Kodak Vision3 250D 7207

Kodak announced Vision3 250D on April 14, 2009, slotting it between the 50D slow stock and the 500T fast stock as the medium-speed daylight option. The 7207 designation is the 16mm cut. 5207 covers 35mm and 65mm. At ISO 250 in daylight and ISO 64 in tungsten with an 80A filter, it is the most versatile current Kodak motion picture stock for variable-light exterior work where you need shutter speed without giving up Vision3 grain structure.

The engineering is the standard package: Dye Layering Technology for cleaner shadows, Sub-Micron Technology for two stops of extended highlight latitude. What 250D adds is a curve tuned for mixed daylight like open shade, overcast, and golden hour, the situations where 50D runs out of light and 500T is overkill. Skin under daylight reads natural without the warmth bias the tungsten stocks carry.

For still photographers, this is one of the harder Vision3 stocks to source. CineStill does not repackage 250D the way they do 50D, 400D, and 800T. You buy 5207 from short-end suppliers, hand-load 16mm rolls from 7207 cans, or order it spool-loaded into 35mm cassettes from specialty sellers. Process is ECN-2.

Compared to Portra 160 it runs about a stop faster with similar grain character. Compared to CineStill 400D, which is widely understood to be built on Vision3 250D itself, 250D is finer-grained and slightly more saturated. For outdoor portrait or landscape where you want the cinema look, this is the working stock.

Available in 35mm, Super 16, 16mm, and 65mm formats through Kodak's catalog. No 120, no sheet option. Still photographer access depends on short-end sellers and small specialty labs that re-spool the cinema rolls.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.0. No correction needed past one second; the metered time stays the shot time. Zone Light Meter notes the threshold but applies no multiplier. Kodak's published data covers 1/1000 second to 16 seconds without correction. Past that you are extrapolating, and bracketing is the only safe answer.