Ferrania starts colour film production again

[francois_p._garnier]

<p>The new formed company Film Ferrania is working on new production of E-6 colour reversal film and C-41 colour negative film:<br>

http://www.japancamerahunter.com/2013/08/film-news-ferrania-is-back-exclusive-interview/</p>

<p>http://www.filmferrania.it/</p>

<p>https://www.facebook.com/filmferrania</p>

<p>The future of film production lies in Europe:<br>

Ilford, Foma, Adox, InovisCoat and FilmoTec for BW materials, and Film Ferrania, Agfa-Gevaert, InovisCoat and Impossible Project for colour films.</p>

<p>No one needs Kodak.</p>

[JDMvW]

<blockquote>

<p>The future of film production lies in Europe</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Perhaps most often in <em>Eastern</em> Europe where older equipment survives and labor costs are low enough to produce economically for niche markets?<br>

It is good news about Ferrania, though. </p>

<p> </p>

[c_watson1]

<p>Unless I'm missing something, there's not much "news" here relative to what's been circulating recently concerning their intentions. There's no film production to date, so "starts" is a bit misleading. Given the size of the residual market for film, I'd think the "future" is probably b&w and Ilford. The world will be a poorer place without the consistency and quality of Kodak and Fuji C-41 materials.</p>

[Dave Luttmann]

Sorry Watson, they are indeed starting production.

[Spearhead]

<p>Their own blog post dated July 27 of this year says they have started a six month R&D project to actually produce some film and there won't be film before 2014. "R&D" is far different than production.</p>

[Karim Ghantous]

Francois, thanks for linking to the

interview, which was well worth

reading. I am glad that at least some

people are this enthusiastic about film.

It is disappointing that Kodak and Fuji

have a pessimistic attitude towards

slide emulsions.

 

I just hope that prices will be

reasonable. They can't control

development costs, of course, and that

is the bigger problem. I'd love to see a

slide film that performs as well at ISO

3200 as does Portra 400.

 

"About your first question, it is

absolutely true that in a short time, and

in opposition to the present trend, a

new film producer will be back on the

worldwide market." Hope so!

 

"In reality, as we explained in our first

press release, we are still in a research

and development phase..." I wish them

all the best. :-)

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>Perhaps most often in <em>Eastern</em> Europe where older equipment survives and labor costs are low enough to produce economically for niche markets?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, not at all, it is just the opposite: Nearly all of the European film manufacturers have their factories in <strong>Western</strong> Europe:<br>

Harman Technologies / IlfordPhoto: England<br>

Agfa-Gevaert: Belgium<br>

Impossible Project: Netherlands (factory), Austria (headquarter)<br>

InovisCoat: Germany<br>

FilmoTec: Germany<br>

Adox: Germany<br>

Ferrania: Italy</p>

<p>Only Foma (Czech Republic) and Slavich and Tasma (both Russia) are Eastern European companies.</p>

<p>And all of the Western European companies are working with the most modern machinery. Harman / IlfordPhoto, Agfa-Gevaert, InovisCoat (they have built a complete new factory in 2009!) and Adox have all recently invested in new, modern machinery.</p>

<p>@ Mr. Watson: This "BW will stay, color film will go" is complete wrong. Fact is, that in all major markets 90-95% of the films sold are colour films. BW is a tiny niche in the film market.<br>

Most photographers, no matter whether they are film or digital shooters, want their pictures in colour. Therefore colour film will stay.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Yes, but the capital and R&D costs of a color film line, especially one making films that can compete with Kodak and Fuji's, is 10 to 100 times more than a B&W film line. There's not a market for color film at $50 a roll, which would probably be what it would cost to make money at a new facility.</p>

[francois_p._garnier]

<p>@ John:<br>

The InovisCoat factory <strong>is new</strong>. They are already producing the color film base for the IP films, and the MCC and MCP BW paper for Adox. There are some hints that they are also producing the new Lomo Purple film, which is produced in extremely small volumes (smaller volumes than all current BW products on the market).<br>

