Any news on Agfa Ultra 50?

[christian deichert]

It's been several months since the last rumor of either a replacement

for Agfa Ultra 50 (Ultracolor 100) or the return of Ultra 50 itself.

With bricks of 10 selling for well over $200 on eBay, I am anxious to

hear if and when either Ultra 50 or its replacement will be available

in the United States. Anyone with even slightly credible information,

please enlighten the rest of us.

[mediumformat]

Christian,

My local pro shop in DC says (with certainty) that Ultra 50 will return as Ultra 50 (not something new) sometime this Fall. The film will probably have received some reformulation, but the local shop here (who sell nearly every film imaginable) says that the Agfa rep. they deal with says it is coming back, and will remain 50 iso. I guess we'll see.

[kasigi]

Note - Konica makes something that has a similar personality - Impressa 50. Not my favorite stuff but it isn't that far off the Ultra 50.

[scott_eaton]

The only credible information I can give you is that Agfa has not officially confirmed if an Ultra 50 replacement will *ever* be sold in the States. Ultracolor 100 has been test marketed in Europe, but that's as far as it goes.

 

Konica Impresa 50 *is not* a replacement for Ultra 50. Impresa has much finer grain, far less saturated colors, lower contrast, and works best around EI 30 while Ultra 50 works best around EI 80-90.

[daniel_rios]

Anyone read German?

<P><P>

<a href=http://www.fotoline.ch/FOTOintern/01-05/agfafilm.htm>http://www.fotoline.ch/FOTOintern/01-05/agfafilm.htm</a><P><P> Of course, this may just be the European equivalent of the Agfa Vista line in the US.

<P><P>

*daniel

[gary_watson]

Just spoke with an Agfa Canada rep who confirmed that Ultra 50 is dead and gone with no resurrection planned.Also confirmed is no Ultracolor for our part of the N. American market.What was interesting, though, was mention of a new pro print film line that's planned for early(i.e., spring)2002.No specifics but the prospect of an Ultra 50 replacement or new ISO100 emulsion didn't sound all that remote. Stay tuned. Sorry for no more, Christian.

[joseph_albert]

Impresa 50 is not similar to Ultra 50 other than its rated speed.

Impresa 50 has a nice tonal range with smooth gradations of tone,

is the sharpest and finest grain C-41 film currently available,

and has average contrast and color saturation.

<p>

Ultra 50 has moderately coarse grain, particularly for a 50-speed

film, extreme color saturation, very high color saturation, but

a very limited pallette with fairly harsh gradations in tones and

little capability to render subtlety in colors.

[Spearhead]

It's too bad there is no way to effectively mimic the reduced color palette in Photoshop, at least there is no way I have found. It's what makes the film so interesting for me. <p>

 

<center>

<img src="http://www.spirer.com/images/uphillst.jpg"><br>

<i>Uphill, Ultra 50, Copyright 2000 Jeff Spirer</i>

</center>

<p>

 

I would like to hope that there will be a replacement, but the last color Agfa film I liked was Agfachrome 1000 (which had a limited color palette also, but was fairly low saturation) and there's nothing like it anymore, nor has Agfa bothered. Unfortunately, "fine art" films are disappearing.

[alan_krantz]

I'm probably wrong but I'm hopeful that with this recent change in economics companies will focus on profitable products as oppose to growth products... (i.e., ultra 50 will return)

[martino]

True. Agfa 50 rocked my world of colours. The prints from my Rolleiflex would with this film made people gasp. It was all just a natural response to great colour. Nice photo Jeff, btw, and I hope for all of us that Agfa brings it back. Letter writing campaign anyone?

[oleg_sidorenko]

I am waiting for the Ultracolor 100 to show up, and in the meantime feel sorry I missed the train not having tried Ultra 50. I've seen people ask where can one buy 120-format, we still have a little of it here in Moscow, so I want to offer a switch to anyone interested: I can probably get up to 5 rolls of 120 AGFA Ultra 50, and in return would like to try it in 35 mm. Konica Impresa 50 will do too, it's impossible to buy here (but not completely instead of Ultra!).