Lumiere ALTICOLOR: last of the Autochrome?

[ZorkiKat]

Jack Coote in his book "History of Colour Photography" mentioned Alticolor as the last of Lumiere's additive-screen colour camera materials, introduced in 1952. There's a sealed pack of 10 Alticolor films for sale on eBay now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/French-Lumiere-...07QQihZ018QQcategoryZ4702QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Could be of interest to Autochrome enthusiasts. One of these rolls could perhaps be 'dissected' to see if the dyed starch screen was used till the end.
Alticolor, like the earlier Filmcolor was on plastic film bases, not glass.

Jay

 

[htmlguru4242]

10 rolls, 8 exposures each, thats sure a lot of film to play with.

Actually, this stuff used tiny, dyed yeast grains instead of stach. The rest of the structure is similar to the Autochrome plates, except that it is on a flexible film base.


Too bad that the stuff is 106 format; (~3.5" tall i THINK), a too big for 120 cameras, though probably it could be cut down. Its only from 1952, and the emulsion was probably not faster than ISO 25-32, so that'd probably still be able to yeild pictures.

If only it wasn't $39.99 ...

 

[ZorkiKat]

The speed would probably be slower than ISO 25 to 32 (or else they would have staked the claim for the fastest colour film, given that Agfacolor and Kodachrome were just ISO 10...15 at that time).

Processing could be derived from some BW reversal process. Those screen-plates had BW emulsions anyway.

 

[htmlguru4242]

Keep in mind that the screen shaves off a stop or two of speed, so, assuming two stops, in order to be ISO 6, the emulsion would have to be ISO 25.

 

[Photo Engineer]

That speed would have been very grainy and hard to control back in the early days of Autochrome, but in the 50s would have been a mid speed emulsion.

PE

 

[emoreshtehrep]

Hello guys

I am a new Apug member. I bought two Alticolor rollfilms, they are 12 ASA and the sellers told me that they must be developed as if it was a BW rehearsal film.
Does anyone know a way to develop a 12 ASA BW rehearsal film ?

Thanks.

 

[railwayman3]

I envy you the chance of trying out this quite historic film!

IMHO, it's worth some research to find the right process and maximise your chance of success.

Maybe one place to ask would be www.dr5.com. (I think the guy is an APUG member and posts on the forums sometimes?)

 

[Ian Grant]

The Lumiere reversal formulae were all published widely, I have them in the UK in two or there books. In the 1970's/80's I worked closely with someone who's mother was from the Lumiere family, she'd married an Englishman, I still see him occasionally.

Ian