Colour reversal · Vintage
Kodak Kodachrome 200
The fast Kodachrome for action and long lenses.
Kodachrome 200, the fastest Kodachrome, on everyday daylight subjects. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Exposure index
- 200
- Daylight
- Introduced
- 1986
- Discontinued
- Process
- K-14
- Prints on
- Reversal, viewed directly
About the film
Kodachrome 200 Professional, code PKL, is a daylight colour reversal film in 135 for Kodak's K-14 process.
Kodak dates it to 1986: its brochure says that in that year Kodak expanded the Kodachrome line with this higher-speed 135 film, alongside a 120-size Kodachrome 64 Professional. Until then Kodachrome 25 and 64 had been the line's films since 1974. Kodak aimed it at sports, editorial, stage and nature work, where it stopped action and suited long lenses. Kodak said it pushed well to EI 500 and 800 under stadium lighting. Kodak's June 2009 data sheet announced that Kodachrome film had been discontinued. Kodak named Ektar 100 and Ektachrome E100G as alternatives, while saying that nothing replaced Kodachrome exactly.
Sources for this history
- KODAK KODACHROME 25, 64, and 200 Professional Films Technical Data, Eastman Kodak Company
- KODACHROME Professional Films, Eastman Kodak Company
The look
Kodak Kodachrome 200 is a daylight colour reversal film for the K-14 process, viewed directly as the positive. Made for sports, stage and nature work with long lenses, it stays sharp but has coarser grain than the slower Kodachromes, with warm dense shadows and a shorter scale.






Best for
- Sport and action with long lenses
- Wildlife and nature from a distance
- Stage and editorial work
Compare camera films
Science & sources


A daylight colour reversal film rated at ISO 200, shown directly without a print stage. Its curves, spectral sensitivity, dyes, single visual MTF and RMS granularity are digitised from Kodak's 2009 sheet; the one MTF curve is applied to all three layers, and the granularity, printed at a gross density, is converted to net density. Pushes use a generic model, because the sheet prints no push curves.
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
RMS granularity
Density variation (σD) measured through a 48 µm aperture. Where the datasheet gives a single grain value, the response away from that point is an approximation.
| Channel | Density | Datasheet-based σD | Model σD |
|---|---|---|---|
| R | 0.3 | 0.010185 | 0.010089 |
| G | 0.3 | 0.007908 | 0.007771 |
| B | 0.3 | 0.013939 | 0.013798 |
| R | 0.6 | 0.02018 | 0.019989 |
| G | 0.6 | 0.01649 | 0.016206 |
| B | 0.6 | 0.032874 | 0.032541 |
| R | 1 | 0.031206 | 0.030911 |
| G | 1 | 0.0275 | 0.027027 |
| B | 1 | 0.054642 | 0.054089 |
| R | 1.5 | 0.045245 | 0.044817 |
| G | 1.5 | 0.043956 | 0.043199 |
| B | 1.5 | 0.092434 | 0.091499 |
| R | 2 | 0.054443 | 0.053929 |
| G | 2 | 0.053577 | 0.052655 |
| B | 2 | 0.107859 | 0.106767 |
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.
- Custom lighting spectra, camera metering and the spectral reflectance inferred from fixed-white-balance footage are assumptions used by the model, not measurements of this film.
- Conversion-filter spectra (80A for daylight films under tungsten, 85 for tungsten films in daylight) come from separate measured filter data, not from this film’s source. Applying those filters to this film remains modelled.
- The source prints one visual MTF curve, not separate red, green and blue curves. The model applies it to all three layers.
- The only grain value is RMS granularity 16 × 10⁻³, read at a gross (not net) visual density of 1.0. Its conversion to net density and the response away from that point are modelled.
- Push and pull have no published curves for this film and use a generic model.
- The sheet prints reciprocity corrections at a few exposure times; the correction between them is interpolated, and the colour-compensating filter it prescribes is taken at its nominal value.
- Under custom lights the fast rendering path follows the full spectral calculation less closely for this film than for most others.
- Individual dye amounts, layer interactions and push/pull behaviour are approximated where the datasheet provides no calibration. Grain size is assumed; published RMS granularity does not specify dye-cloud size.
- Characteristic response outside the published exposure range is an extrapolation, not measured film data.
- Halation strength, radius and layer weights are not quantified by the datasheet. The effect of removing antihalation and the bloom response are also approximations.
- 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: modelled from 1/10000 s to 1 s, following the datasheet's corrections for long and short exposures. Exposure time stops at the ends of that range.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
Sources
- Exposure index: KODAK KODACHROME 25, 64, and 200 Professional Films Technical Data, E-55, June 2009, p. 1
- Process: KODAK KODACHROME 25, 64, and 200 Professional Films Technical Data, E-55, June 2009, p. 2
- Characteristic curves: KODAK KODACHROME 25, 64, and 200 Professional Films Technical Data, E-55, June 2009, p. 5
- Diffuse RMS granularity: KODAK KODACHROME 25, 64, and 200 Professional Films Technical Data, E-55, June 2009, p. 5