The p-Code Machine

As I’ve expressed in my last post, I’ve been trying a number of films during the last couple of weeks. And each contemporary roll of film has been DX coded. Using this DX code, a minilab can “see” what film was inserted, and how to process it. But that also mean we can use it, to identify which emulsion was used on the roll of film, which of often handy for identifying OEM film. For example I have three similar rolls of ISO 400 color film:

• HEMA Super SR 400 (DX 706264)
• Kruidvat Colorfilm 400 (DX 906267)
• Schlecker AS Color 400 (DX 306264)

It’s immediately apparent that the four middle digits are the same, when looking these numbers up here, they all return Fujifilm as the OEM. Which basically means Fujifilm manufacters the same film for each of these companies. Does this mean these companies are actually selling Fuji Superia but cheaper? Probably not! It wouldn’t surprise me if Fujifilm had a special low cost OEM emulsion for this specific purpose. But even then you can rest assured your film was made by a real film company. It does probably mean these three film are exactly the same, so why not buy the cheapest of the three… Sooner or (more likely) later I’ll try to do a practical comparison as well…