Agfa film - still lives!

I guess I was crying for nothing. It appears another company is going to carry

Agfa emulsions from now on, Lupus Imaging and Media:

 

http://www.lupus-imaging-media.com/content/blogcategory/16/31/lang,en/

 

Hopefully they will not head the Ilford way, doubling the prices for same

products, after Ilford came back from the dead. Agfa film, especially slides,

were expensive to begin with, even before they fell into the bankruptcy hole.

That's great news!

 

Fuji recently released 2 new slide emulsions, Kodak have updated the Porta series, Rollei announced some new bw film at the Photokina, now Agfa......

 

Apparently, film isn't THAT dead.....

 

Personally, I'll shoot film until the last roll has become unavailable.

"another company is going to carry Agfa emulsions from now on"

 

Selling the last batches or manufacturing and selling the emulsions? The site says nothing about the latter.

Hi, to all AGFA film lovers!

 

The ROLLEI RETRO 100 + 400 are original AGFA APX 100 + 400 films, and are available also as 35mm bulk film with 17.0 m + 30.5 meters. Don't worry, be happy! Please take a look under www.mahn.net or www.roll.com

 

In addition if you want, you can fill your bath tub with RODINAL! It will be continously available!

 

Regards

 

Rainer

Way cool, and something to watch. I personally thought the Agfa film division would survive

somewhere because it was a profitable part of the company, they just dumped a lot of debt

on it to make it appear bad. We can hope for more news about this. I'm not holding my

breath, but a lot of synapses are going, "Yippee.... And Scala too!"

"With CT precisa 100 every slide-show is a special experience"

 

They did not mention CT precisa 200 but a slide show with this film will be an even more special experience. Mix some Elitechrome 200 with the CT precisa 200 slides and you will very probably see why... I had some prints made from each of these films and the CT200 looks awfully grainy, I think the grain is at least 2x as coarse as the Elitechrome 200 grain.

This isn't newly manufactured film is it? Just the stuff that was already made when Agfa stopped production?

 

Best, Helen

Be prepared for the cry of "you are wrong - this is old stock" etc. I posted what I thought was useful info on agfa film a couple weeks back and felt like I was punched in the face from the negative reaction from the forums. People need to stop nit-picking and bitching and just buy the damn film. If it sells, someone will probably make some more.

Scott, it isn't meant to be negative, it's meant to be the full story. I don't see how reality is negative.

 

Best, Helen

That is good news about the Agfa Films. I went to the Lupus Imaging and Media link and saw that they had Vista 100 listed...I really liked that film and it would be nice to see it around again. Now I will have to check in at B&H and see what they will carry. I guess time will tell.

 

Wayne

Helen,

 

It's fresh film, it's AGFA, and it's available. Who cares if the factory is currently churning it out? I just switched to digital anyway, so as far as I'm concerned AGFA can fade away or flourish, it doesn't affect me either way now.

 

Scott

Agfa's film division profitable? In a marketplace shrinking 25% a year, with a "distant third place" market share behind Kodak and Fuji? In a country with about the highest labor costs in the world? They were losing money, and were spun off as an independent company (AgfaPhoto) so the mothership wouldn't have to pay their salaries after layoffs until they found new jobs. Since AgfaPhoto went bankrupt, those payments are now a government responsibility. You gotta understand German labor laws...

 

Of course, I'm sure Agfa will deny this. They (of course) claimed that AgfaPhoto had a wonderful and bright future, to make the move look sincere. But they made a smart move.

I didn't get the impression that any "face punching" was going one, rather some people tried to point out that Lupus Imaging

is not picking up production of Agfa film and neither is any other company. Agfaphoto's website still maintains info on the state of affairs with the defunct company. On the site you will find this:

 

 

"The Lupus Imaging & Media Ltd. & Co. KG, a newly founded internationally operating Trading Company has been taken over the main stocks of Agfa branded Films (with exception of a few residual stocks). The majority of the films had been produced end of 2005/beginning of 2006."

 

 

As has been brought up before, this is simply film produced up till the final days of Agfaphoto's existence and most of it has an expiration date of 2010. I'm certainly not trying to be negative about anything. I've bought some of the rebranded Agfa films and am glad I can get them for the time being. Just know that the production has most definitely ceased.

John,

I thought AgfaPhoto (Munich) and AgfaFilm (Leverkusen) were separate companies?

