Kinemacolor

1908

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George Albert Smith and Charles Urban (The Natural Color Kinematograph Company Ltd.)

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Great Britain

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

Kinemacolor was an additive process operated with alternating red and green filters that were applied to the shutter in front of the camera and in front of the projector. With at least 32 fps the frame rate was double the minimal frame rate of 16 fps. Time parallax with small differences between the red and green record resulted in color fringes that became visible when objects or scenes were moving.

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Kinemacolor projector used for David Cleveland's and Brian Pritchard's reconstruction. Credit: Brian Pritchard.

13 Images in 3 Galleries

Predecessor of Kinemacolor

1906

|

George Albert Smith

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

“Then we come upon the name of George Albert Smith, F.R.A.S., of Laboratory Lodge, Roman Crescent, Southwick, Brighton, who in E.P. 26,671, of 1906, patented the method which eventually was commercialized as Kinemacolor. In this patent he ...

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3M Posi-Tone

1965

|

Gasparcolor, 3M Company

Subtractive 3 color: dye destruction process, silver dye-bleach, still photography

“In 1956, after the failure of the French venture, Gaspar resumed his own production of printing materials and chemicals (Koshofer 1981a). In the late 1950s he entered into an agreement with 3M Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, to explore the ...

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Lippmann

1891

|

Gabriel Lippmann

Direct color photography: Interference, still photography

“In 1891, Professor Gabriel Lippmann demonstrated to the French Académie des Sciences interference colour photographs of the spectrum and of stained glass windows, taken by a modification of Wiener’s method. An exceedingly fine grained, ...

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Source: Coe, Brian (1978): Colour Photography. The First Hundred Years 1840-1940. London: Ash & Grant.
Source: Lavédrine, Bertrand (2009): Photographs of the Past. Process and Preservation. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.
Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 19.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 235.

5 Images

Crosene Process

1935

|

Gabriel G. Moreno (Crosene Corp.)

Additive 4 color: Bi-pack, substandard

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Lee and Turner

1899

|

Frederick Marshall Lee and Edward Raymond Turner

Additive 3 color: Rotary filter

“Frederick Marshall Lee, of Walton, and Edward Raymond Turner, of Hounslow, to whom is usually accorded the credit of achieving the first practical results in additive projection. Their experimental work was financed by Charles Urban, a ...

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„Their projector […] used three lenses and a special filter wheel which enabled every frame of the film to be projected three times in succession through the appropriate filter as it passed through the triple frame projector aperture. Although it eventually led to the Kinemacolor two colour process, the Lee and Turner patent was not successful“. Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
"The First Color Moving Pictures", from the YouTube channel of the National Media Museum. [quote id="1"]
Lee Turner projector in the Media History Museum in Bradford.
„In 1899 Lee and Turner obtained a patent for a three colour process of cinematography requiring a single lens camera […] making a recurring sequence of red green and blue exposures through a rotating filter cum shutter“. Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
„In 1899 Lee and Turner obtained a patent for a three colour process of cinematography requiring a single lens camera […] making a recurring sequence of red green and blue exposures through a rotating filter cum shutter“. Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
„Their projector […] used three lenses and a special filter wheel which enabled every frame of the film to be projected three times in succession through the appropriate filter as it passed through the triple frame projector aperture. Although it eventually led to the Kinemacolor two colour process, the Lee and Turner patent was not successful“. Source: Coote, Jack H. (1993): The Illustrated History of Colour Photography. Surbiton, Surrey: Fountain Press.
National Media Museum, UK. Lee and Turner Colour Projector, 1902.
Source: Klein, Adrian Bernhard (Cornwell-Clyne) (1940): Colour Cinematography. Boston: American Photographic Pub. Co.
Illustration of the process from National Media Museum's short documentary.
38 mm positive of the Lee Turner film showing the three b/w images for the three color records. Credit: Brian Pritchard.

16 Images in 1 Gallery

Gilmore Color

1918

|

Frederic Eugene Ives and Otto C. Gilmore

Additive 2 color: Rotary filter

“Gilmore’s two-color additive process was based on a patent granted to F. E. Ives in 1918. A unique optical system exposed two images in pairs, and quarter-turned them lengthwise side by side on standard 35 mm film stock. One of the images was ...

