AGFA Black & White photo chemicals distributed by Maco Photo Products!

[WRSchmalfuss]

GOOD NEWS!

The a&o imaging solutions GmbH, and Maco Photo Products, have agreed to an close partnership, for the sales and distribution of the a&o's range of B&W photo chemicals with its high reputation, such as RODINAL, NEUTOL, AGEFIX or SISTAN, which is continue to be procuded, using the original AGFA formulas.

This co-operation started up in late December 2006, and will enable the international customer base to source the famous AGFA quality B&W chemicals, together with high quality B&W papers, and ROLLEI films, offered in the extensive MACO assortment, thus creating a new synergies effect for the market.

a&o imaging solutions GmbH, is part of the a&o group, with approx. 4.500 employees in Europe, and produces original AGFA quality, color and black & white photo chemical, as well as, organic specialty products in the former AGFA PHOTO plant in Vaihingen/Enz, Germany. The company also offers full services for maintenance, repair, and spare parts, to users of photo minilabs.

MACO PHOTO PRODUCTS is very successful specialized in the world-wide distribution of B&W products, since 35 years. In close collaboration with their suppliers, and local distribution partners, MACO offers an ideal combination of a wide portfolio of top-branded products, including a&o / AGFA black & white photo chemicals, AGFA and ROLLEI photo papers, and AGFA APX or ROLLEI film materials.

Further information from: Maco Photo Products, Brookstieg 4, 22145 Hamburg-Stapelfeld/Germany, phone 0049 40 / 23 70 08-88, fax 0049 40 / 23 70 08-488, E-mail: photo@mahn.net or under: www.mahn.net.;)

 

[jstraw]

This is a breath of fresh air! Though the pedant in me is compelled to point out that the Agfa formula for Rodinal is not the original formula for Rodinal.

I'd love to hear something about U.S. distribution.

 

[Ian Grant]

The link ishttp://www.mahn.net/

There's a typo in the original post

Ian

 

[percepts]

well just to add to the mix:

http://www.integrawest.com

the above deal with a&o minilab chemicals and whilst at first you might think that's not relevant here, minilab chemicals include agfa fx-univesal fixer which is for use in the colour process. This fixer is very mildly alkaline and works perfectly well with black and white processes and is very cheap and is suitable for use with staning developers.

In the UK Tudor photographic are the wholesale company for a&o selling this stuff. Their phone number is 01926 816900

 

[WRSchmalfuss]

AGFA Chemistry!

MACO PHOTO PRODUCTS under www.mahn.net, at the end of January 2007, will publish a new price list, which will then cover all new from A&O manufactured AGFA chemicals. The prospective customers, should understand the fact, that a production in comaratively smaller quantities, are considerd with a German middle size manufacturer, have othe conditions than with the mass production in a large company, and also with the fact, considers that in the former times so much attractive AGFA chemistry prices contribute, also was part to the fall of the company. The new proction takes place in a new design, while maintaining the proven AGFA company quality.

In the transitional phase SALES OF EXISTING SUPPLIES and INTRODUCTION ON HE MARKET of the NEW PRODUCTS, are substantial nmbers of items available, comparatively inexpensive AGFA articles, which was transferred to the important part by MONOCHROM in Germany (also in the shop in Berlin), and in the dispatch with FOTO-RIEGLER in Austria.

NOTE: Thus, it should itself worth to ask there for favorable AGFA company
chemistry.


Regards

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Also, from what I understand, A&O Rodinal is the same as the more modern Rodinal...but no one can be sure until they get some to test. I'm still working on my old bottle of Agfa stuff.

 

[Ian Grant]

Stephanie

The A&O Rodinal is Agfa Rodinal Yes it's the real thing ! Exactly the same. Unlike the stuff masqerading as Rodinal RO-9 which is just re-badged Calbe RO-9 and a pre WW11 Agfa version of Rodinal

Ian

Also, from what I understand, A&O Rodinal is the same as the more modern Rodinal...but no one can be sure until they get some to test. I'm still working on my old bottle of Agfa stuff.

 

[hal9000]

... pre WW11 Agfa version ...

I hope we remain in pre WW11 times for a long time to come ;-)

 

[Mark Layne]

I hope we remain in pre WW11 times for a long time to come ;-)

Especially as it is the old stuff which keeps for ever-not the new version

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I'm sitting on a couple thousand 8x10 sheets of MCC 111 but I am running out of 16x20. Does anyone know where/how to place orders with MACO for delivery in the United States?

 

[PHOTOTONE]

I wouldn't count on Agfa paper being newly manufactured on the former Agfa equipment preserved by fotoimpex. AFAIK what was preserved is the former Research coating apparatus from Agfa, which I think would be too small for anything other than film stocks. I could be wrong, though. I think the production coating lines at Agfa were scrapped.

 

[GeorgK]

Oh my G*d. This topic has now been discussed a hundred times on the net, but people seem to be very resistant against real information, and prefer guessing.
So, once more: Agfa Gevaert is a different company than AgfaPhoto, and ist still alive and kicking. They still coat film like microfilm (Agfa Copex), and sometimes they seem do to special (or slightly modified) coatings for resellers like MACO (e.g. Rollei25).
Everything else sold as Agfa at the moment is old stock from the last production runs 2004/2005. Sometimes originally packaged, sometimes cut and spooled by 3rd-party companies post mortem.

The "rebirth" of Agfa paper (although under a different brand) is defintively a serious project. Sure, the "research coating machine" is smaller than the original one, but I think this is not a bad thing in the actual market. For example, regarding to information (mostly in german forums) from people involved in this project (e.g. Fotoimpex boss Mirko Boedekker), the emulsion kettle is 50 liters (compared to the old 1000 l from the sixties). A 20-fold downsizing seems reasonable.
These guys seem to have invested a lot of resources into this project, and I do not think they did this for fun. It is also very important for them economically, as they distribute papers under their own labels, but sources for paper for re-labelling are rapidly drying out.

