Kodak Vision2 200T 5217

Vision2 200T sat in the middle of Kodak's tungsten lineup when the line launched in January 2004. The 500T 5218 got the spotlight because it shot the dark scenes nobody else could. The 5217 was the one cinematographers reached for when they wanted finer grain without giving up tungsten balance, rated at EI 200 under 3200K light or EI 125 in daylight behind a Wratten 85 filter.

The selling point was Dye Layering Technology, which Kodak claimed reduced shadow grain enough to let a colorist pull more detail in the dark. Sub-Micron Technology on the highlight side gave two stops of extra room before clipping. The marketing copy was real engineering for once: shadow noise on 5217 reads cleaner than 5218 pushed half a stop, and highlights roll off rather than break. The catch is the price in speed. At 200 tungsten you need more light or a faster lens than 500T allows, which kept it off most low-budget productions.

Robert Richardson shot parts of Shutter Island on it. Roger Deakins used it on Doubt. Jeffrey Kimball loaded it for The Expendables. Quantum of Solace and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ran 5217 for controlled-light sequences. ShotOnWhat lists over 130 features using the stock before Vision3 arrived.

For still photography on respooled short ends, the film behaves like a slightly slower, slightly cleaner version of CineStill 800T's parent emulsion: same warm tungsten bias, same need for an 85B filter in daylight, no halation bloom because the remjet is still in place. ECN-2 process is mandatory unless your lab handles the carbon backing first.

Kodak discontinued 5217 around 2010 as Vision3 200T 5213 took over. Production formats were 35mm 5217 and 16mm 7217 in 400-foot cans, sold only through cinema dealers.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.10. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second on the standard curve. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 35 seconds at the negative, which is mild enough to ignore for most still work but worth respecting on tripod-locked night shots.