Rollei R3 - New exiting bw film

[bmattock]

Ok Bill, if it is not your garage either, then what is the source ?

Cheers,
Ruben

Efke for the slower speeds, Foma for some middle speeds, Ilford for the remainder.

Agfa also seems to have supplied some of the specialized emulsions for a number of German companies, and they may still have some stocks remaining. However, when they are gone, they are gone.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[titrisol]

It's been out for a while and there are many reviews in APUG, and evil PN

I tested a couple of rolls of its predecessor (CUBE 400) since it sounded sooo cooll... not very impressed myself but as usual YMMV
Their special developers are the key to it, since it is supposed to be a muiltlayered film and so each of the developers is supposed to be the magic key.
IMHO the "low speed" is just a low contrast developer and the "high speed" is a high energy develpper such as Xtol.

MACO formulates but outsource fabrication AFAIK, and seems that Cube/R3 is another of the surveillance films that made it into the market.

My advice would be to buy some, test it for yourself and decide.

 

[ruben]

Where the heck does one find the Rollei chemistry, anyway? Freestyle has the high speed one. I can't find the low speed one anywhere. They are separate ones, right?

allan

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=301&pid=1000000750

 

[bmattock]

The Hamburg factory hold to the 'Made in Europe' moniker - a welcome embrace for European unity and the EEC 😉

What Hamburg factory?

Forgive me - if I am wrong, I truly apologize - but there is no Hamburg factory that I am aware of. Maco sources their films from elsewhere. "Made in Europe" allows them to not tell lies when the film is actually made in Zagreb, Croatia, by Efke (fotokemika).

If someone can give me evidence of the existance of a "Maco factory" in Hamburg where they make Rollei R3 films, I will gladly apologize.

To date, I have seen none.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[schaubild]

I use the R3 almost exclusively since more than a year, together with the dedicated developers (which are are rebranded Maco products, but that is an open published fact every dealer knows). Couldn't be happier. Compared to the Acros it is a little grainier, but the possibility to use a wide range of ISO's when shooting but only carrying one type of film is much more important, with 6x9 the quality reserve is big enough. And: the R3 is by far the best film for long night exposures, it reacts very well to spotlights and heavy contrasts.
Communication with Maco has always been easy and very open, even when resolving problems.

I don't talk about products that I haven't tried myself and stopped listening to the "experts" that spread secondhand knowledge long time ago.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Have you tried the Maco "Cube" film? As mentioned
it may be the same stuff at a somewhat lower price...

"Excelsior, you fathead!"
-Chris-

 

[schaubild]

The Cube is not the same, it has fewer layers and has a different layer order.

 

[ruben]

I use the R3 almost exclusively since more than a year, together with the dedicated developers (which are are rebranded Maco products, but that is an open published fact every dealer knows). Couldn't be happier. Compared to the Acros it is a little grainier, but the possibility to use a wide range of ISO's when shooting but only carrying one type of film is much more important, with 6x9 the quality reserve is big enough. And: the R3 is by far the best film for long night exposures, it reacts very well to spotlights and heavy contrasts.
Communication with Maco has always been easy and very open, even when resolving problems.

I don't talk about products that I haven't tried myself and stopped listening to the "experts" that spread secondhand knowledge long time ago.

Dear Friend,
Could you make for us a rounded basic entry level comparizon of R3 and Tri-X ?

Best,
Ruben

 

[bmattock]

Hey guys, believe what you like - I don't want to burst your bubble.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[ruben]

I KINDLY INVITE ALL COMRADES PARTICIPATING IN THIS THREAD TO KEEP THEIR BEST POSITIVE SPIRIT AND WRITE ACCORDINGLY. A LOT OF US WANT TO LEARN HERE !

Best,
Ruben
Vintage Photographer,
3-star RFF Virtual Wowser

 

[nrb]

I guess we'll all end up using chinese film... Even though at present I can't find nothing but Kodak, Ilford and Fuji for sale around here.

 

[muihlinn]

It might be, maybe not. I've personally tested the Rollei Pan25, R3 and Retro 400.

Pan25 has little to do with efke emulsions. Also little to do with Agfa. Same with Retro 400, being similar to APX400 it does not mathes the Agfa`s film but it's close and it's a great film. R3 is fine if you get used to it. I only got a few frames right, so I'm giving up with it.