But all these products don't cost a fortune, not at all the 50$ roll price level you mentioned.<br>

This factory has a very lean production, very flexible, able to coat film and paper on the same machine, and much much less fixed costs compared to Kodak and Fuji.</p>

[c_watson1]

<p>We'll see what 2014 brings but so far Ferannia is hedging pretty heavily. Francois needs to consider why Fuji and Kodak have steadily cut their film material selections and what this says about demand.</p>

[francois_p._garnier]

<p>Kodak and Fuji and the demand:<br>

1. Ilford has proved that a company can adjust (when it really will) to the current much lower demand levels. The old Ilford was a huge factory which needed similar quantities like bigger companies. The new Ilford = Harman Technologies is now able to coat extreme small production runs of about 1000m² only. They had invested a lot to be able to do this now.</p>

<p>2. Kodak and Fuji don't have the real will to do the same as Ilford. They are only interested in bigger volume mass market products. AFAIK films with at least one million pieces sold p.a..<br>

If a film is sold "only" in a quantity of 500,000 or 600,000 units p.a., they just cancel it.<br>

500,000 films of one film type may not be interesting for Kodak and Fuji, but such a volume is very interesting for the smaller companies like Ilford, Foma, Adox, InovisCoat, FilmoTec and Ferrania. Therefore these European manufacturers will be the future of film production (or Fuji and Kodak re-think their business model and invest in downscaling like Ilford has done).</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Only to mention the original Agfa at ORWO.<br>

(West) Agfa? Thriving are they?</p>

 

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>(West) Agfa? Thriving are they?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Concerning Agfa: The West German Agfa had their big film plant in Leverkusen, their converting plant in Windhagen, and their chemical plant in Vaihingen (and a camera plant in Munich, closed in 1982). In the 60ies West German Agfa get together with Gevaert from Belgium, since then the name was Agfa-Gevaert.<br>

In Leverkusen all the consumer films were made, and in Belgium (former Gevaert) all the industrial films like movie films, aerial films and microfilms.<br>

In 2004/2005 there was a new separation: The consumer film division was sold to an investor (AgfaPhoto Holding, which is still alive and makes money from licensing the name "AgfaPhoto"). Some months later the sub-company "AgfaPhoto Produktion" which run the film and paper plant in Leverkusen, the converting plant in Windhagen and the chemical plant in Vaihingen get in insolvency, partly caused by severe management mistakes.<br>

The Leverkusen and Windhagen plants were closed (Vaihingen is still in operation). Lots of the machinery from Windhagen were bought by Ilford.<br>

Lots of the coating and emulsion making machinery from Leverkusen were bought by the new founded company InovisCoat (run by former Agfa Leverkusen engineers) and Adox.<br>

InovisCoat then built a complete new modern factory in Monheim, Germany. In fact InovisCoat is the successor company of Agfa Leverkusen. All InovisCoat employees are former Agfa Leverkusen employees.</p>

<p>The industrial product part of Agfa in Mortsel, Belgium, has continued to produce industrial film types like movie film, aerial film, surveillance film, microfilm, sound film, PCB film.<br>

Some of the current Rollei-Films from Maco Photo Products are films produced by Agfa in Belgium.</p>

[c_watson1]

<p>What's passed off as Agfa now isn't the Agfa of old. Neither is the film.</p>

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>What's passed off as Agfa now isn't the Agfa of old. Neither is the film.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's not true in this generalisation. Agfa in Mortsel, Belgium, is currently producing the same film portfolio which they have produced 10 years ago. Very little has changed there concerning their production of films for the industrial market.<br>

The former Agfa consumer film, made in Leverkusen, is gone. That is right. See my post above.</p>

<p>And the films currently sold under the "AgfaPhoto" brand name are a completely different thing. It is just a brand name, and the products are currently not produced by Agfa, but by other factories.<br>

