What process are 1980s Kodacolor slides?

ntenny · 2025-10-01T08:24:01-0400

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 · 2025-10-01T08:33:27-0400

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 · 2025-10-01T09:44:11-0400

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 · 2025-10-01T09:57:46-0400

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

MattKing · 2025-10-01T16:07:04-0400

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 · 2025-10-01T16:17:26-0400

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 · 2025-10-01T17:08:43-0400

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

ntenny · 2025-10-01T17:36:06-0400

Thanks everyone!

-NT

MattKing · 2025-10-01T18:07:12-0400

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.

What process are 1980s Kodacolor slides?

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