agfa apx100 quality?

arnebeck · Dec 12, 2007

Hi, This is my first post here and I hope somebody can help me...
I've been using agfa's APX 100 film in studio for a long time, and developed it in both D76 and Neutol. This has given excellent results in my opinion. Smooth transitions, great tone, and beautiful grain structure, even on Ilford paper( used Agfa's earlier) Now it's near impossible to get more Agfa products, and I've tried some of Ilford's films and paper for a while (in same developers), but the results are, in my opinion, unfortunately not good enough. Are there anybody who can give me a clue what to use, instead of Agfa products, to get close to the same results?
Thank you,
Arne Beck

JLP · Dec 12, 2007

Hi Arne,
Welcome to APUG. If you haven't tried yet i would suggest Fomapan 100 it is supposedly very glose to the APX100 i use both but not in the same format so difficult to compare directly. And actually come to think of it not even using the same developer.

jan

Peter Black · Dec 12, 2007

Hi Arne & welcome to APUG. I'm no expert on APX100, but they do say that Rollei Retro is "almost" the same film.

Shawn Dougherty · Dec 12, 2007

I got hooked on 35mm APX100 not long before the fallout. I developed it in 1:100 semi-stand in Rodinal according to a friend's recommendation and found it bullet proof with a smooth tonality and good contrast as you say. The closest thing I've found to that combo is Ilford Delta100 in Pyroct HD, (haven't tried it in Rodinal). It might be slightly smoother in gradation but quite close. Good luck! Shawn

Andrew Moxom · Dec 12, 2007

APX100 was discontinued as of 2005. Any remaining stock is drying up and typically hard to find. What did happen with the last batches of agfa emulsions was that Rollei purchased them and struck a deal with MACO to produced their line of films called Rollei retro 100 and retro 400 respectively. They are real Agfa emulsions coated onto MACO film base. The 120 versions have a tendencey to curl quite a bit more than their predecessors, but I can say that they perform the same.

There are 35mm and 120 versions available, but no sheet versions.

My own recipe was to use Tetenal Ultrafin (NOT the special version) at 1:30 dilution and souped the film for 12 minutes @ 68 deg farenheit . I rate the film at 100. Make sure you presoak, and agitate for 3 to 5 minutes, dump it, then pour in the developer.

THe good news is that Agfa has outsourced production of Rodinal film dev to AO company and it is available for purchase. Similarly the Neutol WA paper developer is available.

For paper though, it is a different story. Agfa also got rid of their main paper... Multicontrast classic FB or MCC111. There is no viable replacement that matches it completely, but the ilford warmtone paper is close.

That said, ADOX, a German company has sourced a bunch of hte Agfa equpiment, recipes, and staff, and started a testing program to reintroduce the MCC111 paper. MAny people on APUG, myself included tested, and it seems viable. They are going through the logistics of reintroduction and depending on how popular it is received, may even extend this to old Agfa films like APX100 and 400. Again, it all depends on the success of their MCC paper.

Hope this helps. At any rate, what this will do is force you to try other materials. Believe it or not, there are mre choices available to us for film and papers than a few years ago when Agfa was around. New companies like Foma, and Fotokemika have very good emulsions and products to use.

arnebeck · Dec 12, 2007

Thank you for your quick replies! Forgot to say I use 120 film. I'll be sure to try some of your advice as soon as possible, nice to have some directions, there's still a lot of analog material to try out there)

AgX · Dec 12, 2007

Andrew Moxom said:
What did happen with the last batches of agfa emulsions was that Rollei purchased them and struck a deal with MACO to produced their line of films called Rollei retro 100 and retro 400 respectively.

There is no Rollei to purchase film. It is Maco to purchase any film and brand some of their products as "Rollei".

srs5694 · Dec 12, 2007

My experience with both is limited, and based mostly on 35mm, but I concur with JLP that Fomapan 100 is the closest you'll get to Agfa APX 100, at least in terms of subjective overall "feel." There is one caveat, though, at least for 35mm: The Foma films have poor anti-halation characteristics. This isn't supposed to be a problem for MF, though. In the case of MF, Foma films come out of the tank with a distinct blue color, and this appears to be normal. It's mostly just something to be aware of so that you don't waste time and water trying to rinse it away.

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 12, 2007

Andrew is correct with Rollei Retro being the same emulsions as Agfa APX. The film I replaced Agfa with was Ilford FP4+ in medium speed and Tri-X (400) in high speed. I love them both, and even if Agfa APX came back I would not switch again.
I develop my film in Pyrocat-MC. I used to use Pyrocat-HD before that with near indistinguishable results. I get very good shadow separation with this combination, excellent highlight compensation, and midtone gradations that are beautiful.
At first I lamented Agfa's demise, I was literally grieving. Now I'm at the point where I don't even care anymore. There are so many options, and I'm of the opinion that you can get great results from almost any film out there, given you spend enough time with it, get to know it, and learn how to use it to get the results you want.

What is it about the Ilford film you don't like? I'm a little curious to know, especially since you seem to have quite a bit of experience (which I don't, only six years). Our tastes are all different.

- Thomas

jim appleyard · Dec 12, 2007

APX 100 was my favorite in that speed. Now that it's just about gone, we have to switch to something else.

As mentioned above there are lots of fine films still out there, but don't forget Kodak Plus-X. It's been around for a long time and does very well in the studio.

I like it in both D-76 and Rodinal.

david b · Dec 12, 2007

I currently have 339 rolls of medium format APX100 in my fridge.

When this runs out in the year 2024, I will switch to FP9+, the
latest version of FP4+.

