ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Panchromatic film

Okay kiddo, have you ever taken a picture with a camera? Well, cameras can use different kinds of film to capture the picture. One type of film is called panchromatic film.

Panchromatic film is special because it can capture all the colors of the rainbow, just like your crayons! It can capture the reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, indigos, and violets that you might see in a picture. Most films can't do that - they might only capture some of the colors.

One way to think about panchromatic film is like a very fancy, very special set of crayons that has every single color you could ever want. This means that you can take pictures with lots of different colors and the film will capture them all.

Panchromatic film was invented a long time ago, in the early 1900s, and it was a big deal at the time because it meant that photographers could take pictures that looked more realistic than ever before. Now, lots of photographers still use panchromatic film because it can create really beautiful photos that capture all the colors of the world around us.
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