 

As far as I understand AgfaPhoto were profitable and made Minilabs and chemicals, were

taken over by A&O and are still trading.

 

While AgfaFilm are no longer trading as such, and Lupus are selling off all remaining stock

produced before the Leverkusen coating plant shut down?

 

That is my understanding of the situation.

Mark

<I>need to stop nit-picking and bitching and just buy the damn film</i><P>No thanks. I'll stick to legitimate film stocks and papers that won't fade after a few years and sludge up strong colors because they are based on 1981 dye coupling technology.<P>Agfa print films are some of the worst materials I've ever seen, and in many respects inferious to Kodak and Fuji amatuer tier materials. Feel free to try and get any Agfa film to match the 3-D skin tones of a wedding shot and printed on Kodak Portra materials, are the incredible color depth and density of Fuji film and paper.<P>Photogs use Agfa because of that annoying 'alternative' psychology that they are doing something different, and hence better.<P>If you want to rave about a film/paper company other than Fuji/Kodak, at least give Konica some benefit.

I warned people that this url was bad... you go there and get bad things..... Run your Virus checker and your Addaware checker... they are only and not even doing that selling old and Already expired or.. untill 2010. last run... Nope AGFA is DEAD.... I love it I have manny feet of it in Bulk... the Chems live on the film is dead you all want some I have a freezer full of 100 Vista... and others I saw the call coming..

 

Larry

Walgreens still seems to have plenty of Vista. Not sure where they are getting it from.

for once I agree with Scott, agfa film is horrible. exposed the same way, same subject, there is no comparison between agfa and kodak/fuji. there just isn't. agfa looks flat and muddy, a hair out of focus, or something... it just can't match any other film period. and those "punchy" reds? that says "cheap film" to me. there's a photo of a kiddy slide floating around here, look at the horrible magenta tone of the white castle-looking thing

The only Agfa films I liked enough to buy were Ultra 100 (better then 100UC from Kodak- but still not as good as Gold 100), and Agfapan APX 25. All other color Agfafilms were terrible from prints I've seen at my lab. Their B&W films were better, but they didn't make me want to switch from Kodak. Some don't like Ultra 100 either, but to me it was the only color film they made that I didn't cringe when I looked at the prints. But I like that Velvia look. APX 25 was a good film however. But today I use Efke 25 and Tri-X.

You can never go wrong with XXX but for some reason I found that when Pushing the APX 400 seemed smoother but still with grain. That was in Diafine and D-76. In Rodinal the APX100 was seamless.

 

P.S. I am the one with the Slide picture that had a cast on the white top that was from a Picknic Shead that was in the sunlight......

 

 

 

Larry

Ah the old days when folks appreciated variety.<br>

The used to be a very funk film by a company called GAF.<br>

By the standards of quality their 500 speed film was a total loser.<br>

But it was able to produce images with a different "character".<br>

<br>

I still feel that way

Scott if the film you're using is being processed in 1981 chemistry (C41 etc) then you're still using 1981 technology... and you are just modified.

<p>This is great news! Thanks for doing the research!!</p>

<p>Rollei are now making an E6 and C-41 film from part of one of the old AGFA plants. The E6 is based on the old RSXII emulsion. a 200 is being sold as Digibase. you can get them in the states from Freestyle.</p>

<p>Don't know if it is the whole story, but I had some interactions with them, asking about the slide film. They claimed the CT precisa is new production, recognizable because of the different, slightly larger box and a different film batch coding. They also demonstrated me a fantastic customer support. When Agfa went bankrupcy, I bought some slide film on discount in a shop here in Milan. One roll of them was defective, we all can imagine why. I contacted them, they asked me to send them a couple of slides and a few days later I found some rolls of the new CT precisa in the mail.<br>

Anyway, I am 100% with Paul Gray, here. I have no perfect film, I like variety. Once I know a film emulsion, I know what I can and what I can't do with it. I found a good niche for Agfa CT Precisa as well, I bought some rolls and I am using them, together with Velvia, Sensia, Elite, ...<br>

As far as Agfaphoto is considered, well, they are not living on film. As you can see from their webiste, film is just one of the things they sell, together with chemicals. They are replicating Kodak and selling also digital cameras, digital frameworks, batteries, and accessories for the digital shooters. Film market today is less than 1% of the size it was in 2000, too little for a company to thrive only on this.</p>