Rollei Pan 25

T

Terao

Kiloran
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Grain, what grain? Good god this film is impressive. Will post some shots once I've scanned and post-processed them. Anyone else here shooting it?
 
I'm happy with Ilford Pan F+ as I think the slower film wouldn't add much to my shooting. I'm thinking of picking up a few rolls (a couple to test, then a couple to shoot a serious set with) for when I see a friend at uni, and am taking some photo's of her as my model. I'd like to see examples, as Black&White Photography had a review that didn't really have the film shine at ALL compared to Delta 100. Slightly more resolution, and less contrast, but otherwise nothing special.
 
Rollei Pan 25 vs. APX 25

Rollei Pan 25 vs. APX 25

What we really need is a good comparison of the Rollei film against Agfa's APX 25. That would be a fair apples to apples test.

On the other hand, if you all are saying that the slower 25 is little or no better than Ilford's 50 & 100 emulsions, than why bother with the loss in speed?

Enquiring minds want to know! Please?
 
I have one roll of Rollei Pan 25 (120 film) in my fridge. I still waiting for the right situation to use it. I'm curious to see your results.
 
I guess I just like exotic films and am a died in the wool Agfa fanboy. Unfortunately never shot APX as I was a Scala shooter. The death of Scala is what converted me to digital, now I'm back to dabble as a result of Rollei. I've never been a fan of Ilford films but then I'm weird as I've never liked Tri-X either *blush*
Will post some examples but probably sleep between now and then though...
 
Well I'm biased since I fell in love with Pan F+. I've always used Ilford, and have found Agfa difficult to work with since I bought all that APX400s in bulk. Having preferred Pan 400 during photo's at college, then seeing the almost grainless images from Pan F+ I was hooked.

I'm not familiar with APX25, but if it's anything like its 400 counterpart, then Rollei is the better film (only from the view that Rollei was similar to Ilford in grain or lack of). All my Agfa results have that 'mushy' grain.
 
Ash: APX25 is long discontinued, though you can sometimes find some rolls on auction, etc. Believe me, it was NOTHING like the Agfa 400; from what I've seen of APX 400, it is sort of the ba$tard child of Agfa films, bearing no resemblance to APX 25 or APX 100.

It was a beautiful, beautiful film. IMNSHO, it was the best slow speed b&w film ever made. Pan F (as much as I like it) could only hope ...

Earl
 
I thought the rumour was that these Rollei films are based on old Agfa emulsions? And that therefore Pan25 is actually a reinterpretation (some would say exact copy) of APX25...
 
As far as I know most Rollei-emulsions are new.

I've compared it to my regular film, Kodak TP and Imagelink (both 25ASA) and wasn't too impressed. It was less sharp and grainier - more like APX25, but that seems what people want ;-)
 
Right let me clarify my Ilford Pan F+ is well over a year expired :D

Also I'll have to run a roll of film and develop it properly in Rodinal (rather than the generic stuff I been using previously).

I'll try it in the Contax tomorrow and post some examples and hopefully try and prove that a film that costs less than Rollei is better :D

Tereo, I'm not sure about the photo. either my exhausted eyes are tricking me, or the grain is very apparent in that shot
 
The source/recipe of this film is amistery, some say it is made in al old Agfa plant, but I think it comes from Croatia.

I have heard (rumours of course!) that Rollei 25 is made in the old Gevaer plant, thus it may look more like Agfa IFF (predecessor of APX) than like APX25

It may also be comparable to EFKE/ADOX KB14/25 since I guess MACO gets most of their stuff from Coratia.

Any of ways, this film is a formidable thing to use, great for landscapes and still photography, not sure about portraiture but it may work fine as well.
 
Hi Terao,

I´ve shot two rolls of Rollei Pan 25 and found it very nice to work with. I´ve started a thread some weeks ago but nobody seemed interested: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29225&highlight=pan+25

The neg´s were processed in Rodinal wich is not good for grain, nevertheless it´s looks more than ok for me. (I got a bottle of neofine blue in the meantime and will save it for the next two rolls of rolleipan)
I´m hoping to shoot more of it but bad weather/light has permitted it´s use until now...