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Source: U.S.P. 1,262,954 (Ives, Frederic Eugene; filed Feb. 18, 1914; granted Apr. 16, 1918)

1 Image

Iriscolor

1940

|

Franz Noack, Georg Muschner, Gotthardt Wolf (MWN-group)

Subtractive 3 color: Beam-splitter camera, imbibition printing

Similar to Technicolor, the Iriscolor process needed a special beam-splitter camera for exposing three black-and-white negatives on Kodak film stock. These negatives were used for imbibition printing. Between 1940 and 1942, Tobis Tonbild-Syndikat AG ...

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Donisthorpe

1913

|

Frank Wordsworth Donisthorpe

|

England

Additive two color process: rotating filters and toning

The film is recorded through alternating red and green filters, creating two color separations. After development, the print is placed in two alternating dye-baths, toning the blacks green and the whites red. Additionally, a black-and-white copy is ...

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Procédé Colombier

1908

|

F. de Colombier

Subtractive 3 color: Tri-pack

“M. F. de Colombier appears to have been the first to suggest the application of this system to cinematography, and like so many French patents it is a little indefinite in phraseology. Three films were employed representing the same view and ...

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Dye Imbibition Process

1875

|

Ernest Edwards

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Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson.

1 Image

Roncarolo

1932

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Emilio Roncarolo

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Italy

Subtractive 2, 3 or 4 color: Beam-splitter and bi-pack, later dye-transfer

The Roncarolo system required a camera capable of recording two panchromatic negatives (which became three or four in subsequent patents) through the use of a beam splitter and red and green filters. The chromatic information registered on the two or ...

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Wolff-Heide

1924

|

Emil Wolff-Heide

|

Germany

additive three-color: Integrated filters and rotary filter

Much like many other additive processes, the Wolff-Heide system was based on three black and white color separations printed consecutively on one film strip and projected through a rotary filter attached to the projector. However, the biggest ...

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Busch Farbenfilm

1926

|

Emil Busch (Busch, Rathenow)

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Germany

Additive 2 color: Beam-splitter, red-green

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Credit: Gert Koshofer Collection. Photograph by Barbara Flueckiger.
Source: Klein, Adrian Bernhard (Cornwell-Clyne) (1940): Colour Cinematography. Boston: American Photographic Pub. Co.
Source: Eggert, John (1932): Kurzer Überblick über den Stand der Farbenkinematographie. Bericht über den VIII. Internationalen Kongress für wissenschaftliche und angewandte Photographie, Dresden 1931, pp. 214-222. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.

5 Images in 1 Gallery

Polacolor Instant Photography

1963

|

Edwin Land

instant still photography

“Polacolor was commercialized in 1963 and became an immediate success. It was acclaimed as the “most outstanding single advance in photographic science made during this century” (Crawley 1963). Indeed, Polacolor introduced important new ...

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Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 235.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 235.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 235.
Source: Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, p. 258.

4 Images

Caille

1907

|

Edmond-Charles-Guislain Caille

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France

Additive three-color: line screen, still photography

Process for still photography in which light is filtered through a screen or transparent plate covered in lines or dots in the primary colors orange, green and violet. For the positive, the process relies on a support material which includes an ...

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Eastman Ektachrome 7251

1981

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, high speed, color reversal, 16mm, daylight

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Eastman Color Print Film 5384 / 7384

1981

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color High Speed Negative Film 7292

1985

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Print Film 5381 (1950)

1950

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

Not to be confused with the Eastman Color Print Film 5381 / 7381 from 1970.

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Eastman Color Internegative Film 5243

1952

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Internegative Film 5245

1953

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Print Film 5382 / 7382

1953

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Television Recording Film 5374 / 7374

1955

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Reversal Color Print Film Type 5269 / 7387

1956

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Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack, reversal

Eastman Kodak reversal film duplication stock for (semi)professional use. Replaced Type 5265. Type 7387 introduced in 1964 as improved version. Difficult to see the difference (BL).

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Eastman Color Internegative Film 5270 / 7270

1956

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Intermedeate Film 5253

1956

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Print Film 7383

1959

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman Color Print Film 5385 / 7385

1962

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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Eastman RP Negative Film 7229

1963

|

Eastman Kodak Company

Subtractive 3 color: Chromogenic monopack

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