AshigrainColour print · Print film
Kodak Vision Color Print Film 2383
Kodak's colour release print since 1998.
What the standard Kodak cinema print adds: rich blacks, reaching about 4.1 Status A density, and classic projection contrast. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- 1998
- In production
- Process
- ECP-2D
- Maximum density
- ≈ 4.1
- Base
- Polyester
About the film
Kodak unveiled Vision Color Print Film 2383 on 16 September 1998 at the Directors Guild theatre in Hollywood, alongside the premium Vision Premier 2393 and the Vision 800T camera negative.
Field-tested under the code names “Clipper One” and “Clipper Two”, the new print films grew out of Kodak’s survey of more than a hundred cinematographers, laboratories and distributors, whose main request was blacker blacks than a normally processed 5386 print could give. 2383 was designed to replace that standard print film, sold on Estar base as 2386, in time, and Kodak still documents it against 2386, whose laboratory printing, splicing and handling carry over with little or no change. Kodak’s project manager David Niklewicz described all-new emulsions, new coupler chemistry and a much higher dye density, so that the curve keeps climbing where the old film levelled off, to a maximum density of about 3.8 to 4.0. Both new print films also dropped rem-jet in favour of an Estar polyester base with an antistatic layer. At the launch, DreamWorks’ Rob Hummel said the studio would use 2383 for its animated feature The Prince of Egypt. American Cinematographer reports that every 70 mm print of Dunkirk (2017), in both IMAX and 5-perf formats, was struck at FotoKem on 2383. On Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019), colourist Yvan Lucas credited part of the film’s look to the print, calling 2383 a very colourful stock with strongly separated primaries and deep blacks. By 2016 it was the only colour print film Kodak still offered, and it remains in Kodak’s current range, now processed in ECP-2E.
Sources for this history
- New Products: Kodak's Expanding "Vision" (American Cinematographer, November 1998), American Society of Cinematographers
- Chronology of Film, Eastman Kodak Company
- KODAK VISION Color Print Film 2383 / 3383 Technical Data (2005), Eastman Kodak Company
- KODAK VISION Color Print Film 2383 / 3383 Technical Data, Eastman Kodak Company
- KODAK VISION Color Print Film 2383/3383, Eastman Kodak Company
- The Essential Reference Guide for Filmmakers, Eastman Kodak Company
- Dunkirk Post: Wrangling Two Large Formats, American Society of Cinematographers
- Back in Time: Making Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, American Society of Cinematographers
- The Magic of Hard Lighting for The Love Witch, American Society of Cinematographers
- Kodak preems new films, Variety
The look
Kodak Vision Color Print Film 2383 is Kodak's colour release print film and the default print for Kodak's colour negatives. Its blacks reach about 4.1 Status A density, with neutral highlights.
Scan vs print, side by side: the print adds contrast, deep blacks and its own colour.
Practicals and dark corners on the classic Kodak print: deep blacks and warm light.
Best for
- Dusk exteriors with skin and sky
- Recreating a 35 mm release-print look
- Night interiors with practicals
Among the prints
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 Kodak Vision3 500T night frame, printed on each film.
Science & sources
A colour print film, shown after Kodak Vision3 500T. The result combines the response of the negative and the print.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with the Ashigrain model on the same axes. This shows the calibration to source curves; comparison with photographed film is a separate question.
Characteristic response
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations, while halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. A real film capture also depends on development and print timing.
- Projection uses a spectral minimum density derived from dye curves; a measured minimum-density spectrum is not published.
- The model assumes a viewing spectrum in place of the unavailable xenon projector-lamp spectrum. Printer lamp and filter spectra are also unpublished.
- Modelled projection flare raises screen blacks. Its strength is assumed because the available sources do not measure it, so it does not establish measured projection contrast.
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
- Process: KODAK VISION Color Print Film 2383 / 3383 Technical Data, H-1-2383t, Revised 3-05, p. 3
- Characteristic curves: KODAK VISION Color Print Film 2383 / 3383 Technical Data, H-1-2383t, Revised 3-05, p. 5