New Walgreens comparison -- But wait! There's more! :)

[dmr]

I could tell immediately that the grain was smoother and tighter in the new Walgreens/Fuji than it was in the Walgreens/Agfa, but curiosity got me, so I found a frame of each that showed a mostly blue sky with some wispy clouds and I did a full-res scan of each.

Below are 300x300 crops of each, the Walgreens/Agfa 200 on the left and the Walgreens/Fuji 200 on the right.

The difference is obvious.

 

[oftheherd]

I know a lot of people over the years that have sworn by Agfa. I have tried their color negative and their slide. Don't remember if I tried thier b/w or not. I never liked the results I got from their films. Seems I always got what you got or worse. (pulling on flak vest before Agfa lovers can retaliate)

I always thought it was just me.

 

[bmattock]

No problems from me. I like Kodak Gold 100 (hard to find now at retail level), Fuji XTRA 400, and Agfa Vista 200 (ex-Walgreens Studio 35). Each had their own merits. I never liked Agfa color at ISO 400, same results with sky as dmr got.

However, not that many color print films do blue sky that well, in my opinion. Slide or B&W seem to do it better.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[dmr]

I have tried their color negative and their slide. ... I never liked the results I got from their films. Seems I always got what you got or worse.

I picked up a whole bunch of this last winter, when it was like $.72 a roll. It's not the best for everything, but it does work quite well for some things. For urban scenes you often want some "grit" in there, and you often don't want a Fuji Blue sky drawing the attention from the subject.

I love the way it worked for some urban snow scenes (see below) and I also liked the way it caught the autumn colors. Very good on the subdued warmer tones.

I do think, however, that Walgreens really markets the Studio 35 stuff to those who just think "film is film" and couldn't really tell the difference between Agfa and Fuji. It may change to something else as fast as it changed from Agfa to Fuji.

I always thought it was just me.

Some people love the Agfa film. Some dislike the Fuji film. If we all liked the same things, the world would be a very boring place. 🙂

 

[oftheherd]

...

Some people love the Agfa film. Some dislike the Fuji film. If we all liked the same things, the world would be a very boring place. 🙂

It wasn't the usual look or feel I disliked. It was what you showed in your comparison above. Excessive "grain" showing. Well, actually, I think there was some color problems too, in the negative film, but that is usually correctable if everything else is alright. I no doubt was doing something wrong considering how others seem to like it, and even some examples from others I have seen. I think I only tried it in Korea some years ago, so there may have been something else afoot also. I just know I tried several times and gave up in disgust. I have never wanted to try it again.

 

[zuikologist]

dmr, I think your photos show where the Agfa films worked well - northern light, cooler, muted tones, some grain to add atmosphere. Reminds me of older (1970s?) Ektachrome.