KodakRoyal Gold 200

Kodak Royal Gold 200 was an ISO 200 color negative film for 35 mm cameras and C-41 processing, sold in the 1990s and early 2000s. Kodak’s datasheet presents it as a finer-grained step up in speed from Royal Gold 100, made for pictures and enlargements of people [1]. It has been out of production since about 2004 [2], and independent descriptions of it are scarce.

Look and color

• Kodak’s claims are short. The datasheet promises “superb flesh-tone reproduction” and “excellent sharpness, contrast, and color similar to KODAK ROYAL GOLD 100 Film” [1]. It gives no saturation or hue measurement.
• A step up from Gold. Fuji X Weekly describes the Royal Gold line as a “step up” from Kodak Gold, with finer grain and more vibrant colors. That article is about Royal Gold 400, not 200 [5].
• The 1990s print look. The same article’s simulation recipe aims at the “memory color” look of prints from the 1990s and early 2000s. Its author warns that the look may come from mishandled film, so it is not a reliable picture of a normal roll [5].
• Similar to other films, reportedly. Japan Camera Hunter notes that some people believe Elite Color 200 is the same as or very close to Royal Supra 200 and Royal Gold 200, and says this cannot be confirmed [2]. We found no confirmation elsewhere.
• Thin sources. The color description above rests on one manufacturer datasheet and one article about a sibling film. Treat warmth and saturation as unverified.

Tonality

• Curve. On the datasheet’s characteristic curves, the three layers run roughly parallel: a soft toe between about −3.0 and −2.0 log lux-seconds, then a nearly straight line with no visible shoulder in the plotted range. This is our reading of the graph, so it is approximate [1].
• Latitude. Kodak says the film gives good prints from negatives exposed at speeds from ISO 25 to ISO 800, that is, from three stops over to two stops under the ISO 200 rating [1].
• Contrast is only described as similar to Royal Gold 100 [1].
• Long and short exposures: no filter or exposure correction from 1/1000 s to 10 s [1].
• Expired rolls. In a Flickr thread about rolls that expired in 1997, posters said negative film takes overexposure well and suggested rating Royal Gold 200 at about 125 or 100 [7]. These are forum opinions.

Grain and sharpness

Kodak rates grain with the Print Grain Index (PGI), a perceptual scale for prints viewed at 14 inches. 25 is the approximate visibility threshold and 4 units make one just-noticeable difference. It cannot be compared with rms granularity [1]. For a 4×6 print from a 35 mm negative (4.4× magnification), Royal Gold 200 scores 32, and Kodak calls it its “finest grain 200-speed color negative film” [1].

• The datasheets come from different years (2002 for Royal Gold 200, 2016 to 2025 for the others), so treat the comparison as indicative.
• Kodak rates both sharpness and degree of enlargement “Extremely High” [1]. These are descriptors, not measurements: the datasheet gives no resolving power or MTF curve.

Spectral sensitivity

The blue-sensitive layer stays on a broad plateau from about 415 to 470 nm, the green-sensitive layer peaks near 545 nm and the red-sensitive layer near 620 nm, with a shoulder that runs on to about 695 nm [1]. Nothing in the curves justifies a specific hue shift. The Grain Archive style is tuned from the datasheet and the sources above; it is not computed from these curves.

Names, status and history

• 1994. Wikipedia says Kodak discontinued the original Ektar in 1994 and that the Royal Gold line replaced it [3]. Kodak described the line as a balance of fine grain, sharpness, color reproduction and contrast [4].
• 1997. A collector’s listing shows a 36-exposure Royal Gold box from 1997, marked “200 speed with T-grain” and to be developed before June 1999 [6].
• 2002 and 2003. The datasheet is dated March 2002 and says the film brings the technology of Kodak Advantix films to 35 mm; its last page carries a “Revised 5-03” mark [1].
• 2004. Japan Camera Hunter writes that Royal Gold 200 “replaced the original Ektar and ended in 2004” [2]. This is the only end date we found, and we found no Kodak page for the film.
• A datasheet error. The feature table calls the film “twice the film speed of KODAK ROYAL GOLD 200 Film”, which is impossible; the text above it says it adds one stop to Royal Gold 100, and we read the table as a typo for Royal Gold 100 [1].
• Not the same as Gold 200. Kodak Gold 200 is a separate consumer film that remains on sale [8].