Agfa APX 100 "New emulsion"

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>There has been quite a lot of talking recently about this new film, new emulsion, but almost no example.<br>

So i bought some rolls to test.<br>

I developed it exactly as i develop "old" agfa apx 100.<br>

E.I. 125, Rodinal 1:100, 20°, 20 minutes. 10 inversions the first 30 sec, then one inversion every 30 sec.<br>

Here are the results<br>

For me is a good film, nice tones, nice latitude, nice grain. It's pretty cheap, at least here in Europe.</p>

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<p>2</p><div></div>

<p>3</p><div></div>

<p>4</p><div></div>

<p>5</p><div></div>

<p>Thank you for the examples.</p>

<p>Do you have any pictures of people, informal portraits if possible?</p>

<p>You're welcome<br>

I have some street pictures of people, I'll upload in the next days.<br>

L.</p>

<p>Lots of conflicting info about the actual source/manufacturer of the current version of APX 100, but most info indicates it's not the same film we knew as APX 100 a decade ago. It was among my favorite films, especially in Neofin Blue.</p>

<p>Nice images. I hope to find out more about this film.</p>

<p>Most of the pictures you show are taken in overcast lighting, maybe one (#4) under hazy sun. Nothing wrong with these, to the contrary. But it would be instructive to see some pictures of a scene with a large dynamic range, like sunlit and open shadow in the same scene.<br>

On a low DR scene, all films look similar; high DR will show (or not) the slightly downswept curve of APX100. </p>

<p>The weather hasn't been very nice recently. Here are some more shots involving sunlit cityscape and people.<br>

Hope it helps.<br>

L.</p><div></div>

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

<p>Another one</p><div></div>

<p>Last one:</p><div></div>

<blockquote>

<p>Here are some more shots involving sunlit cityscape and people.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Thank you! A little too much "compensation" (compression of high values) for my taste; looks like sun is shining through haze. But maybe that is more the result of 1+100 dilution than the intrinsic character of the emulsion. </p>

<p>I try to remember that there was also a "new" APX100 almost a decade ago, before the current "new emulsion".<br /> Agree with Lex, APX100 (and specially APX400) was one of my favorites. Agfa have produced some of the finest films and papers.</p>

<p>Looks pretty nice to me. Highlights do seem compressed but its hard to say whether that is a result of the scan or developing technique. Either way that's not necessarily a bad thing since flat negatives often make for nice prints and its a lot easier to work with a flat negative as opposed to a contrasty one. </p>

<p>I thought it would be interesting to compare to the old APX 100. This shot was done at an EI of 64 and developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 17 min using standard agitation (68 deg F) I really liked the tonality of that film.</p>

<p>Here is one of my old ones (neg scan)</p><div></div>

<p>@ Daniel Lawton. Indeed, the photo you show is a good example where the moderate compression of APX-100 works nicely to tame a relatively small region of highlights in an otherwise darker scene. Below one example with some APX-100 bought ~5 years ago (not sure it's the "real" APX-100). Rodinal/Adonal 1+50.</p><div></div>

Both Nice shots.

The last pictures I attached were

developed in Rodinal 1:50 for 11min.

Still too little information about this new

film, I used old apx times as a starting

point, there is still room for fine tuning.

In fact it was not a real sunny day, kind

of hazy.

Anyway it seems to me a pretty good

film, whether or not similiar to "old" apx emulsion.

 

Thanks for the comments

 

L.

<p>If you allow me, I'd like to contribute to this thread with two examples of photos taken on the current APX. As it has been mentioned, it's an inexpensive film i n Europe, yet yielding very satisfactory and, what's equally important, consistent results: </p><div></div>

<p>And another one, cropped to square proportions (I don't have a 2 1/4 sq. camera):</p><div></div>

<p>@ Tomasz Klimkiewicz<br>

Your two images are more like my idea of the rendering of a sunlit scene. No excessive compression of high values, that would give the impression of sun shining through haze or smog. The light "sings" properly.<br>

Actually good news for me, since I stocked up ~40 rolls of APX in my fridge. I also got good results with the new Adox film: Silvermax, but would need to do proper A/B comparisons (same scene, same time, two emulsions).</p>

<p>Just for comparison, one more photo, this time of a scene shot under complete overcast conditions, the film exposed at E.I. 200 and the development time in FX-37 extended accordingly.</p><div></div>