Kodak Gold 100 Test: Star Trails



Startrail image started in twilight, looking west-nw.  The center of the frame show the stars of northern Orion.  Tripod mounted Pentax Spotmatic II with 50mm f/1.4 SMC Takumar stopped down to f/4.8 60 minutes exposure on Kodak Gold 100 film.



In April I decided to test Kodak Gold 100 for astrophotography. With no opportunity for guided wide-field imaging, I decided to do a few star trails.  I was pleased with the outcome.  Gold 100 recorded some pretty faint star trails.  Color balance during the exposure was very good as well.  The film was processed at a local drug store and did a poor job on the prints.  These are scans of the original negatives, processed in C-41.


Kodak Gold 100 is not available at the corner drug store, but can be found as an imported film at major photography outlets.  It is not expensive.  I paid less than three dollars for a 24 exposure roll.




Startrails under dark skies.  Looking East.  Tripod mounted Pentax Spotmatic II with 35mm f/3.5 SMC Takumar @ f/5.6 60 minutes exposure on Kodak Gold 100 film.



Kodak Announces The End of Elite Chrome 200 and E200 Professional

Recently Kodak announced the end of Elite Chrome 200 also known as ED200.  It's professional sibling E200, is going out along with it.  Kodak estimates that current stock levels will last until March 2011.

Because of Kodak's ISO 200 chromes ability to record faint nebulae in long exposures, it became the film of choice for many astrophotographers.  These two films were the last great chrome films that were useful for astrophotography. It seems that Kodak is dumping chrome films as sales have plummeted and most photographers are making the switch to digital cameras.  The economy has perhaps hastened Kodak to improve its bottom line as well.  This is good news for other film companies like Fuji, who stand to gain sales as remaining chrome film shooters move to Fujichrome films as a substitute.

Kodak will likely continue to streamline its film lines with the eventuality of having one or two available emulsions for color negative, color chrome, and black & white.