Film: Kodak ColorPlus 200 / Kodacolor 200

8/20/2015

This is one of the cheapest color negative film I could find. I am not sure what is the correct name for it since the box says "Kodak ColorPlus" but the cassette is labelled "kodacolor 200". I got both some rolls of 24 and 36 exposures. I am absolutely no expert in color negative film and I have not properly compared this film with others but I'll update this post when I get more experience with it. Since it is a cheap film I did not know what to expect. I have been very positively surprised with Kodak Gold before but this is a cheaper film.

After developing the first roll, my first impression are that there is slightly more grain than Kodak Gold, the colors seem to look quite nice and saturated. Overall I quite like the first images I got. We will see how the next few rolls will turn out.

Bellow is a picture of a strip of the negative on the light table. We can see the "KODAK 200-8" marking on the edge of the film. Not much to say, it looks like a negative but it will be interesting to compare it side by side with other types of negative film in order to see if there are any obvious differences in the color of the film base, contrast or colors.

In terms of scanning, I used my Nikon LS-2000 scanner and VueScan. The images came out pretty ok without any obvious color cast. The auto asjustments made by VueScan made the images look a bit washed out and skin tones not very pleasing (a bit brownish/orange-ish). Worjing with the RAW files from the scanner seems to be better to get more saturated colors but it is probably possible to get the settings right in VueScan. I have to admit that I do not really understand how to setup the color (or even the tone curves) in VueScan.

Sample Pictures

Here are some sample pictures taken on Kodak ColorPlus 200. I will grow the set of pictures as I shoot more of it!

Conclusion

I'll have to do some further side to side comparison with other films to see exactly how this cheap alternative performs but so far it seems very usable and easy to work with. Looking at the picture I have the impression that the grain is not as fine as what I get when using Kodak Gold but this may be just an impression, I'll have to look closer. I still have 4 or 5 rolls in the fridge to refine my impressions.

Checkout the Kodak ColorPlus 200 Flikr group for more pictures shot with this film.

5 Comments

Fer

7/17/2016 06:21:09 am

I like ColorPlus200. It's grain is present and does not stand overexposure very well (not as Portra160 for instance) but is nice.
Someone said it could be Kodak VR 200. Lomography 100 is suspected to be VR 100 and they look very similar to me, with Lomo 100 having finer grain.
I like Lomo 100 very much and I also use Ektar and Portra160.
I use ColorPlus200 when I can't find the other emulsions and I'm happy with it. It looks "delicate". I preffer it to C200 which looks "artificial" to me.
Thanks for the article.
Fer

Jorge Pedreira

8/12/2017 10:09:34 am

Hi.
As you say, it’s the cheap version. For many years the canister read “Manufactured for sale in Latin America and Caribbean only”, which made me feel a second class customer.
Kodak colorplus 200 has a different colour rendering with higher saturation than Kodak Gold film. It is a matter of personal preferences. I like “natural” colours (the grass is green, but not so green).
You have the official word here: http://emulsive.org/articles/community-interviews/emulsive-x-kodak-alaris-community-interview-results-time
In the answer to “COMMUNITY QUESTION 17: BENJAMIN DIETZE” says “COLORPLUS is a lower-priced color negative film offering, similar in nature to the old VR films. This product is sold only in specific regions around the world, and unfortunately there is no technical pub for it”

Marie Chase link

4/5/2019 05:22:32 pm

I miss the days of Kodak film.

luke link

8/27/2019 09:09:11 pm

they still make it

Caitlin link

7/22/2024 12:48:23 am

Niice share