Earliest Known Color Baseball Photo or Slide?

[Lucas00]

Originally Posted by seattlerainiers

Here's a color Kodak snapshot of cup of coffee major leaguer Chet Johnson, pictured here with the Western Int'l League Tacoma Tigers, August 1942. Chet played 17 years in the minors, largely in the PCL

This came from Chet's own photo album, and unfortunately, was the only color snapshot present. I was quite excited when I discovered it.

Wooow! 1942. Unreal, this is a Kodacolor print. According to Wikipedia that is the first year of true Kodacolor printing of still images (probably not true and went back earlier). According to one source it was used as early as the late 20s, but was for filming, not stills. And barely looked better than B&W.

The difference with Kodachrome I believe is Kodachrome prints were created from slide film. And Kodacolor prints were more traditional and created from color negatives.

I'm not sure about the processes used to create color. But I do know Kodacolor can still be produced today. But Kodachrome slide printing was so complex and specialized it cannot be developed today in color, only in black and white. You can really see the quality difference in the two, Kodachrome almost looks as good as modern photography, while Kodacolor is almost sepia looking.

Amazing photo in any case!!