Lupus Imaging has licensed the brand name "AgfaPhoto" from the "AgfaPhoto Holding", and sell films from different manufacturers (currently Fuji and Harman Technologies) under this label.</p>

 

[c_watson1]

<p>What's changed is no more old school b&w(e.g., APX) or E6 materials. What's left isn't comparable to their pre-break-up film materials--consumer or pro, sorry.</p>

[eddy_d]

<p>I just picked up a few rolls of Agfa APX Black and white film from a camera show a few months ago. Expires 2015. Made in Germany if I am not mistaken.</p>

[c_watson1]

<p>Could be what's left of frozen master rolls of the old APX but could just as likely be the "new" APX which seems to be Agfa Aviphot aerial recon film. The "old" APX is gone for good.</p>

[richard_eaton1]

<p>According to an authoritative source on the APUG forum (well, probably as authoritative as anything ever is on that group! :-) ), Agfa in Belgium are not producing further color aerial film when current stocks run out. Which presumably limits the future for the repacked versions produced by other suppliers.<br>

Given that this would leave only Fuji as a mainstream manufacturer, it would be great to see Ferrania back with a good range of quality color products, with Ilford/Harman to fly the B&W flag.</p>

[c_watson1]

<p>"Given that this would leave only Fuji as a mainstream manufacturer..."</p>

<p>Kodak's not dead yet! With Ferrania, it's the quality issue that could bedevil production that way it did The Impossible Project.</p>

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>I just picked up a few rolls of Agfa APX Black and white film from a camera show a few months ago. Expires 2015. Made in Germany if I am not mistaken.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>@ Eddy d: That is still original Agfa APX from the last production run in the German plant in Leverkusen. When they got in insolvency 2005 (AgfaPhoto Produktion GmbH) all raw materials in that factory had been coated. They were running in full shifts in their last months producing more film than ever. Therefore the remaining stock of APX films have been lasted so long, until this year.</p>

 

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>Could be what's left of frozen master rolls of the old APX but could just as likely be the "new" APX which seems to be Agfa Aviphot aerial recon film. The "old" APX is gone for good.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>@ C Watson: That is wrong. The new, now offered APX film from Lupus Imaging has nothing to do with Agfa aerial film from Agfa in Belgium.<br>

The new APX is simply re-labelled Kentmere 100 and 400 film. I've tested the new film and compared it with the Kentmeres, and they are identical. I know from two other reliable photographers, who have done also comparison tests, and they also get the same result: APX new = Kentmere.</p>

[francois_p._garnier]

<blockquote>

<p>According to an authoritative source on the APUG forum (well, probably as authoritative as anything ever is on that group! :-) ), Agfa in Belgium are not producing further color aerial film when current stocks run out. Which presumably limits the future for the repacked versions produced by other suppliers.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>@ Richard Eaton: You should read right. The reliable sources on apug have written that the Aviphot Chrome 200 is not produced anymore (but there is still a huge stock frozen of this film in the film warehouse at Agfa).<br>

Aerial colour negative film is in current production at Agfa, Belgium.<br>

Maybe, when the stocks are depleted, Agfa will produce the Aviphot Chrome film again. But currently there is no need for it, because they have enough material / current stock to offer.</p>

 

[richard_eaton1]

<p>@C Watson - E6 film from Kodak is dead, which leaves Fuji as the only major manufacturer of transparency film for general photography; SFAIK, Agfa aerial film is repacked for general photography only by small independent manufacturers, without the more general distribution of Fuji.</p>

<p>And why suppose that Ferrania should be bedevilled by quality issues. The Impossible Project is a totally different product recreated and reformulated from scratch, with a different business plan, whereas it's only a few years since Ferrania were producing good quality film; they have the same equipment and many of the same staff, so why should they have any unusual quality problems. Let's see before we judge.</p>

[donnie_strickland]

<p>I hope all goes well. I used to buy their 126 film, when they were the last producer, and I'd buy it again.</p>