Kodak · ISO 1600 B&W negative

Kodak Recording Film 2484

B&W negative ISO 1600 Discontinued high-speed recording · heavy grain · Diafine push · Estar base

2484 sits in the same recording-film family as 2475 but with a different emulsion personality and a much more confusing speed rating. Kodak's data sheet placed it around 400 to 500 ASA at standard processing, while published push routines using Diafine carried it to 1600, and some users claimed 2000 was achievable if you were willing to accept the base fog. The box speed of 1600 came from the push convention, not from any meaningful exposure index Kodak put on the can. That ambiguity matters: meter the scene, then commit to a development plan, because the wrong combination will give you negatives that are unprintable.

The film is coated on the same Estar-AH polyester base as 2475 and shares its curl problem. The grain is heavier and the dynamic range narrower. Where 2475 holds shadow detail through enlargement, 2484 blocks faster and shows base plus fog at higher densities. None of this stopped a particular kind of photographer from loving it. Anyone chasing pronounced grain and crushed tonality found that 2484 already looked like a Tri-X two-stop push without anyone doing the work.

Kodak listed it under the SP415 and SP417 catalog numbers in 35mm by 150 ft bulk rolls. There was no commercial 24 or 36 exposure cassette product. The film was designed for oscilloscope and high-speed recording inside laboratories, then drafted by available-light shooters who knew what to do with grain.

Discontinuation dates are not crisply documented. Bulk rolls remained available through the mid 1990s, and the film left the market by the time T-MAX P3200 had stabilized. Surviving stock is largely freezer-held from the 1980s and 1990s and shows the keeping issues you would expect.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A 30-second meter reading becomes about 90 seconds at the negative. At any honest exposure index past 1600 the math compounds with the push, so bracket aggressively for tripod work and meter twice for anything past a minute.

How the app handles this stock

  • Box speed: ISO 1600. Picker exposes pull/push chips so you can shoot it at any speed you want and the meter follows.
  • Reciprocity: Above one second the app raises metered time to the power of 1.31.
  • Expired film: if you load an old roll, set the expiry year and storage in the app and the ISO scales for you. B&W negative decay rates are baked in.

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