Agfa Paper reborn?

[Sanders McNew]

I don't know about the film but Adox and Maco are trying to resurrect the Agfa paper works. Robert Vonk, of Fotohuis in the Netherlands, confirmed this on the APUG list: "There are negotiations going on between some investors, Rollei/Maco and some third parties to have a restart of the production unit for Agfa MCP/MCC."

That remark led to two long posts by Adox. I'll paste them both below.

The first:

We are involved in this venture of revitalising what used to be Agfa products since August, yet at this point it is too early to make any type of an announcement.
I wonder actually who spread this word at this stage as it is way too early to do when you have not even ripened all emulsions fully.
All I can confirm is that the above named companies are at this stage not involved neither financally nor with knowledge or support.
One of them has announced interest in buying the readymade paper last week. That´s it for them.

I hope that this venture will be succesfull and will surely communicate more details as soon as they become available.

Where the paper will be coated has yet to be determined. At this point the emulsionists are working on the emulsions only and use small lab test coaters.
The grain structure looks promising, that is all we can say at this point.
More details will hoepfully become available around february 2007.

Regards and merry Christmas to everyone,

Mirko

ADOX FOTOIMPEX

The second was in response to a query asking if this meant Adox would by using the original Agfa recipes and emulsions:

Dear Jim,

yes this it what it means.....BUT in photo emulsioning it is not only the recipe but also the kitchen that is important and it (the kitchen) needs to be operated constantly.
Even Agfa itself was not able to reproduce the last APX production run which took place in early 2004 on their very own identical equipment in late 2005 after a break of only 1,5 years.
The film came out differently and needed to be touched up with the emulsionists "magic stick" (please spare me the details now) but this is why the last batches out now differ from the ones dated 2006 and 2007.
If it is better or worse depends on the vote of the consumers. Sofar they are happy but the scientists have measured slightly substandard values even after touch up.

The old Agfa kettle to make APX for example took 1000 Liters and was built in 1965. This kettle has repair patches over and over, smells bad and is history now.

What we are trying to do is running original recipes but on new, much smaller gear built in 2002-2004.
The machines used are from the former agfa research departement which are basically a copy of the original larger machinery on miniature scale (40 liters).
Yet even these kettles can produce per anno enough emulsion for hundreds of thousands of films or tens of thousands of sqm of paper if they run day and night.

The new equipment is fully computer controled and infrared equipped and if we manage to run the emulsions on this we have achieved what we aim for: micro scale production of highest quality films with most modern technology available at workable prices to ensure the availability of fine b/w products for many many years to come.

Will it be similar to the original ? Answer: Yes.
Will it be 100% like the original ? Answer: Most likely no.
Can it be better than the original: yes !

Last question: When will it be available ?
Answer: I really can´t say.

We did not want to communicate this too early because this really is an ambitious project and there are many challenges to face still but since it is impossible to keep it totally secret and before rumours cause more harm then good I decided to publish this today.
We almost have everything we need. Now we need time and a little bit of luck.

Regards,

Mirko

ADOX

So, if you're hoping for a return of Agfa MCC paper, this is hopeful news indeed.

Sanders McNew