Agfa Paper reborn?

[Toyon]

I received a note from a manager at Maco photographic in Germany that though they had no plans to manufacture Agfa paper, an announcement had been published at Photokina 2006 that a company planned to reintroduce Agfa MCC in "Spring of 2007". He says that this will be, "Original, unlicensed production." This could be great news, as I have been unable to find a paper that has Agfa's unique qualities. Does anyone have any information to add to this somewhat mysterious message?

[Arne Croell]

"Original, unlicensed production" could in principle be done by Gevaert in Belgium. In October I visited the Fotoimpex store in Berlin, and they told me that they were contemplating commissioning a new run of MCC once the Maco material cut from the last Agfa rolls has been sold, but at higher price (about 30%).

[false_Aesthetic]

"Original, unlicensed production"


What does this mean exactly?

[Donald Miller]

Although I am not able to confirm this, I am not at all surprised by the announcement. JandC Photo is going to be producing film. They procurred coating equipment somewhere in Europe. I would not be surprised if it were the Agfa production line.

According to John at JandC...he will rock the photographic world. I have enough knowledge and respect for his business acumen to not discount this assertion.

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

Although I am not able to confirm this, I am not at all surprised by the announcement. JandC Photo is going to be producing film. They procurred coating equipment somewhere in Europe. I would not be surprised if it were the Agfa production line.

According to John at JandC...he will rock the photographic world. I have enough knowledge and respect for his business acumen to not discount this assertion.


Hmm, I`d love APX 100 in 8x10! :p

[Ole Tjugen]

Hmm, I`d love APX 100 in 8x10! :p

I do love it in 18x24cm :p - and 18x24cm. And 9x12cm and 6.5x9cm. :D

[Amund BLix Aaeng]

I do love it in 18x24cm :p - and 18x24cm. And 9x12cm and 6.5x9cm. :D

That would be something.. :)


Btw(In Norwegian, sorry guys) Fikk en mail fra han som importerer Foma til Norge nå:
"Fomapan 200ASA 5x7" blir 193 kroner per boks á 50 ark og 410 kroner for 8x10"

Det er ikke verst! Har brukt en haug med Foma 200 i det siste, og har ikke sett snurten til defekter som jeg har opplevd med Forte. Efke og JandC Pro 100. Det virker som Foma 200 er av høyere mekanisk kvalitet, emulsjonen blir ikke så myk som f.eks Efke. Ypperlig som "hverdagsfilm" :)

[Sanders McNew]

I ported this thread over to APUG and provoked an interesting response. Here's the link to the APUG thread:

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?p=408414#post408414

Adox ... JandC ... I gather that Agfa's modern paper-coating facility, near Koln (Cologne), remains intact. I don't know if this is the facility ADOX and JandC are considering, but it would be awfully good news if it were.

Sanders.

[Donald Qualls]

Adox ... JandC ... I gather that Agfa's modern paper-coating facility, near Koln (Cologne), remains intact. I don't know if this is the facility ADOX and JandC are considering, but it would be awfully good news if it were.

The most current information I've seen was that J&C/Fotoimpex had purchased (or purchased a substantial interest in) the grossly underutilized Forte facility -- but I'd put that at "rumor" status, compared to "straight from the source" statements from J&C that they intend to introduce an ISO 25 full-panchro film, and a green-blind IR of reasonable speed with a deeper sensitivity than anything short of HIE in their coating facility -- as well as a full line of ISO 100-200-400 panchro films.

Of course, their use of the ADOX name for both rebranded Efke and "other source" films like the ADOX CMS 20 confuses the issue a bit, but any new film is good news, if they can make it fly...

[Ted Harris]

I can confirm from the source that Fotoimpex are delivering ISO 100, 200 and 400 films in 4x5, 5x7, 8x10, 4x10, 11x14, 7x17, 12x20 and a few other sizes.

See the table and article in the January issue of View Camera for a comprehensive film availability list. BTW, this fotoimpex may or may not make it into the table as I just got the info but we are trying to make the addition.

[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