Agfa Overload

[Paddy]

After receiving a long awaited call that my paper order was in, I popped by my local photo-supply wholesaler this afternoon. A bittersweet site lay before me,...stacks of boxes of newly arrived Agfa paper ; FB & RC from 5x7 to 20x24! And film,...and chemicals too!!! But the reality is that practically all of the paper has been spoken for, having been pre-paid on back order.

I know it's been oft repeated, but it's such a shame that a company that made these great products will soon be a mere historical blip on the radar screen. It's not as if this kind of thing hasn't happened before.

Truly, nothing lasts forever.


n.b. oops! I realised after the fact that this should have been posted in "product availability".

 

[Sportera]

You must pick up the pieces and march on.

 

[rbarker]

RIP, Agfa.

I dealt with them back in the days that they would deal direct with small pro shops with no minimum purchase requirements. Alas.

 

[david b]

Ilford baby, Ilford.

Get used to it.

BTW, Ilford makes great stuff.

 

[agGNOME]

Yep, they made some great materials (118,neutol,sistan,viradon,apx100); at least some of the chemicals may soon be available with a&o. Almost felt the itch to search for leftovers, but I think it's important to support the here and now.

 

[Sportera]

I use Ilford films,fixer, and paper. I have never been impressed with their developers (paper and film) its been awhile but most of the liquid developers were diluted 1:4 if I remember. Way to expensive for me. I prefer rodinal and xtol For paper I like dektol and Edwal Platinum.

 

[antielectrons]

I dont think you can really talk about quality in terms of brands, they all have good stuff. Best way to think is in terms of film/developer/paper combinations. Each produces a different result and all results are valid, depends what you are after.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I'll miss agfa too. I jumped on late, although have fanatically enjoyed rodinal for years. I learned of agfa paper only semi-recently (within the last two years) having purchased a box on a whim. I was blown away! It tones so nicely in selenium..

And the price was always right.

 

[Changeling1]

After receiving a long awaited call that my paper order was in, I popped by my local photo-supply wholesaler this afternoon. A bittersweet site lay before me,...stacks of boxes of newly arrived Agfa paper ; FB & RC from 5x7 to 20x24! And film,...and chemicals too!!! But the reality is that practically all of the paper has been spoken for, having been pre-paid on back order.

I know it's been oft repeated, but it's such a shame that a company that made these great products will soon be a mere historical blip on the radar screen. It's not as if this kind of thing hasn't happened before.

Truly, nothing lasts forever.


n.b. oops! I realised after the fact that this should have been posted in "product availability".

Just remember, the demise of Agfa Photo didn't have to happen. Film and paper division executives, managers, and employees were willing to buy the film and paper manufacturing facilities and stay in business but Agfa would not let them use the Agfa name, or anything close to it, in the selling price. Truly a shame.

 

[Petzi]

After receiving a long awaited call that my paper order was in, I popped by my local photo-supply wholesaler this afternoon. A bittersweet site lay before me,...stacks of boxes of newly arrived Agfa paper ; FB & RC from 5x7 to 20x24! And film,...and chemicals too!!! But the reality is that practically all of the paper has been spoken for, having been pre-paid on back order.

Some of this stuff is still available from stock but it's located in Germany so shipping cost may be an issue. Of course a bigger order will result in lower shipping cost, especially when ground shipped (will take a month or so.) You can buy films and photo paper from Agfa on eBay or if you need anything they don't list, PM me and I call them, or send them e-mail.

The chemicals will be made in the future.

I was told by an employee today that truckloads of equipment are being hauled away from Agfa's film and paper coating site at this time. Some parts are scrapped, and others are sold. The huge paper coating machine is still there.

This is all very sad indeed. I read that Fuji wants to close photo materials production in Tilburg, so unless Kodak still has a factory, there is no longer any production of color photo materials in Europe at all (except for Ilfochrome in Switzerland maybe.)

 

[Petzi]

Just remember, the demise of Agfa Photo didn't have to happen. Film and paper division executives, managers, and employees were willing to buy the film and paper manufacturing facilities and stay in business but Agfa would not let them use the Agfa name, or anything close to it, in the selling price. Truly a shame.

This is not correct. The buy-out from Agfa had already happened, but the board director was a failure. In fact, he had permission from Agfa to use the Agfa name, but he demanded an outrageous fee to license it to potential buyers of the entire company, after the new AgfaPhoto became insolvent.

 

[Maine-iac]

Ilford baby, Ilford.

Get used to it.

BTW, Ilford makes great stuff.

Ilford does make great stuff. I've been a user of their films and some of their papers for years. BUT, nobody to my knowledge, makes a paper like Agfa's MCC Classic-- a variable contrast, warm-neutral emulsion on a bright white base.

Ilford's Warmtone has a great emulsion, but the base stock is too ivory, making the overall effect too warm for many subjects and tastes. Their MGFB cannot hold a candle to Agfa MCC when it comes to rendering shadow detail without sacrificing rich blacks.

Other papers like Bergger (my next favorite after Agfa) have great tonal scale and good shadow detail, but an overall cooler color. Not bad, but just doesn't grab me emotionally the way the Agfa does. I realize this is a subjective response, but that's what photography is about-- subjective responses.

