Eastman Color Negative (ECN) is a

photographic processing Photographic processing or photographic development is the chemical means by which photographic film or paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image. Photographic processing transforms the latent image in ...

system created by

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

in the 1950s for the development of monopack color negative motion picture

film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent ...

. It is part of the

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

family of products sold by Eastman Kodak. The original process, known as ECN-1, was used from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, and involved development at approximately 25°C for around 7–9 minutes. Later research enabled faster development and environmentally friendlier film and process (and thus quicker photo lab

turnaround time Turnaround time (TAT) is the amount of time taken to complete a process or fulfill a request. The concept thus overlaps with lead time and can be contrasted with cycle time. Meaning in computing In computing, turnaround time is the total time t ...

). This process allowed a higher development temperature of 41.1°C for around three minutes. This new environmentally friendly development process is known as ECN-2. It is the standard development process for all modern motion picture color negative developing, including

Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from the ...

and other non-Kodak film manufacturers. All film stocks are specifically created for a particular development process, thus ECN-1 film could not be put into an ECN-2 development bath since the designs are incompatible. The ECN-2 process has normally been reserved for high volume labs involving hundreds or thousands of feet of film in a linear processor. With companies like QWD that have made this available in a kit form for home use, this process now can be done on a small scale. ECN-2 kits sold to consumers often don't comply with process standards dictated by KodakKodak Manual H24 Section 7 "Processing Kodak Motion Picture Films" and therefore results may significantly vary in quality and consistency.

References

* Hanson, Wesley T. Jr. "Color Negative and Color Positive Film for Motion Picture Use." Journal of the SMPTE, March 1952, Volume 58, pages 223–238. Kodak Photographic film processes {{filming-stub