What is this Old Found Film?

I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, last week and picked up a nice FED-2 camera. There was a film cartridge inside.

I intended to try to develop the film when I got home to see if I could get any images. Alas, the film cartridge

was empty. It appears to be a reloadable cartridge and I am curious as to what film was indicated by the sticker

on the cartridge.<P>

<center>

<img src="http://jdainis.com/fed2_film.jpg"></center><P>

 

As you can see it has OR/WO followed by the large letters that seem to be CHROM... Any ideas of what that may

have been? Slide film obviously but made by whom?<P>

 

Oh, and here is a photo of the FED-2 (Type B):<P><center>

 

<img src="http://jdainis.com/fed2_1.jpg"><P>

</center>

 

It is in nice clean condition with everything working. Everyready case included. I can't wait to try it out

first chance I get.

<p>Nice FED-2, <strong>James</strong>; go out and have fun. Heaps about Orwo on the web; here's a link to a potted history.</p>

<p>http://www.cyclopaedia.info/wiki/Orwo-chrome</p>

Rick, Thanks, that was easy. It never occurred to me that ORWO was one word name of the company.

ORWO films were well-known at their age. ORWO was the major manufacturer of color slide films in the former eastern block (there were also soviet slide-films, maybe FOMA of Czechoslovakia made them, too). They were also sold as re-branded films in western countries (at least in West Germany), especially by some mail-order photo dealers.

 

As there was a shortage of almost everything in the eastern block, they used reloadable cartridges which were re-used when manufacturing new films.

 

They were based on the pre-war Agfa slide film technology and their processing was NOT compatible with the E6 process used by Kodak and many others (and even by Agfa of Germany after 1975 or so), so it was almost impossible to have these films processed in western countries.

Are you sure about that they are not E6 compatible, Winfried?<br><br>I used ORWO Chrome a long time ago and dropped it off for processing just like any other E6 film. I don't remember that they required a different process, but maybe the lab sorted that out.<br>I do remember that, while films like Fujichrome then tended to favour greens a bit, ORWO Chrome favoured browns. And more than just a bit: the predominant colour of ORWO slides was brown, as if looking at the world through sunglasses. Instantly recognizable. And making it a specialty film. Strange, but nice because of it.

<p>From my lab years, Agfachrome Process 44 was compatible with Kodak E6, so I assume that there was no problem with ORWOchrome. But then, nobody ever dropped a roll of ORWOChrome into our New Zealand lab...</p>

ORWO also made some pretty good black & white films that were available trough Freestyle mail order. I had some great results with their 100/125 ASA (not sure of the asa?) film processed in D76.

<p>Subbarayan Prasanna has used a lot of re-branded and otherwise ORWO film. He was even kind enough to share some of it which I posted on here (<a href="/classic-cameras-forum/00U61R">link</a>). It's apparently available in bulk, and he has got terrific results with it combined with some of his own developer brew.</p>

<p>The name, as the links show, stands for "ORiginal WOlfen" (that is, the original maker of Agfa film). I think (according to story in one of the photo mags here) that the name change came in 1964.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

<p>Years ago, about 1973, my father brought me back a roll of 35mm Russian film. It came wrapped in foil, but no cartridge. Just the plastic spool and the film. If you load it in the shade, and are careful not to let it unroll, it works. Though another choice would be to insert (in dark or light) the spool inside a cartridge shell.<br>

I don't know that it had the Rem-Jet backing like Kodachrome has. As I understand it, movie film also has the Rem-Jet backing, as they load big rolls into the camera without any other light protection. </p>

<p>I do not think that it is ORWO in the cassette. The seal is broken. The canister is reusable and it may be BW film. Worth to try to develop it. May be a glance from the Evil Empire...Original ORWO slide chemistry is not available although there is someone in Moscow who is specialized in processing old found ORWO films.</p>

Like I said, there was no film in the cassette. It would have been interesting if there was.

