Return of Agfa paper and films to market.

[HHPhoto]

Hi Johan,

Freakscene I was not specific enough, sorry. I was wondering if the Rollei Retro and rollei RPX are in some way related.

They are not related at all. Both are panchromatic films on triacetate base, that are the only similarities.
A friend of mine has already used RPX in 35mm and compared to the Kentmere films (developed with the same times). I have seen the results: Same look, no significant differences.
So, nice quality films at ridicolous low prices. But with a different look compared to APX.

Cheers, Jan

 

[johannielscom]

Right. Thanks Jan and Marty, I got my act together now 😛

And will be stocking up on Rollei Retro asap I guess. Not that I dislike 'the English small gene' in film as Robert called it, but the APX lookalike film does it more for me when developed in Rodinal. Might be my noobness with developing though 😉

 

[Freakscene]

I hope they make Portriga.. I will be one happy guy if they do. I really miss that paper.

This won't happen; the good Portriga had a lot of cadmium in the emulsion, which is impossible to use under current environmental laws. Whenever anyone says 'old paper was better it had more silver in it' what they mean is 'old paper was better, it had lots of cadmium in it'. The grams/square area amount of silver in a photo paper has very little to do with anything. See Dick Dickerson and Sylvia Zawadski's article in in Photo Techniques 2005 Vol. 26, No. 3: “Silver-Rich” Papers.

Marty

 

[dfoo]

I bought a whole bunch of 1980's portriga off a local photographer a little while ago. Despite being so old, the paper is great. The prints look incredible compared to the modern papers I've been using (Ilford and Kentmere VC FB).

 

[Freakscene]

I bought a whole bunch of 1980's portriga off a local photographer a little while ago. Despite being so old, the paper is great. The prints look incredible compared to the modern papers I've been using (Ilford and Kentmere VC FB).

One of the reasons that cadmium was added to paper emulsions was that some of its compounds act as preservatives. Non-cadmium emulsions last much less time, even if carefully stored. I have plenty of early 1980s cold stored Portriga that works just as well as it did when it was new.

Marty

 

[lovetodraw]

Although I am new in the film world; I love to try the apx black and whit films. This to me sounds very exciting. I hope they bring back those old black and white films and I surely will be a purchaser. Thanks for the news and links.