Colour print · Print film
Gevacolor Print 986
Finer-grained Gevacolor print for super 8 reduction prints.
The 1975 Gevacolor print, still offered in 1980 for the 682 negative, as a labelled surrogate on Agfa CP30's curves; its finer grain is not modelled. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- by 1975
- Process
- ECP-1
- Maximum density
- ≈ 4.0
About the film
Gevacolor Print Film Type 986 was an Agfa-Gevaert colour print film, described in a June 1975 paper in the Journal of the SMPTE by Ailliet, Seys and Verbrugghe.
The paper reports that the film had already been introduced, and no independent source dates its launch. It succeeded Gevacolor Print Film Type 9.85 of 1971, improving its graininess while keeping its sharpness and colour rendition. Its makers aimed it at reduction printing to small formats, including super 8 prints with optical or magnetic sound. It was processed in the standard colour developer sequence based on CD-2, and with a bleach-fix bath at up to 80 °F a super 8 print took about 12 minutes to process. The 1975 paper prints its sensitometric and modulation transfer curves. No source read names the plant where it was made or the year it ended.
Sources for this history
- A New Gevacolor Print Film: Type 986 (Journal of the SMPTE 84(6), June 1975), abstract, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The look
Gevacolor Print Film Type 986 succeeded Type 9.85 in 1975, improving its graininess while keeping its sharpness and colour rendition. It was meant for reduction printing to small formats such as super 8. Ashigrain's version is a labelled surrogate, a model inspired by the print rather than a reproduction.






Best for
- Super 8 and small-format print looks
- European colour prints of the 1970s
- Comparing Gevacolor print generations
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.
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Science & sources


A labelled surrogate inspired by the print, not a reproduction of Type 986, shown after Gevacolor Negative Type 682. No data of this film is registered: its characteristic curves, spectral sensitivity, MTF and dyes are those of Agfa Print CP30, a proxy chosen from the Agfa-Gevaert lineage, unchanged, so its finer grain is not modelled. Its ECP-1 process is recorded but not modelled.
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 labelled surrogate inspired by Gevacolor Print Film Type 986, rather than a reproduction of it. The 1975 paper, which prints sensitometric and MTF curves, was read as an abstract only.
- The characteristic curves, spectral sensitivity, MTF and dyes are those of Agfa Print CP30, a proxy, unchanged. Choosing a proxy from the Agfa-Gevaert lineage is an assumption.
- The improved graininess over Type 9.85 is not quantified in the sources read and is not modelled.
- Process ECP-1 with a CD-2 developer is recorded but not modelled.
- The neutral aim is an assumed grey-balanced aim (0.994 / 1.000 / 1.004, Status A); the proxy's own aim is not used.
- 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: Vervoort, A. and Stappaerts, H.: A New Gevacolor Negative Film Type 682. SMPTE Journal 89 (Sept. 1980), pp. 650-652, SMPTE Journal Vol. 89, September 1980, pp. 650-652 (presented 22 October 1979, SMPTE Technical Conference, Los Angeles); filmcolors.org scan uploaded 2014-03, p. 1