There is no information on the re-start of film production.

Regards
Georg

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

..and if they (Agfas coating lines) weren´t demolished yet we couldn´t save them.

By reading over some posts lately, I am under the impression that you guys care a lot about coating and little about emulsioning.

There are plenty of coating lines in this world capable of coating 8 layers+ which have undercapacity and thus would be very happy to coat for anyone putting money on the table. If you bed the process in you get what you require acording to your specs. Yes, you waste some emulsion at the beginning to get it tweaked but then it runs off the line and runs and runs...

If you can provide the right emulsions you can have coated what you need.

Films, papers, nicotine-bandaids, carglass-sunshades and many more products.

But again. It wasn´t me saying we are almost there yet. We aren´t.
We hope for the best and all tests look promising.
This is an attempt by more people than just Fotoimpex and we all spend our money and time on it. If we suceed we hope to get back what we invested.

If not, then at least we tried and carry on what we did before: enjoying life and taking b&w pictures.

Regards from Berlin,

Mirko

BTW who ever distributes Agfa chemistry manufactured by a&o does not change a thing about it beeing manufactured by a&o

 

[Amund]

There is no information on the re-start of film production.

Regards
Georg

There is! From Mirko:

"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"

 

[Petzi]

Also, from what I understand, A&O Rodinal is the same as the more modern Rodinal...but no one can be sure until they get some to test. I'm still working on my old bottle of Agfa stuff.

There has never been a change to Agfa Rodinal when AgfaPhoto was bought out, and not after the insolvency either, and even though the ownership has changed, it is still Agfa Rodinal bearing the Agfa logo. There is no such thing as A&O Rodinal.

 

[Petzi]

Especially as it is the old stuff which keeps for ever-not the new version

I assume you can't back up that statement with facts?

 

[WRSchmalfuss]

Get in touch with MACO!

HI Sanders McNew!

Very easy per E-mail: photo@mahn.net!


Regards

 

[Paul.]

Mirco,
All power to your elbow sir, you have my best wishes and if you succeed you will have some of my money.
Regards Paul.

 

[WRSchmalfuss]

RE-START

Oh my G*d. This topic has now been discussed a hundred times on the net, but people seem to be very resistant against real information, and prefer guessing.
So, once more: Agfa Gevaert is a different company than AgfaPhoto, and ist still alive and kicking. They still coat film like microfilm (Agfa Copex), and sometimes they seem do to special (or slightly modified) coatings for resellers like MACO (e.g. Rollei25).
Everything else sold as Agfa at the moment is old stock from the last production runs 2004/2005. Sometimes originally packaged, sometimes cut and spooled by 3rd-party companies post mortem.

The "rebirth" of Agfa paper (although under a different brand) is defintively a serious project. Sure, the "research coating machine" is smaller than the original one, but I think this is not a bad thing in the actual market. For example, regarding to information (mostly in german forums) from people involved in this project (e.g. Fotoimpex boss Mirko Boedekker), the emulsion kettle is 50 liters (compared to the old 1000 l from the sixties). A 20-fold downsizing seems reasonable.
These guys seem to have invested a lot of resources into this project, and I do not think they did this for fun. It is also very important for them economically, as they distribute papers under their own labels, but sources for paper for re-labelling are rapidly drying out.

There is no information on the re-start of film production.

Regards
Georg

In this connection , the newest announcement already permits an deep view on MACO's integration of world-wide driving out organisation concerning the international continuation of the AGFA chemistry, under MACO's direction. MACO is already very deeply merged into the old and above all, new AGFA subsequent organisation, contrary to FOTOIMPEX. And, MACO never made an secret from the fact, that important films of the ROLLEI FILM ASSORTMENT are manufactured by the AGFA GEVAERT, Belgium. AGFA GEVAERT (www.agfa.com) is independently from the AGFA PHOTO GmbH, Germany, therefore not affected by the insolvency. In addition AGFA GEVAERT with up-to-date 15.000 employees, was already for many years the large partner in the international AGFA company enterprise. With MACO one can get ORIGINAL AGFA APX 100 and APX 400, at present still available in million-quantities for order. The original AGFA film boxes are printed on, by the AGFA company, with expiration date of 2010. The last supplies from this production were cut down as ROLL FILMS, and are available today in substantial numbers (more than 80.000 pieces in each case) packed as ROLLEI RETRO 100 and RETRO 400. Of course, MACO is merged due to (for many years,intensive,proven) the proximity to the AGFA, into many future steps, concerning re-start of AGFA factory techniques procedure. And due to the substantial sales with MACO FILMS, also MACO possesses the strength, to be again more solid for these new activities, as an reliable partner.
The proximity from MACO to large American dealers is to be addressed perhaps once openly. So is FREESTYLE, L.A., already since over an decade, a reliable partner for MACO in the U.S.A., and will become also in the future an important role selling ROLLEI films, as well as AGFA decay products. An important role also, European dealers take a strong role in this connection, e.g. SILVERPRINT and ROBERT WHITE in UK, PROPHOT and MX2 in France, like also FOTOIMPEX and MONOCHROM in Germany. In order to mention only some current MACO partners.

 

[dxphoto]

I just bought a bottle of rodinal from freestyle. different from the bottle I bought from them last Nov, this one is not packed in the agfa red box. There is not develop info either. also the color of the liquid seems to be lighter than the one I ordered last time.

any clue?? On the bottle it says a&o imaging solution.

 

[haris]

I bought Rodinal from fotoimpex about month ago. It is in the red carton box, there is written Agfa on box and in box there is developing info booklet (together with bottle of developer of course ).