Kodak Lumiere and Panther films?

[marylandphoto]

I have heard recently of films from the 90s called "Lumiere" and "Panther." I can find virtually no information on their characteristics. What set these apart from the rest of the Kodak E6 line? Also, what were the slide films with an "X" at the end of them? Anyone know when they were introduced/discontinued? I'd appreciate any information you have. Thanks.

 

[nworth]

Lumiere was the predecessor to EPP (now discontinued). It had slightly higher contrast and saturation than EPN, but was generally similar. It also had some crossover problems, but it was generally an excellent film.

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

Hmm, I distinctly recall that EPP came out before the Lumiere's did, as a boosted color version of EPN. The Lumiere's were the precusors to the E100 series, S and SW, and eventually VS. I used a fair bit of it, it was nice over here in Hawaii but I also recall some pre-press stress, the mentioned crossover stuff made some color separations go a bit hairwire, leading to really odd colors for some work that hit the printed page. It wasn't around very long, it was the opinion of most that it was Kodak's (poor) attempt to claw back some E-6 shooters after Fuji's RDP and Velvia took off, very late 80's early 90's. I recently came across a test I did in either in late 95 or early 96 where I shot E100, E100s, Provia and Lumiere together as a test, I was testing since it had been announced that the Lumiere's were being phased out, so I would say Lumiere's were from 90 to 95. I remember being very impressed with the E100s, better red's than Provia. The X was for a warm version of the film, remember that at that time Kodak's E-6 films were known to be on the cool side (IMO Accurate) and so when shooters took them into open shade they went quite cool and needed some filtration to warm it up. Some shooters preferred to have the film be balanced warmer. Kodak did it with EPR, forget the code but it was a 64x, and they had the 400x which was EPL. Still have a few rolls of the Lumiere 100 in 120 in the deep freeze.

 

[marylandphoto]

Thanks, RidingWaves. Yes, EPP was most certainly around before Lumiere. It was one of my favorite films.

It seems that there was quite a LOT of a variety of Kodak films at the time, far more than Fuji had. Did really need a 100 AND a 100 PLUS AND a 100VS, AND a 100SW, AND a 100S, AND a 100 Lumiere, AND a 100x...

 

[dynachrome]

I have some Lumiere in the freezer.

 

[frobozz]

There are 8 35mm rolls of Lumiere on that big auction site right now... expired 1997.

Duncan