A retired Kodak engineer told me that the Fuji 4 layer technology was developed
to solve a specific problem, that has since been solved another way, and Fuji
returned to using 3 layers on most films. While 4 layer had a lot of hoopla
around it's innovation, it's subsequent replacement had a lot less. Colour
films BTW can contain as many as 15 layers, on top of the base for various
reasons.

I've never seen curling problems with colour films from either Kodak or Fuji,
curl is caused by the fact that the gelatin in the emulsion, when it becomes wet
and then dries, shrinks slightly, where the base material does not. This can
be solved a few different ways, different manufacturers use different
techniques, in fact a single manufacturer can use different techniques on
different films, and the same film in different sizes.


Kodachrome, is the ultimate in colour reversal film technology, if your in the
year 1935, it compllicated and expensive to manufacture, it uses extremely thin
layers and a different base material from anything else. It's also complicated
and expensive to process, the chemistries are toxic and need constant monitoring
by a chemical engineer, which is why there is only one lab in the world still
processing it. E6 is a much newer process from the late 1970's, and has since
been chenged to remove a lot of the extremely toxic stuff, now it's almost as
benign as B&W processing, as is C41. Ektar 100 is proof that work is still
going on in research and development in film materials at Kodak Park. There
really isn't much more innovation to be done, they do tweak emulsions
occassionaly to improve the colour response, but there isn't a lot of massive
innovation to be done, with the fact that digital has stolen a lot of the
market, companies have had to cut
back, and R&D budgets have suffered. Outlier products like Kodachrome and Tech
Pan are casuallties, there may be a few more.

The Wogster
Blog: http://clickandspin.blogspot.com


>
>From: Kosma Moczek <kosma@...>
>To: konicaslr@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 6:30:21 PM
>Subject: Re: [konicaslr] Re: 2 quick questions
>
>
>
>
>
>On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 11:03 PM,
>>frankgranovski<frankgranovski@ yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Okay, now that Kodachrome is gone, what sharp color film do you suggest?
>
>>A knowledgeable person (photography chemist/technician) told me to
>>avoid Kodak films in general and go for Fuji materials. The reasons
>>against Kodak were:
>>- Kodak's 3-color-layer design vs. Fuji's 4 color layers
>>- Lack of anti-curl layer
>>- Bias towards marketing instead of technological advantage
>>(especially with the recent release of Ektar 100*)
>>- General lack of technological progress
>
>>I'm slowly converting to B&W because of the ease of printing, but if I
>>were to shoot color, I'd go for Fuji Velvia (for slides) and high-end
>>Fuji films (Pro 160C, for example) for negatives. Fuji Reala 100 has
>>nice, neutral color rendition, but it seems Fuji is taking it out of
>>production.
>
>>Also, recently I've tried Kodak Portra 400VC (vivid color, there is
>>also NC for neutral color). Both of them have high saturation (despite
>>the name suffix). I've not ordered any prints yet (scans only), so I
>>can't give any real judgement right now. The medium format version of
>>this film has tendency to curl *badly*, though, because it doesn't
>>have the mentioned anti-curl layer.
>
>>You might also try Kodak Ektar 100 or Kodak 200UC, although I don't
>>like the way those two distort colors.
>
>>> I had no idea that these cameras were expensive when the came out. Where
they more expensive than Nikons/Nikkors?
>
>>Price history is available at JJ's website, unfortunately in French
>>only (albeit an English translation is in progress):
>
>http://konica. awardspace. com/page35/ page35.html
>
>>* Ektar 100 name bears resemblance to Ektachrome and "old" Ektar, but
>>they are totally unrelated. Ektar 100 is marketed as "great color,
>>world's finest grain" film, but the results are not as great as Kodak
>>claims.
>
>>--
>>Kosma Moczek
>http://www.kosma. pl/
>
> > >


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