<p>Oh...I did not get it at first, sorry. It was GDR's ORWO Chrome slide film most likely day light UT-18. It used to have green/red strip and red half usually was removed upon reload. The original spool had quite inconvenient latch so it usually was replaced with less polished but more robust Russian counterpart. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B0_ORWO_CHROM_UT-18_%D0%93%D0%94%D0%A0,_1983_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4.jpg</p>

<p>"From my lab years, Agfachrome Process 44 was compatible with Kodak E6, so I assume that there was no problem with ORWOchrome. But then, nobody ever dropped a roll of ORWOChrome into our New Zealand lab..."</p>

<p>Yes, Agfa process 44 was compatible with Kodak E6, but Agfa introduced films for this process somewhere in the 70s. I remember this since my dad always used Agfa slide films and had to switch to the newer Agfa films in the 70s. Before that, Agfa used their proprietary process which probably was identical to the ORWO process. ORWO never changed their proEcess. (Maybe after the reunification in 1990 they sold slide films with E6 processing but these were re-branded films from other sources. </p>

<p>Just a trivia from late german history: back then, the officers of the west-german secret service (Bundesnachrichtendienst BND - Federal Intelligence Service) were given orders NOT to use ORWO slide films (or rebranded ones from the same source) - due to the proprietary process all these films were sent to East Germany for processing and the east german secret service checked films coming from West Germany to reveal the real names and relationships of west german secret service employes. By the way, in a german forum I found the info that ORWO distributed kits for processing their slide films, the ORWO 9615 kit. Here is the recipe: http://super8data.com/database/articles_list/processing_orwo_9165.htm</p>

Doesn't ring a bell, Winfried.<br>I used ORWO in the seventies. Bought it in a department store, and had it processed wherever i turned out to be. Did they have to send if to the DDR? I never heard that before. I would be surprised if they had. Still, never too late to learn.

<p>I am not really sure whether all Orwochrom slide films had to be processed in GDR. It seems as if their processing was compatible with the old Agfacolor process, so maybe they could be processed in labs which could handle this process (which was quite different from the E6 method).</p>

<p>All I found in the web (hard to find some info about things which happened before the 1980s) was a pic of a return envelope for ORWO slide film. It mentions addresses in GDR, West Germany (shortform BRD, as usual in GDR) and the Soviet Union.</p>

<p>http://images.fotocommunity.de/bilder/kamera-techniken/ddr-kamera/alte-schaetze-ee5f26a0-7ae5-4aea-a513-1575d27a2c8c.jpg The address in West Germany belonged to a "Umkehrdienst" (reversal processing service) in Stuttgart. </p>

<p>Didn't the versions of Agfachrome imported to the USA use a special process? I remember in the late 60's to early 70's seeing Agfa ads that stated that Agfa included processing. They did have designated labs in the USA. The ads don't really say, though that the processing is unique so I'm speculating. Maybe someone here has more information.</p>

<p>Yes, as mentioned, Agfa used a special technology for their slide films and a special process until the mid-70s. The Agfacolor films were introduced shortly before WWII and mainly used for cine films (the first german color movie was produced in 1941). <br>

Orwo slide films were manufactured in the former Agfa plant and used the same technology and (very probably) the same process. <br>

Agfa (West Germany) turned to E6 compatible slide films in the mid 70s. The old Agfacolor films had a rather warm tone (you can still see this when watching german movies from the early 1940s - it seems as if there is a slight brownish haze everywhere). Many people, including my father, liked the colors of the famous CT18 (old version) and were a bit surprised by the neutral color rendition of the Agfa E6 slide films.<br>

Around the year 2000 Agfa sold their slide films using the old CT designator but these films were E6 compatible and had nothing to do with the old CT18 of the 60s and 70s. </p>

 

ORWO used the old Agfa recipies for their color slide and color negative films. The chemicals, times and steps are the same,

except the slides need reversing. Labs existed but anybody I know did his processing at home. Kits were avaible and you did

the processing at room temperature in the same type small tank you did your BW processing.