Kodak GA 100

GA was the Kodak product code for Gold 100, the slowest member of the Gold consumer color negative family. The film traces back to Kodacolor VR-G 100 from 1986, was rebranded as Kodacolor Gold and then simply Kodak Gold over the following years, and continued through several generational updates with version numbers stamped into the edge code (GA 100-4, GA 100-5, GA 100-6). The sixth generation appeared by 1999 and was the version most shooters in the late 1990s and early 2000s actually loaded. Kodak quietly dropped the 100-speed Gold from North American distribution in the late 2000s, though production for export to Asia and Latin America continued for some years afterward.

The look is the look people miss about consumer Kodak from that era. Warm midtones, yellow-leaning highlights, restrained greens, skin that always reads alive. Compared with the Pro Image 100 emulsion that Kodak still sells in those export markets, Gold 100 GA is slightly cooler and slightly more contrasty. Compared with Portra 160, the closest current peer, GA 100 gives you less latitude but a more recognizable consumer-Kodak palette.

Grain is finer than Gold 200 but coarser than Pro Image 100. The film handles overexposure cleanly by a stop and pushes badly past half a stop. Rate it at 64 in shade for cleaner shadows on expired rolls and you will recover most of the look the fresh emulsion had.

Available in 35mm throughout its run and in 120 medium format through the late 1990s. The 120 version of Gold 100 was discontinued around 2000 as Kodak consolidated its consumer roll-film line around Gold 200. Fresh stock does not exist; freezer rolls and expired drugstore inventory from the 2000s are what remains.

The reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered ten-second exposure becomes about sixteen seconds at the negative. For the indoor available-light shots GA 100 was meant for, that bump matters more than people expect.