Dufaycolor Film, that strange colour film from the 1930’s

Sometimes when we scan old 9.5mm Pathe films to digital we come across this very strange looking colour film, which has a dot matrix type of effect over it. This is an early attempt at colour using filters layers, this is actually called Dufaycolor film by Dufay Chromex Ltd of Elstree.

It’s an early colour film process. It has a unique look if a little lacking in resolution has preserved very well considering much of it is now over 80 years old. Started production in 1932 it was quickly superseded by cheaper Kodachrome film that had more resolution and better colour rendition.

Resistant to fading and chemical breakdown thankfully much of this survives today. The film below is a great example of how it looks after cleaning and scanning.

The film is scanned frame by frame into an uncompressed file, this will capture all of the detail and resolution, we would scan this to a 2K file then take this into our colour grading suite to adjust the colours, this gives us the chance to improve the overall look and tint of the colours.

More info on our Pathe film scanning service is here: https://www.tvv.co.uk/pathe-9-5mm-film-scanning/