that it was the blix that was making the film go pale so I tried doing a skip bleach develop using the following parameters:
Colour develop 6 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Fix 5 min at 20 deg C using Ilford Rapid Fixer
Wash 5 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And I got nice contrasty negatives though lack of colour but it was a much much much better result!!! At the time I only had my crude method of scanning so here’s a low quality scan of the Hungry Jacks sign in negative and positive (colour corrected):

 

So with the skip bleach method it worked good in making pictures but the colour is lacking. So I decided to get expert help on how to process it and so I joined the (APUG) forum and posted (my thread) on this film and I got some excellent advice from a ex Kodak engineer which he advised on making a separate bleach and hardener fix and do a rehal bleach on those Kodacolor films. I bought the chemicals to make a Ferricyanide Bleach + Bromide and Chrome Alum Hardener however I misinterpreted the info on the hardener fix thinking Chrome Alum was the hardener fix so for that skip bleached film I did the following:
Rinse 4 min
Chrome Alum hardener 4 min
Wash 4 min
Ferricyanide Bleach 6 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min (I think)
Chrome Alum hardener 4 min
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And to my horror the negatives were faded in similar nature to the first 1954 Kodacolor 120 film I shot!!! And that’s because I misinterpreted the info, I should of realized Chrome Alum hardener was just a hardener not a fixer and I should of used Potassium or Sodium Alum hardener fix. So what a bummer. But once again all wasn’t lost, the images are still there sort of and on scanning with my Epson V550 I got some grainy but nice colour pictures! 🙂 The interesting thing about the final result of this film is the colours are actually quite different to the other Kodacolor as the blues are navy blue and the browns are magenta toned, I quite like how it looks from an artistic perspective!!! 😀 I have uploaded the album to Flickr so check it out here (1954 expired Kodak Kodacolor 120) and below are a couple of samples from the set:

 

So at this point in time I have stuck with my skip bleach method and I have shot some more of those early 50s Kodacolor films and the most successful one I shot was a 1951 expired Kodak Kodacolor 116 using the skip bleach parameters. After scanning the film in Photoshop I duplicated the layers of each picture making one as luminance and the other as chroma and the chroma layer coloring over the luma layer and I ramped up the saturation sky high to bring back the colour and the images became quite colourful which I was happy with!!! 😀 I have uploaded the album to Flickr (1951 expired Kodak Kodacolor 116) and below is a sample and a video:

Now we get onto the 4th generation of Kodak Kodacolor which the C-22 process was introduced in 1956 and available to the public so photographers can process their own film!

C-22 process was used from 1956 to about 1976 before being superseded by C-41. My very first vintage Kodacolor film I shot was a C-22 process film and it processed nicely in C-41 so I know I wasn’t going to have too much trouble with C-22 films. I have shot several Kodak Kodacolor films from 1957 to 1960 using a general exposure of f-8 aperture 1 sec shutter in sunny weather and have had great success each time I process them cold in C-41 using the standard paramaters:
Colour develop 20 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Blix 8 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

The colours on these Kodacolor films are absolutely beautiful and rich like candy and kind of along the lines of technicolor! 🙂 The only main side effect I found processing C-22 films in C-41 is the highlights tend to come out yellow on scanning so I simply boost the blue in the picture and do some colour balancing from there and the pictures look great though with some blue shading but it looks cool anyway! 🙂 I have shot several of these films which can all be found on my (albums page) on Flickr, here are some highlights from some of the films:

 1957 Kodacolor 116

 1958 Kodacolor 620

 1959 Kodacolor 120

 1960 Kodacolor 120

 1960 Kodacolor 120

I also have been trying an alternate way to colour develop these Kodacolor films which is a bit closer to the C-22 process, so I did a test develop on a 1960 Kodakcolor 120 I shot at Vival La Gong festival using the following chemicals and parameters:
Colour develop 20 min at 20 deg C (using C-41 colour developer)
Wash 4 min
Chrome Alum hardener 4 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Ferricyanide Bromide bleach 6 min at 20 deg C
Wash 2 min
Clearing bath 2 min
Wash 7 min
Ilford Rapid Fixer fix 5 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

It is a more longer winded process but the colours came out very nice, perhaps a little better than using C-41 process, here’s a couple of pics from that roll:

I have a tendency to use that process more for the next generation of Kodacolor which is Kodacolor X as I found it to work better than C-41 for that type, which is the next Kodacolor film I’m gonna talk about.

Kodacolor X was introduced in 1963 and was manufactured right up to 1974 and the C-22 process was also used to develop it and had twice the sensitivity of Kodacolor. I have shot several rolls of Kodacolor X films and processed many of them cold in C-41 using the same parameters as Kodacolor and had varying degrees of success based off the exposure I used and the condition of my developer, some Kodacolor Xs came out good and some not so good. I eventually settled on shooting Kodacolor X film at f-11 to f-16 aperture and 1 sec shutter speed in sunny weather which worked good for the films. Firstly in processing the films I used the standard cold C-41 process:
Colour develop 20 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Blix 8 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And here are the results from some of the rolls I shot:

  1966 Kodacolor X 620

  1968 Kodacolor X 620

1971 Kodacolor X 620 (my developer kit was pretty shot after a dozen uses so hence the funky colours)

I realized too I underexposed those films as they came out kind of faded, reason I notched the f-stops back a bit because the ISO ratings of Kodacolor X films were 64-80 opposed to 32 ISO for Kodacolor and I’ve learned faster speed films lose sensitivity quicker than slower films so I then decided to shoot Kodacolor X at f-11 to f-16 aperture and 1 sec shutter. I also decided to develop them from now on in the separate bleach/fix colour process which involved the following chemicals and parameters:

Colour develop 20 min at 20 deg C (using C-41 colour developer)
Wash 4 min
Chrome Alum hardener 4 min at 20 deg C
Wash 4 min
Ferricyanide Bromide bleach 6 min at 20 deg C
Wash 2 min
Clearing bath 2 min
Wash 7 min
Ilford Rapid Fixer fix 5 min at 20 deg C
Wash 6 min
Stabilize 1.5 min

And sure enough I got lovely results on Kodacolor X films!!! 😀 I still had the yellow highlight issue so had to boost the blue in Photoshop to make the highlights white and once again got blue shadowing as a side effect but that’s okay by me. All my Kodacolor X films can be seen in my album sets (link) and here below are some samples from some of those rolls

1966 Kodak Kodacolor X 120

1967 Kodak Kodacolor X 120

1968 Kodak Kodacolor X 616

  1970 Kodak Kodacolor X 620

So that completes the Kodak Kodacolor set. Next chapter I will discuss vintage Kodak Ektachrome film.