Rollei hasn't a factory, has specifications, has QA, and has MACO to deal with it makers. Who cares about who really makes the film if it comes right and great?. On the other hands, I don't need to see any factory, just need an honest testing on materials. Mines don't point to be exactly already know films, but I'd like to hear from others who really had their hands on them.

 

[titrisol]

mmm I was under the impression that the RETROS 100 and 400 was APX that Mahn/MACo bought the remaining master rolls and is now cutting and selling.

 

[bmattock]

I KINDLY INVITE ALL COMRADES PARTICIPATING IN THIS THREAD TO KEEP THEIR BEST POSITIVE SPIRIT AND WRITE ACCORDINGLY. A LOT OF US WANT TO LEARN HERE !

Best,
Ruben
Vintage Photographer,
3-star RFF Virtual Wowser

Ruben,

So far, all you seem to want to hear is what you want to hear. I'm sorry if telling the truth is 'not having a positive spirit'.

Good luck with Rollei film. I'm sure it is great.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[bmattock]

Rollei hasn't a factory, has specifications, has QA, and has MACO to deal with it makers. Who cares about who really makes the film if it comes right and great?

No one would care, as long as they didn't relabel inexpensive film as if it were something unique and charge higher prices.

Should people not be informed about that? It seems that you folks really don't want to know about it.

So go ahead and pay higher prices for 'Rollei' brand Efke film. It's ok with me, honest.

I just thought a little honesty would be welcomed. I don't want to ruin anyone's fantasy.

Should old wine in new bottles cost more? I don't think so, but hey, whatever.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

 

[schaubild]

Bonne finale RJ 🙂
(mais Francais c'est pas mon premier language, lire fonctionne bien, mais parler... ;-(

Ruben: I never used Tri-X, I can only compare directly to Acros, Maco films (I love the Ort25!), Gigabitfilm and the Ilford range. Quality wise the R3 could replace all Ilfords (personal opinion!), never had a look back and gave the remaining films to friends. Difficult to compare to the others as they are specialized films. And as already mentioned, the Acros has visibly finer grain, my favourite for 8x10.

 

[ruben]

Ruben,

So far, all you seem to want to hear is what you want to hear. I'm sorry if telling the truth is 'not having a positive spirit'.

Good luck with Rollei film. I'm sure it is great.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

No my brother Bill. In principle, "the truth" can be written in different styles. The style to be avoided is to slap the other guy challenging our knowledge. The style to be adopted is to take into account the other guy must be basing himself on something, or thinking he is, and therefore ask for further explanation.

But going back to your assestments, let me see if I follow you:

a) R3 is not a new formula film, it existed before under other name.

b) It is no longer in production. It exists only in stocks, that after gone R3 will be gone.

c) It was not made in Germany (This for me is also not important)

Kindly clarify.
Best,
Ruben

 

[titrisol]

Schaubild, have you any pictures on R3 in your gallery that we could use as comparison?

 

[schaubild]

Almost every B&W, non XPan image is taken on Rollei R3. Except 3 with Ort25 and one Delta.

But: it's kind of useless to compare images that are 800 pixels wide for film quality issues. Only real life prints can show clear differences and characteristics, on screen you look at the result of the workflow through scanner and Photoshop and massive content reduction (down from 13000x8800, what might that do to the grain?), not to be speaking about different screen calibrations...

 

[bmattock]

a) R3 is not a new formula film

Rollei announced it in November of 2004, so it is well over a year old, nearly a year and a half. I am not saying that R3 is not a 'new' formula - I am saying R3 has been on the market for awhile now.

b) It is no longer in production. It exists only in stocks, that after gone R3 will be gone.

The Maco / Tura film stocks that were made by Agfa are obviously no longer in production. I do not know if any of the Rollei films are currently old Agfa stocks. If they are, then yes, those films are no longer in production.

c) It was not made in Germany (This for me is also not important)

There is no photographic film made in Germany anymore that I am aware of.

And I agree - that does not matter.

What does matter to me is this - if Rollei Pan 25 is actually Efke 25, why would someone want to pay the higher prices Rollei charges just to have it say "Rollei" on the box?

If the film is *not* the same as Efke 25, then that is a different story. However, I have seen no evidence that this is the case.

My first point in all of this was to point out that unfortunately, Rollei film is not a 'new manufacturer' of film. There is no one picking up the gauntlet and going into production from scratch. I wish that was not true, but it is.

My second and remaining point was to point out that if two items are the same, and one costs less, why buy the more expensive one?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks