AshigrainColour print · Print film
Eastman Color Print 5381 (1950)
The first Eastman Color print, from 1950.
The first Eastman Color print, reconstructed from Hanson's 1952 curves and dyes with an assumed contrast: an early-1950s colour feature look. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- 1950
- Discontinued 1953
- Process
- Eastman Color Print process of 1950 (Hanson Table II; carbonate prebath, colour development 12-15 min at 70 F, stop, wash, bleach, wash, sound-track development, wash, fix, wash, stabilizer)
- Maximum density
- ≈ 3.5
About the film
Eastman Color Print 5381 was the print half of Kodak's first Eastman Color negative-positive system, described in a paper that Hanson of the Kodak Research Laboratories presented on 27 April 1950.
Kodak later reused the code for a different print film of 1972, which is not this one. Hanson presented the colour negative 5247 and this print together, at a time when the industry's tripack colour films were Monopack, Ansco Color, 16 mm Kodachrome and, in Germany, Agfacolor negative-positive. It printed from the colour negative on an ordinary continuous contact printer, though scene-to-scene colour balancing needed more elaborate equipment, and it could also print from black-and-white separation negatives. Its layers were stacked in an unusual order, with the blue-sensitive yellow layer at the bottom under a blue-dye interlayer, then the cyan and magenta layers, and its dyes were balanced for a 4000 K carbon-arc projection light. Kodak's chronology names Royal Journey, shown in December 1951, as a commercial film made with the 5247 negative and 5381 print without intermediates, and The Lion and the Horse (1952) as the first feature to combine 5381 with a separation-film duplicating system. Kodak received an Academy award for the Eastman Color negative and print films, and in 1953 replaced 5381 with 5382.
Sources for this history
- Color Negative and Color Positive Film for Motion Picture Use (Journal of the SMPTE 58(3), March 1952), W. T. Hanson, Jr.
- Chronology of Film, Eastman Kodak Company
- Eastman Color Print Film 5381 (1950), Timeline of Historical Film Colors, University of Zurich
The look
Eastman Color Print 5381 was the first print film of Kodak's Eastman Color negative-positive system, made from 1950 until 5382 replaced it in 1953. Ashigrain reconstructs it from the curves and dyes in Hanson's 1952 paper, with an assumed contrast and a borrowed spectral sensitivity.
Best for
- Early-1950s colour features
- Pastiche of first-generation Eastman Color
- Comparing 5381 with Kodak 2383
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 colour print film, shown after Eastman Color Negative 5247. Its characteristic curves and dyes are traced from Hanson's 1952 paper on a log exposure scale set by an assumed gamma of 3.0, and its spectral sensitivity is rebuilt from Eastman EXR Color Print Film 5386, a proxy. This is the 1950 film, not Kodak's later 5381 of 1972.
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.
- Hanson's paper prints no log exposure scale for the characteristic curves; the scale is set by an assumed print gamma of 3.0 on the green curve, so the film's contrast is an assumption.
- The curves and dyes are traced from raster figures in a microfilm scan, one pass each, so no digitisation error is measured.
- The spectral sensitivity is not printed. It is rebuilt from Eastman EXR Color Print Film 5386, a proxy rather than this film's data.
- The paper's curves and dye neutral are stated for a 4000 K carbon-arc light; the model projects with its own projector light, not the arc.
- The film's inverted layer order and its removable antihalation backing are recorded but not modelled.
- No MTF or granularity is printed for this film.
- This is the 1950 film described by Hanson, not the different Eastman Color Print 5381 that Kodak introduced in 1972.
- 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
- Process: W. T. Hanson, Jr., 'Color Negative and Color Positive Film for Motion Picture Use', Journal of the SMPTE 58(3), March 1952, pp. 223-238 (whole issue scan), 1952-03 edition, p. 53
- Characteristic curves: W. T. Hanson, Jr., 'Color Negative and Color Positive Film for Motion Picture Use', Journal of the SMPTE 58(3), March 1952, pp. 223-238 (whole issue scan), 1952-03 edition, p. 54