These pages present various notes on media formats with emphasis on identifying and dating media.
Overview of Motion Picture/Cine Film
Kodak codes, markings, symbols and so forth:
1. General2
- Film codes beginning with;
- 5, i.e. 5219 indicate a 35mm or greater gauge (i.e. 65mm)
- 7, i.e. 7248 indicate a 16mm or lesser gauge (i.e. Super8)
- 2, i.e. 2239 indicate an ESTAR base (for all film)
- Ektachrome indicates a colour reversal.
- Film such as Vision 3 250D indicates the exposure index is 250 in Daylight, or Vision 2 100T indicates an EI of 100 for Tungsten lighting
- Kodak introduced Keykodes in 1989, and have been commonly accepted as an industry standard. The keykode consists of a machine-readable barcoding, followed by the same information in human readable format. The human readable keykode format is AA 1234 5612 34; an example for EASTMAN PLUS-X Negative Film is:
- Two alpha characters EH; E for Eastman Kodak and H for EASTMAN PLUS-X Negative Film.
- Six numerics 1234 56; A unique prefix to identify the particular roll of film.
- The last four numerics are the footage count, incrementing:
- every 20 perforations on 16mm;
- every 64 perforations on 35mm; and
- every 120 perforations on 65mm.
- Information about the film manufacture is recorded after the keykode, repeating every 80 perforations in a format of: Manufacturer, Product Code, Emulsion No., Roll and Part No., Printer Code, year Code.1
- i.e. EASTMAN 5231 999 9999 99 AB
- K (Eastman Kodak Company)
- A/C/D/E/H/J/K/L/M/N/S/V Tri-Acetate / SO### for E-Star
- Films prior to 1990 used a five or seven digit keycode:2
- General markings
- Four symbols on consecutive frames are 'match check' symbols2
- Every ten feet/400 perforations; a density patch (square)2
- Keycodes every foot indicates the film was 1970s or prior
- Else every 20 frames/six inches indicates 1970s or greater