Kodak Professional Elite

[magumi]

Kodak has decided to merge the Royal Supra and Portra UC (or the new

"Ultra") lines of pro colour negatives, and has come out with a new

"Kodak Professional Elite" film. The new film looks like re-labelled

Portra UC/Ultra.

<p>

For more details about the new (?) film, <A

HREF="http://wwwse.kodak.com/global/en/professional/products/films/eliteColor/main.jhtml;jsessionid?id=0.1.18.14.13.18&lc=en&">click

here</A>.

<p>

M.

[alvin_wong]

<p>Does this change apply anywhere else in the world? The link in question is for Kodak Sweden's website.

[r.t. dowling]

Ugh.

 

Enough with the damn name changes already!

[christopher_engeler]

Looks like this may be a new family of films after all. There is a 200ASA version, specs are better than PORTRA or UltraColor as far as grain is concerned. But is this only for the European market?

[magumi]

According to a local photography magazine, Kodak introduced the new line at Photokina. Since Portra 400UC is my favourite film (I've shot some 60 rolls of it since the start of the year), I would not want to see it changed to the worse. The link is from the Swedish site, because it was the first one offered by Google, but the same product is advertised in other Kodak European sites as well. I guess I'll write to Kodak and ask them directly.

 

M.

[archie_alcantara1]

Why does Kodak keep on changing names ?????

[bill_tuthill]

I'm not Kodak, so I can't say for sure, but perhaps marketing studies

found that photographers resent monarchy, and Supra sounds too much

like Superia. Personally I like the Supra brandname, and think Elite

sounds like slide film.

 

Thanks for the link, Martin! I updated the creekin.net/films.htm

table accordingly. As far as I can tell, Elite is a simple rebranding

of Royal Supra, although the datasheet now shows MTF graphs. Did

anybody see differences that I missed?

[magumi]

Here's my question and the answer from Kodak:

 

 

Q:

I have noticed that Kodak has merged the Royal

Supra and Ultra {former Portra UC) color negative

film lines and introduced new Professional Elite

Colour film instead.

 

I would like to ask about any possible differences

between the new film line and the Ultra line. The

packaging and the description appear virtually

identical, but I wonder whether there have been

any changes in the emulsion that would change the

look of the film. I consider Portra 400UC the best

color negative film on the market and I would

prefer to keep getting the results I am used to.

 

A:

Please be reassured that your favourite film continues as Elite Color 400!

 

Portra UC was introduced for the Pro Commercial market to please those

leaving reversal film switching to neg wanting high colour saturation in a

400 speed film. However Digital got them first and sales were slow as a

result.

 

By packaging the film (though only in 35mm size) with the Elite Colour

range it now forms a powerful group of products ideal for the advanced

amatuer market.

 

 

In short, Kodak Professional Elite is a rebranded Portra UC and Royal Supra appears to have been dropped completely. I liked the original Supra better, anyway, especially its green and brown colours.

 

M.

[benny_spinoza]

I don't have much respect for the marketing department at Kodak. They are confusing customers. If I were in-charge of marketing, I would revive some of the old brand names...make them well-known, and then stick with them. (Hey, but then the marketing types couldn't justify their jobs and high salaries.) For example, why not use the brand name "Ektar", or variations thereof, for color negative film? What a radical idea!

[ilkka_nissila]

The thing is that there are many changes that have taken place between the Elite Color and Ektar generations of C-41 films and why would Kodak want us to be reminded of the old Ektar when they really want us to note the improvements.

 

It's really strange that they do this constant renaming every year or so during the past few years. I think there are still too many (marketing) people working at Kodak, they have nothing else to do apparently.

[bill_tuthill]

Martin: 400UC is different from Elite 400 on the datasheets, 400UC

being significantly sharper and slightly grainier (although I find

most colors in 400UC less grainy than its PGI 40 gray-rating would indicate). Perhaps I could spot more differences if I looked harder.

[ilkka_nissila]

Could we agree to use the correct names about these films: "Elite Color 400" is the color negative. Elite 400 is an older name for a slide film, which is currently known as Elite Chrome 400. There is obviously no color negative called "Elite 400".

[panos_voudouris]

As far as I can see from the data sheets, Elite Color 200 is the same as Royal Supra 200. That's enough for me, I'm covered :-)

[bill_tuthill]

I take it back -- the MTF graph for Elite Color 200 looks identical

to that of Ultra Color 100, and the MTF graph for Elite Color 400

looks identical to that of Ultra Color 400.