Kodak Gold 100

Gold 100 has a confusing lineage. Kodak introduced Kodacolor VR-G 100 in 1986 as the upgrade to the VR family from 1983, and within two years VR-G became Kodacolor Gold and then just Kodak Gold. The 35mm version ran through seven recognized formulations between 1986 and the early 2010s, with North American distribution ending around 2007 even though production for export carried on for several more years. The 120 size was killed earlier, in the late 1990s. Marketing positioned Gold 100 as the everyday consumer film for daylight work, below Royal Gold and below the Portra and Ektar lines.

The palette is what people remember. Yellows lean warm. Greens have a soft summery quality without going neon the way Vista 100 did. Reds render saturated but never as pushed as Ektar 100, and skin tones come back with a slight golden lift that flatters most lighting. Compared with Fujicolor 100, Gold 100 is warmer and slightly less sharp. Compared with Portra 160, it has lower latitude and more obvious shadow grain but a cheerier signature for snapshots.

Grain at box speed is moderate for an ISO 100 film of its era. Not Portra-clean, not Ektar-clean, but tight enough for 8x10 prints from 35mm without obvious noise. Latitude is roughly two stops over and one under. Rate it at 80 if you want denser negatives. Avoid pushing.

Kodak rebranded the last formulation as Bright Sun & Flash around 2006 to fight back against the digital point-and-shoot tide. The experiment did not work. The film vanished from North American distribution by 2010 even though Kodak's correspondence suggested production continued for export. What circulates on eBay now is expired stock from the mid-2000s.

Available formats during production were 35mm in 24 and 36 exposure lengths and 120 in five-roll Pro Packs. Process is straight C-41. Expect a half-stop of speed loss after twenty years.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.20. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 60 seconds at the negative. For the daylight snapshot work the film was built around, the correction almost never matters.