What process are 1980s Kodacolor slides?

ntenny · Oct 1, 2025

In among my flood of family photos, I’ve found a small batch of slides from the mid- to late 1980s whose mounts say “Kodacolor Slide”. I’ve only previously seen Kodacolor used for colour negative film; what little information I was able to find with Google suggests that they could be slides generated from negatives.

What would the process have been for these slides? It looks to me like they’re showing more colour shift than contemporary E-6 materials, but it’s hard to be sure because a lot of them are in funny lighting. Was it a C-41 duplicate on unmasked stock, or what? I’m mostly just curious.

-NT

Ian Grant · Oct 1, 2025

By 1980 all Kodak slide films were E6 except for I think an Infra red film which was still E4, and of course Kodachrome.

Try this link for various Kodak duplicating and print films.

Ian

ntenny · Oct 1, 2025

To be sure, if it was an in-camera slide film, it would have been E-6, but I don’t think Kodak used “Kodacolor” for any E-6 materials, did they? I couldn’t find any evidence of an actual “Kodacolor Slide” film.

-NT

Chan Tran · Oct 1, 2025

I don't know what it's called but Kodak did make some color negative film used to make slides from color negatives.

MattKing · Oct 1, 2025

Chan Tran said:
I don't know what it's called but Kodak did make some color negative film used to make slides from color negatives.

This!
Although the film used was a technical product designed for the purpose - it wouldn't have been branded as Kodacolor to the commercial labs who bought it and provided the service to customers. Essentially, it was a print material - something similar to that which was used for backlit displays for advertising that were created from negatives.
When those labs or a Kodak owned photo-finishing lab did this for customers - take the customer's negatives from them and print slides for them to be returned with the negatives to the customer - then the product that the customers received was known as a "Kodacolor slide", perhaps because they were usually made from the customer's Kodacolor negatives.
The product allowed people to add the pictures they took on print film to their slide shows.
If you find one, there is a good chance it will have faded - particularly if it has been projected a lot.
I'm unaware of which process would have been used with that type of material.

Chan Tran · Oct 1, 2025

MattKing said:
This!
Although the film used was a technical product designed for the purpose - it wouldn't have been branded as Kodacolor to the commercial labs who bought it and provided the service to customers. Essentially, it was a print material - something similar to that which was used for backlit displays for advertising that were created from negatives.
When those labs or a Kodak owned photo-finishing lab did this for customers - take the customer's negatives from them and print slides for them to be returned with the negatives to the customer - then the product that the customers received was known as a "Kodacolor slide", perhaps because they were usually made from the customer's Kodacolor negatives.
The product allowed people to add the pictures they took on print film to their slide shows.
If you find one, there is a good chance it will have faded - particularly if it has been projected a lot.
I'm unaware of which process would have been used with that type of material.

I think it's EP-2 process (the one that was replaced by RA-4) a paper process rather than one similar to C41.

AnselMortensen · Oct 1, 2025

Kodacolor slides were slides from color negatives.
The film was Vericolor Slide Film 5072, a C-41 process film.

ntenny · Oct 1, 2025

Thanks everyone!

-NT

MattKing · Oct 1, 2025

AnselMortensen said:
Kodacolor slides were slides from color negatives.
The film was Vericolor Slide Film 5072, a C-41 process film.

There probably was an earlier version as well. I have a few Kodacolor slides in amongst my Dad's many, many, many slides, and IIRC they are older than Vericolor, and probably older than C-41.
In his capacity as Customer Services manager at the Canadian Kodak/Kodak Canada Kodachrome and Ektachrome lab he worked at, Dad used to, on a regular basis, take photos that were intended to be handled in amongst the customer film that came in through his department, get the results back, and check them for the things that the Customer Service department cared about. He would then hand them off to the Quality Control people, to do their stuff.
That included materials and processes that weren't handled in his lab, and had to be forwarded either to Toronto or, in some cases, US Kodak labs - most often probably Rochester or Palo Alto.

Ian Grant · Oct 2, 2025

AnselMortensen said:
Kodacolor slides were slides from color negatives.
The film was Vericolor Slide Film 5072, a C-41 process film.

