Kodak Gold 100/Kodak Bright Sun Film Review

Kodak Gold 100 is an affordable expired film. It features vivid, medium-saturation vintage colours with chunky grain and no significant tonal shifts despite most supplies having expired 10+ years ago.

There’s still plenty of it on eBay and other secondhand markets. As I write this in 2024, there are hundreds of listings online with prices as low as $5 (averaging around $10) per roll.

My rolls, reviewed in this post, expired back in 2007. It’s not quite as fresh as Gold 200, nor does it feature the same accuracy as Kodak Pro Image 100 — but I love its unique renderings nonetheless. Plus, it’s cheap! In this review: Kodak Gold 100 history and technical specifications. Exposing expired colour negative films. Kodak Gold 100 colours. Gold 100 grain. Where to buy Kodak Gold 100 and how much does it cost? Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Kodak Gold 100 history and technical specifications.

Kodak Gold 100 was an affordable favourite of many photographers, according to the early 2000s internet. It was developed together with the modern Gold 200 film; Kodak’s datasheet bunches both emulsions into the same document. The paper notes very little difference between the emulsion, with just a slight bump in the blue channel around the 1.0 lux mark for the ISO 200 version.

Both films feature excellent eight stops of dynamic range — enough to take photos in a variety of lighting conditions without worrying about over- and underexposure.

Alas, Gold 100 began to underperform at the beginning of the new century, around the time digital photography began its appearance on the scene. The first sign of trouble was its rebranding to Kodak Bright Sun & Flash film around 2006, leading to its consequential disappearance from the shelves sometime before 2010.

It’s possible that a version of Gold 100 emulsion lives on within the Pro Image 100 or Lomography Color Negative 100 films — but there’s no evidence for that anywhere. Even the Gold 200 film looks different today than it did twenty years ago (expired or not). Thus, the exact colours you see in this article can only be found in the remaining unshot expired stock.

Exposing expired colour negative films.

The effects of time on film are hard to predict. Storage conditions can affect it a big deal. For a high-quality emulsion, a decade past its expiration date shouldn’t be a big problem. But in this case, my film likely passed its absolute prime. There are slight colour shifts, although nothing that can’t be corrected with quick adjustments after scanning — perhaps your software would even do that for you automatically.

Some photographers recommend over-exposing colour-negative film by a stop for each decade past its expiration. But I don’t think that Gold 100 is old enough to need this. It will probably still look good if you choose to do that with your rolls, but the stuff in this article was shot at box speed: ISO 100.

Kodak Gold 100 colours.

Kodak Gold 100 is a high-contrast film with natural colour saturation. When scanned, likely in any setup, the film will lean toward warm tones, but it will remain balanced. That is, the emulsion does not render, nor is it more sensitive in any of the three colour channels than the other. And despite being a relatively old colour film, it’s still more natural-looking than the newest emulsions made in the past decade: Metropolis, Color’92, and Phoenix 200.

If there’s one thing that this film may’ve lost over the years is its dynamic range in the shadows. In my scans, they appear to fade into blackness pretty quickly. Though thankfully, they aren’t particularly grainy, and the rest of the image isn’t affected.

This film can also pick up and render the differences in shades of greens, yellows, and blues much better than the modern experimental emulsions. Because of that, I’m pretty sure it would make a better candidate for portrait photography — though I haven’t tried that.

The challenge, of course, is finding a well-kept continuous supply of this film — something that isn’t a problem with freshly manufactured stock. Still, I think it’s worth a look. I especially like how yellows and blues appear on the scans of Gold 100. There’s something “vintage” about them, which I’d say would be difficult to replicate with other films.

But if you’re looking for an accurate colour reproduction, you’re probably better off with a fresh roll of Kodak Gold 200 (especially in medium format, if you’d like finer detail) or, for even more precision, Kodak Portra 160 (review)/Portra 400 (review).

​✪ Note: I use this method to scan all film for my reviews. It creates consistent results that make understanding and comparing the emulsion’s colour/contrast attributes possible.

Gold 100 grain.

It’s a little chonk. The grain becomes more visible in the shadows, but thankfully, it’s never too harsh or overly sharp.

The datasheet for Gold 100 informs me that it’s 42 PGI (Print Grain Index, a measure based on compound human observations), which is a little finer than that of Gold 200. In practice, however, the expired Gold 100 stock looks grainier, which is most likely due to its age.

Given that the film’s slight increase in graininess is the only downside I found compared to the fresh film, it’s a small price to pay for the unique colours it renders. What do you think?

Where to buy Kodak Gold 100 and how much does it cost?

Kodak Gold 100 isn’t rare. You can find lots of rolls listed on eBay and other aftermarket places that sell expired film.

This film is only available in 35mm. But watch out for the exposure count: it comes in 12, 24, and 36. There’s nothing wrong with 12 — it could be excellent for a half-frame camera (so that it doesn’t take forever to finish your roll). Just know that your lab will charge you the same regardless of how many frames you’ve got.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Kodak Gold 100 purchase using this link  so that this website may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!