Kodachrome

The earliest integral tripack colour reversal processes, first introduced for 16mm amateur cinephotography in 1935. It was used for professional motion picture work in 16mm, while its widest use for the amateur was in the 8mm or Super-8 format.

There were two distinct types of Kodachrome®. One of the first early subtractive color processes was Kodachrome, not the present three-colour process which uses multilayer film, but a two-colour system of the same name invented for still photography in 1913 by J.G. Capstaff. This original Kodachrome process was shot with a dual-lens camera, each lens filtered to record one part of the colour information. The filtered images were recorded on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives.

The final prints were produced with a double sided emulsion film strip and dyeing the emulsion appropriately green/blue on one side and red on the other. A 600 foot experimental film was possibly the first two-colour subtractive colour motion picture ever made. A wing of the Deluxe West Coast Laboratory in Hollywood was built for this process that was renamed Fox Nature Color Process.

The modern version of the Kodachrome colour image was intended for projection of an original and less suited for the preparation of copies by printing. Kodachrome was processed only by Kodak or, in certain territories, by their appointed agents until 2011. The cost of processing was included in the purchase price.

Kodachrome is no longer produced, ceasing production on June 22, 2009.