Details here on the second part of the link I posted earlier on this thread.

Kodak Lab Films

Kodak

www.photomemorabilia.co.uk

Ian

Alan Edward Klein · Oct 2, 2025

Kodacolor is negative color print film. As I recall, all emulsions ending in 'color' are negative film, and those ending in 'chrom' are slide film, such as Ektachrome.

mshchem · Oct 2, 2025

I remember Kodak showed "Pathways to Color" in literature. You could get about anything from a color negative or slide. Send it in to a real Kodak lab. I have a Kodachrome print, from 1957. Perfect. A positive, Kodachrome emulsion on a white acetate base. These faded in the light but still look good if stored properly.

MattKing · Oct 2, 2025

Alan Edward Klein said:
Kodacolor is negative color print film. As I recall, all emulsions ending in 'color' are negative film, and those ending in 'chrom' are slide film, such as Ektachrome.

mshchem said:
I remember Kodak showed "Pathways to Color" in literature. You could get about anything from a color negative or slide. Send it in to a real Kodak lab. I have a Kodachrome print, from 1957. Perfect. A positive, Kodachrome emulsion on a white acetate base. These faded in the light but still look good if stored properly.

The name on both such products was the brand name of the product itself - a slide from a negative, or a print from a slide - not the name of the film or paper used by the lab to make them.

Ian Grant · Oct 2, 2025

Alan Edward Klein said:
Kodacolor is negative color print film. As I recall, all emulsions ending in 'color' are negative film, and those ending in 'chrom' are slide film, such as Ektachrome.

Vericolor and Kodacolor names were used almost exclusively for both negative print films, but also for Lab positive, but not reversal, slide print films.

What makes it confusing is many of these specialist films were not available in camera sores. The 2 links I've added in this thread are for Kodak Laboratory films.

What also doesn't help is Kodak, would use the prefix SO - which just meant special order - when they changed an emulsion slightly, It was their way of saying it's not exactly the same emulsion you might see a slight difference. I had this with Ilford Ortho sheet film in the early 1980s, that went a special order code, later re-emerging as Ortho Plus.

Manufacturers have to reformulate emulsion when key chemicals (usually trace) go out of production, or are banned, or are no longer commercially viable to manufacture.

Read the 2 links I posted, I would guess 99%+ of posters here haven't heard of most of those films.

Ian

mshchem · Oct 2, 2025

MattKing said:
The name on both such products was the brand name of the product itself - a slide from a negative, or a print from a slide - not the name of the film or paper used by the lab to make them.

Well I've got a couple Kodachrome prints. They're not anything like anything else I've seen. The base is white plastic, I assume cellulose acetate. It could be an Ektachrome emulsion, IDK. It's nothing like the fiberbase Kodacolor prints of that era.

I'll have to look for the signature 3d emulsion like is apparent on Kodachrome, it's extremely high gloss.

I have no idea, but it's outstanding to look at a color print that's 68 years old still so nice.

mshchem · Oct 2, 2025

Early Kodak Ektachrome

Kodak

photomemorabilia.co.uk

Type R print material, later Ektachrome, became available in 1955. On acetate base, this must be what I have. Kodak had some serious technology!!!

Alan Edward Klein · Oct 2, 2025

I've had a lab print chromes years ago. They would shoot 4"x5" color negative film (I forget which type) of my 120 medium format 6x7cm slide film shots, and then print from the negative.

AnselMortensen · Oct 2, 2025

Alan Edward Klein said:
I've had a lab print chromes years ago. They would shoot 4"x5" color negative film (I forget which type) of my 120 medium format 6x7cm slide film shots, and then print from the negative.

Probably Kodak Internegative film 4111...low contrast, tungsten-balanced C-41 film.

Alan Edward Klein · Oct 3, 2025

AnselMortensen said:
Probably Kodak Internegative film 4111...low contrast, tungsten-balanced C-41 film.

Yes, I remember the word internegative.

What process are 1980s Kodacolor slides?

ntenny

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Kodak Lab Films

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Early Kodak Ektachrome

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What process are 1980s Kodacolor slides?

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