AshigrainColour print · Print film
Cinecolor (two-colour)
Cinecolor's two-colour prints for shorts and cartoons.
A labelled surrogate of two-colour Cinecolor: only a blue-green and an orange-red image, so blues reproduce as blue-greens. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- 1932
- Discontinued
- Process
- Cinecolor two-colour processing (develop, fix and wash the duplitized positive, then colour each record by toning and dyeing)
- Maximum density
- ≈ 4.0
About the film
Cinecolor was a two-colour subtractive print process, printed on duplitized film coated with emulsion on both sides.
The American WideScreen Museum says Cinecolor Corporation came into being in 1932, and the Timeline of Historical Film Colors credits the process to William Crespinel, whose 1932 patent application was assigned to Cinecolor. According to the Museum, Cinecolor took over the Multicolor system after Multicolor's financial failure and used it largely unchanged until the late 1940s. Two negatives exposed in bipack recorded the red-orange and blue-green parts of the scene, and a step printer printed one record on each side of the positive. The red record was toned blue-green with iron as Prussian blue, and the green record was turned red-orange with a mordant dye. From 1932 to 1940 it served mainly short subjects and cartoons from smaller studios, and its first feature was Monogram's The Gentleman from Arizona. Later customers included Monogram, PRC, Screen Guild and Eagle-Lion, and Warner Bros. released several cartoons in Cinecolor in 1948. The Museum notes its limits, a soft projected image because the two records sat on opposite sides of the film and a cyan-toned soundtrack, and the three-colour SuperCinecolor followed it.
Sources for this history
- Cinecolor (subtractive 2 color), Timeline of Historical Film Colors, University of Zurich
- Cinecolor, American WideScreen Museum
- US Patent 2,016,666: Colored photograph and method of making same (1935), W. T. Crespinel
- Cinecolor Three-Color Process (Alan M. Gundelfinger, Journal of the SMPTE 54, January 1950), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The look
Cinecolor was a two-colour print process from 1932, printing a blue-green and a red-orange image on the two sides of duplitized film. It served short subjects, cartoons and smaller studios' features into the late 1940s. Ashigrain's version is a labelled surrogate, a model inspired by the print rather than a reproduction.
Best for
- 1940s cartoons and short subjects
- Low-budget features of the 1940s
- Comparing two-colour Cinecolor with SuperCinecolor
Compare print films
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between blue-green and red-orange: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the reds and greens print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the red neon and skin print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between a blue and a red dye: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Kodak Vision3 500T night frame, printed on each film.
- Kodak Vision Premier Color Print Film 2393
- Eastman Color SP Print Film 5383
- Eastman Color Print Film 5384
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3521XD
- Du Pont Color Release Positive Type 275
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3523XD
- Kodak Vision Color Print Film 2383
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3513DI
- Eastman EXR Color Print Film 5386
- Eastman Color Print Film 5381 (1972)
- Eastman Color Print Film 5385
- Agfa CP30 Colour Print Film
- SuperCinecolor
- Cinecolor (two-colour)
- Gevacolor Positive 953
- Gevacolor Print 9.85
- Gevacolor Print 986
- Gevacolor Print 982
- Ferraniacolor Positive
- 3M Color Positive 650
- Fujicolor Positive F-CP 3510
- Fujicolor Positive F-CP 3519
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3512
- Eastman Color Print 5381 (1950)
- Eastman Fine Grain Release Positive 5302
- Ansco Color Print 848
- Kodak B&W Print Film 2302
- Svema TsP-11
- Svema MZ-3
- ORWO PF 2 Positive Print Film
- Technicolor Dye Transfer (1997 revival)
- Svema TsP-8R
- Shostka Colour Positive (1950s)
- Technicolor Dye Transfer (Process IV)
- Gasparcolor Print
- Trucolor Print (two-colour)
- Kodak Vision Color Teleprint Film 2395
Science & sources
A two-colour model inspired by the print, not a reproduction of Cinecolor, shown after Ansco Color Negative 843. Its tone and record sensitivities are borrowed from Agfa Print CP30, a proxy; its Prussian-blue dye is traced from Gundelfinger's 1950 paper on the three-colour process, and its orange-red dye is a named assumption. No MTF or granularity is printed for it.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with Ashigrain’s response on the same axes. These curves show how the model is calibrated to its sources; they do not establish a match to photographed film.
Characteristic response
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations. Halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. The look of real film also depends on development and print timing.
- This is a two-colour model inspired by the Cinecolor print, rather than a reproduction of it. No characteristic curve of the two-colour print is registered.
- The tone and record sensitivities are Agfa Print CP30's, a proxy; the green record's sensitivity is the sum of the proxy's green and blue.
- The Prussian-blue dye is the cyan traced from Gundelfinger's 1950 paper on the three-colour process. The orange-red dye is an assumed Gaussian (peak 480 nm, width 70 nm), chosen for the most neutral grey.
- The model runs the two records in a three-layer path: the blue layer copies the green record and there is no yellow dye.
- The two-sided coating and its soft projected image are not modelled. No MTF or granularity is printed for it.
- The source gives no printer lamp or filter spectra. Their spectral response is approximated.
- The available sources do not measure veiling flare during projection. The model approximates its contribution to lifted blacks on screen, so the result is not a measured projection contrast.
Reciprocity: not modelled. Exposure time has no effect on this film.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
This preview combines the print film with the named camera negative. In this comparison, the print has no separate exposure index or measured grain response.
Sources
- Characteristic curves: AGFA PRINT CP30 colour print film product info / technical data, 17/10/2011, p. 5
- Process: US Patent 2,016,666: Colored photograph and method of making same (W. T. Crespinel, assigned to Cinecolor Inc.), US 2,016,666 A, filed 1932-12-02, granted 1935-10-08; Google Patents image PDF (5 pages), p. 3