AFAIK The Rollei Pan is made on the AGFA machines but is a different emulsion, so no Agfapan25 for us..

A collegue at work is getting 10 rolls of the new rollei Scanfilm!! An ASA400 Color neg Film with clear base!!! (no orange mask) I´m getting two rolls from him so that will be very interesting too! Also there is a new B/W Slide film wich gets processed in Standard developers!! Hoooray!
Rollei/Maco is very brave to come up with so many different emulsions nowadays so I think they deserve support!! :D
 
Rollei/Maco is very brave to come up with so many different emulsions nowadays so I think they deserve support!!
Click to expand...

I agree. I really want to give R3 a try, and that slide film sounds like a great thing.

Are you guys processing the Pan 25 in Rollei developer?
 
thafred said:
Hi Terao,

I´ve shot two rolls of Rollei Pan 25 and found it very nice to work with. I´ve started a thread some weeks ago but nobody seemed interested: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29225&highlight=pan+25

The neg´s were processed in Rodinal wich is not good for grain, nevertheless it´s looks more than ok for me. (I got a bottle of neofine blue in the meantime and will save it for the next two rolls of rolleipan)
I´m hoping to shoot more of it but bad weather/light has permitted it´s use until now...

AFAIK The Rollei Pan is made on the AGFA machines but is a different emulsion, so no Agfapan25 for us..

A collegue at work is getting 10 rolls of the new rollei Scanfilm!! An ASA400 Color neg Film with clear base!!! (no orange mask) I´m getting two rolls from him so that will be very interesting too! Also there is a new B/W Slide film wich gets processed in Standard developers!! Hoooray!
Rollei/Maco is very brave to come up with so many different emulsions nowadays so I think they deserve support!! :D
Click to expand...

Really looking forward to the new slide film, I miss my Scala. Quite a sensible move by Macophot to hook in with a brand name that still carries some weight for us luddites. I'm sure the film is everything to do with Maco and very little to do with Rollei, but that's fine by me.
As we move forward I think we'll see a lot of this small-scale esoteric film production going on - lets face it there is little point to producing ISO400 general purpose films these days so its got to offer something different for the photographer to invest the time...
 
thafred said:
AFAIK The Rollei Pan is made on the AGFA machines but is a different emulsion, so no Agfapan25 for us..
Click to expand...
That's been discussed to death on German web forums. It's highly improbable that it came from Agfa, because Agfa's film productions machines are being scrapped. There appears to be some kind of consensus that this is probably closely related to Efke 25 (and incidentally it's more Ortho than Pan). While Maco is producing some innovative products (scan film, slide direct), most of their products aren't that innovative. And I don't want to pay for little wooden boxes with my film. However, it's nice that there is still activity in the film market, and that they are keeping their supplier plants busy.

As far as R3 is concerned: I just don't see the advantage of it. You have to decide with the first frame on a roll what sensitivity you want to use, and then at any sensitivity it's worse and more expensive than specialised film for that sensitivity (e.g. Efke 25, Pan F, FP4, HP5, Delta 3200). It's not a particularly innovative product either, it's apparently generic traffic surveillance film.

Philipp
 
Ash: Yes, I agree that the APX400 can be nice; I had seen your shots and they were some of the best I've seen from the 400. It just seems so different from other Agfa b&w films.

Georg: The APX 25 may not be as grainless as the films you referenced, but you're right ... sometimes that's not the most important factor. APX 25 had, for me, a wonderful balance of fine grain, sharpness, contrast and (most important for me) tonality. It was easier to work with than Panatomic X, in my experience.

It seems pretty certain that the Rollei Pan 25 is not APX 25, so I guess one finds some real APX 25 in a freezer somewhere, we just have to remember.
 
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