Shawn Dougherty · Dec 13, 2007

david b said:
When this runs out in the year 2024, I will switch to FP9+, the
latest version of FP4+.

I sure hope you're right.

Aurelien · Dec 13, 2007

All the Agfa chemical range is still available, since the chemical facility has been bought by a&o imaging. So this i s not a problem. It's easy to find APX 100 and 400: you may buy rollei retro that ARE the last APX.
If you want to replace it, indeed, try Foma 100, or FP4+. They are very beautiful films. But you will obtain the best results with not the same dev as for apx100.

pentaxuser · Dec 13, 2007

The OP, based on his reply is probably only interested in 120 but for information Mathers of Lancashire seems to have an inexhaustable supply of both APX100 and 400 in 35mm. Not sure if they will send it beyond the UK.

pentaxuser

toadhall · Dec 14, 2007

arnebeck said:
Thank you for your quick replies! Forgot to say I use 120 film. I'll be sure to try some of your advice as soon as possible, nice to have some directions, there's still a lot of analog material to try out there)

Too bad that you use 120 (well, not really, but in this case .... ) because if you used 35mm, Ultrafineonline still has rolls of Agfa APX 100 and 400 for those that can roll their own.

John

Snapshot · Dec 15, 2007

I'm really starting to appreciate APX 100 and it's unfortunate that it's out of production. However, if you want to purchase some remaining stock Ultrafine sells APX 100 and APX 400. I have 15 bulk rolls sitting in the freezer. Hopefully, it will last a while.

rusty71 · Dec 15, 2007

I got a bulk roll of AGFAPAN 400 from Ultrafineonline last summer. There were no frame numbers! No film markings of any kind to indicate that it was even AGFAPAN. Plus the stuff seems old and a bit fogged; so use caution with that company.

Snapshot · Dec 15, 2007

rusty71 said:
I got a bulk roll of AGFAPAN 400 from Ultrafineonline last summer. There were no frame numbers! No film markings of any kind to indicate that it was even AGFAPAN. Plus the stuff seems old and a bit fogged; so use caution with that company.

Agfa APX 400 will appear to have fog but in fact it has a grey base assist in preventing light piping. It's my understanding that Ultrafine purchased a large volume of APX 400 and cut some bulk rolls. I've purchased a few of these rolls since the price was very good ($18 per bulk roll). I've had no issues with their APX 400 and it performs just like regular APX 400, sans the Agfa markings.

brooklynkid · Dec 16, 2007

I was always a great fan of APX 100, but when I heard that it had been discontinued I immediately started looking for a replacement. So far, I found that Fomapan 100 developed in full strength Kodak X-tol gives a result equivelent to APX 100 in full strength X-tol. My initial tests indicated that Efke 100 in full strength X-tol give a grain result similar to road gravel. Hope that this helps.

Rolleijoe · Dec 17, 2007

arnebeck said:
Hi, This is my first post here and I hope somebody can help me...
I've been using agfa's APX 100 film in studio for a long time, and developed it in both D76 and Neutol. This has given excellent results in my opinion. Smooth transitions, great tone, and beautiful grain structure, even on Ilford paper( used Agfa's earlier) Now it's near impossible to get more Agfa products, and I've tried some of Ilford's films and paper for a while (in same developers), but the results are, in my opinion, unfortunately not good enough. Are there anybody who can give me a clue what to use, instead of Agfa products, to get close to the same results?
Thank you,
Arne Beck

The closest to APXx 100 is Fomapan 100 (or if purchased from Freestyle in California, packaged for them as Arista EDU at an even cheaper price)!

Neutol is a paper developer, do you not mean Rodinal? Nothing Ilford comes even close. Also for a paper closer to Agfa, try Fotokemika Varycon (also from Freestyle). Or maybe Foma papers. I prefer Fotokemika Varycon Fiber, just purchased a 50 sheet box of 20x24 to do some printing after the holidays.

Good luck!

srs5694 · Dec 17, 2007

Rolleijoe said:
The closest to APXx 100 is Fomapan 100 (or if purchased from Freestyle in California, packaged for them as Arista EDU at an even cheaper price)!

Actually, Freestyle's Arista.EDU film was made by Forte; it's Arista.EDU Ultra (emphasis added) that's made by Foma. I'm not sure if Freestyle has any of the Forte-made Arista.EDU left; since Forte went under, I'm sure their stock has been dwindling, and may be exhausted by now. This is a very common point of confusion -- not surprisingly, given the similarity in names.

Click to expand...

Rolleijoe · Dec 17, 2007

srs5694 said:
Rolleijoe said:

The closest to APXx 100 is Fomapan 100 (or if purchased from Freestyle in California, packaged for them as Arista EDU at an even cheaper price)!

Actually, Freestyle's Arista.EDU film was made by Forte; it's Arista.EDU Ultra (emphasis added) that's made by Foma. I'm not sure if Freestyle has any of the Forte-made Arista.EDU left; since Forte went under, I'm sure their stock has been dwindling, and may be exhausted by now. This is a very common point of confusion -- not surprisingly, given the similarity in names.

Click to expand...

You're right, it is EDU Ultra, but since it is the only EDU listed, and says made in Czech Republic (rather than Hungary), that makes it Fomapan by default.

The only Forte I saw listed was marked as Forte in Forte boxes. No problem.
I'm just glad Arista's not Ilford anymore. They (Ilford) act as if they're the only kid on the block when it comes to b&w materials.

Click to expand...

John Kasaian · Dec 17, 2007

The Freestyle packaged APX is IIRC Arista II. I believe it is still listed on Freestyle's website and is dirt cheap I'm still working on a box of 100 APX privately labelled for a local camera store. Great stuff!

agfa apx100 quality?

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