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Photo Forum / General Photo Topics / General Topics / September 2006When did color photography become accessible to the average person?
When did color photography become accessible to the average person? I know that color photography has been around for 100 years or so, but it was well beyond the capability of the average person in the early years. I have been digitizing some of my father's old slides and just started to wonder about it. The oldest slides in his collection are some Kodachrome slides from 1951. I know that Kodachrome had been around for a while before that, however. The 55 year old Kodachrome slides are just as vivid as they day they were shot. However, he also shot some "Ansco" film on occasion. All of them are faded and color shifted. Some are beyond the point of any kind of recovery. I have seen a few older color negatives in my mother's collection, but they are pretty useless. The image is almost gone. Thanks, Gary > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Thanks, Gary With Kodachrome, in 1936. Also in Germany, around the same time, color film was introduced by Agfa. During WWII professionals had some colour film but it was rare. 'The average person' didn't get the stuff until abt. the time you mention. My own Kodachromes were 1953/4 because the price included processing. OK until you ruined a film somehow and tried to claim the processing fee back! I still have my original slides - must scan them sometime. Murray > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Thanks, Gary > During WWII professionals had some colour film > but it was rare. 'The average person' didn't get [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > I still have my original slides - must scan them sometime. I recently scanned several dozen slides of that vintage. I don't know if they were Kodachrome or Ektachrome. They were all on the same metal slide file. Some had faded to the point where only red was visible, but others are still fine. I suspect the difference is how they were developed. The scanner (Epson 3490) software included fade restoration, and with some I bypassed that software and used Paint Shop Pro X's fade restore function. The results were better than I expected, but not perfect by any means. I prefer PSP, but only because I have some control over the result and can go back to the original scan if I want. But having the scanner do the restoration is faster. Ouch! I better take another looksee. :-( They are in a steel box but no special precautions. The climate is mild except in summer. 27.5 deg south. Murray >> During WWII professionals had some colour film >> but it was rare. 'The average person' didn't get [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > control over the result and can go back to the original scan if I want. > But having the scanner do the restoration is faster. > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? True that Kodachrome was available mid-30s but the "average" person didn't use it for two reasons; firstly, it is reversal; secondly, it was way too slow (ASA 10) for the unskilled. Color negative film was commonly available in the late 40s. Faster too...fast enough to use in box brownies.  SignaturedadiOH ____________________________ dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico > > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > > True that Kodachrome was available mid-30s but the "average" person > didn't use it for two reasons; firstly, it is reversal; secondly, it > was way too slow (ASA 10) for the unskilled. It was popular from the start among miniature camera users. > Color negative film was commonly available in the late 40s. Faster > too...fast enough to use in box brownies. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. > Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico Good day all, I think that Kodachrome could not be processed in any lab but Kodak. That was a problem: at best you could not expect the photos to be back in less than a few days. And there were such labs in the States only. I have used myself the Lumière process (Autochrome) and you can see the result in old copies (till 1935 Ibelieve) of the National Geographic Magazine. The colors were very nice, completely different from the Kodachrome. You could process the film in an amateur lab, and the Lumière manual 1931 gave very nice instructions (to dry a plate you had first to modify a turntable, put the plate in the middle, so that the water would gently drip away..). There was a film on the same principle. The first commercial plates were sold in 1905, and picctures of the first world war have been recently published (although after a photoshop conversion! And it was just propaganda. The german had a similar film, and the British used the Dufaycolor, although they got into that business just in time to be driven out by Kodachrome, obviously vastly superior. yours (all these processes were reversal) robert >> When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > True that Kodachrome was available mid-30s but the "average" person [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Color negative film was commonly available in the late 40s. Faster > too...fast enough to use in box brownies. A great book featuring the beginning of color photography... Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43 (Hardcover) by Paul Hendrickson (Author) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0810943484/ref=cm_rv_thx_view/102- 2359820-2427302?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance Some of the first color photographs and some of the only ones from WW2 homefront. > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Thanks, Gary > When did color photography become accessible to the average person? > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Thanks, Gary Kodak's website will help you. Kodachrome was invented around 1935 and by 1936 was available for home movies and home slides. Kodacolor came out in 1942. Ansco was, IMHO, the worse color slide film ever invented. The fading is significant, but they never would have been really good even when new. Kodachrome is a technology unto itself and it's sad that it is going to disappear in a few years, due to lack of interest. SignatureMichael | "He's dead, Jim." |
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