I've written to Ilford suggesting that they try coating their Warmtone emulsion on a bright white base to see if they come up with something pleasing that might open up a new market among us former Agfa lovers. Don't know whether anyone will pay attention, but figured I'd at least give it a shot.

Larry

 

[Petzi]

Yes the MCC is quite a loss.

 

[lowellh]

Freestyle Photo supply has received a great deal of Agfa film & papers. They are private labeled, ARISTA II.

 

[cperez]

I too miss Agfa, but for other reasons. In defense of Ilford, I love their Warmtone. But I am not real sure I like Ilford's MGIV FB. The MGIV doesn't have that hint of warmth Kodak's FineArt FB papers did. Though it may be possible that Forte's Polygrade has that hint of warmth that I love in a neutral tone FB.

In business, there is no accounting for mis-management of deals and contracts. If senior management realized just how fanatic a following their products had, they would behave differently. Greed is a universal sin.

...Ilford's Warmtone has a great emulsion, but the base stock is too ivory, making the overall effect too warm for many subjects and tastes. Their MGFB cannot hold a candle to Agfa MCC when it comes to rendering shadow detail without sacrificing rich blacks.

 

[terri]

I'm waiting for some smart company exec to realize that the Agfa 118 emulsion had quite the devotees and put something out that replaces it.

But then I'm also waiting for some smart company exec to to try the same thing with Polaroid's Time Zero film.

I imagine I'll have a pretty long wait.

 

[Nero]

It is really very sad for a company to close in order to give space to another company. AGFA has not failed.People failed to understand her value in the World of Photography.

Another company is slaughtered for the good of the "progress".
If the "progress" close companies with great history such as AGFA and sent to their homes millions of people then were is the progress???

I am sorry for my anger but i cannot exist in a world that nobody is asking for my opinion..

So who is next? Kodak? Ilford? Fuji? And then ? The decission maker of this situation will make all of us to enter the progress?

And then Mrs SONY you will close whom? You know photography is an art.It is better to continue selling Audiovisual equipment and leave out of this photography!!!

 

[Paddy]

Another company is slaughtered for the good of the "progress".
If the "progress" close companies with great history such as AGFA

Ahem,...which particular "great history" are you referring to here? Could it be Agfa's complicit participation in WWII war crimes, when they were under the umbrella of IG Farben; you know,..of the Zyklon B gas (chamber) fame?

No, I suppose not. Just thought I'd ask.

 

[hortense]

You must pick up the pieces and march on.

Spoken with the grit of New Orleans. You guys had/have a tought one.

 

[Ole]

Ahem,...which particular "great history" are you referring to here? Could it be Agfa's complicit participation in WWII war crimes, when they were under the umbrella of IG Farben; you know,..of the Zyklon B gas (chamber) fame?

No, I suppose not. Just thought I'd ask.

I don't think any blame attaches to a company that was part of a larger corporation, a different branch if which produced a substance to government order. Regardless of the government, the substance and the use to which it was put.


Agfa has a great history in photography, and that is all that we are concerned with here.

 

[edz]

Ahem,...which particular "great history" are you referring to here? Could it be Agfa's complicit participation in WWII war crimes,

Agfa was not involved in war crimes. Point your finger, however, instead to Bayer (Bayer in the U.S. is again property of the German Bayer company which has a well established line of continuity to I.G. Farben war crimes) and Standard Oil (today Exxon and Exxon-Mobil).

Agfa was very much a Jewish company started by and financed by Jews with a number of key Jewish scientists and businessmen in its history. Even after the Reichsbürgergesetz was inacted in 1935, Agfa cotinued to be home to many jews and management worked to support migration to Palestine. Agfa was always a bit of a thorn in the side of the Gestapo. It was only in April 1938 that the Jews were dismissed--- a move that came in responce to the threat by Reichswirtschaftsministerium under the "Dritte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz" to declare Agfa a Jewish comany. The order meant that if any members of its board of directors was more than "1/4 Jewish" or if any Jews were in leading roles the company would fall under sanctions. Even after the "Goldacker affair" when it became increasingly difficult for Jews to emigrate aboard, Agfa provided support to the Jewish scientists. The last Jewish scientist at Agfa migrated in 1940(!).

That Agfa, of course, was based in what following the war became the "Soviet Zone" and the company we called Agfa was a child of Bayer (with little more than a claim to some trademarks) so its indeed confusing....

Kylon B did not come from Agfa nor Bayer but Degesch. The experiments (among others those of Mengele), on the other hand, where the work of Bayer. The Bayer factory in Uerdingen is built upon the Jewish cemetery. Fritz ter Meer, a convicted war criminal of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal was upon release from prision nearly immediately elevated to the supervisory board. Its an interesting bit of revisionist history to see the Fritz ter Meer name at Bayer as the light of "Social Responsibility" and a model of ethics. A flame for the little guy with a thin moustache, it seems, still burns in the heart of ...

But if you want to point you finger at companies for their complicity in war crimes and the extermination of European Jewery then the list should probably well include much of the U.S. corporate elite. And any discussion of I.G.Farben should not leave off Prescott Bush--- the great grandfather George W., current President of the United States--- and George Herbert Walker (great grandfather and namesake of ex-President George H.W. Bush) of the Bank Brown Brothers-Harriman which was the main Wall Street connection to Thyssen and the main source of U.S. funding for Hitler and the NSDAP's rise to power. The profits from the Rockefeller/I.G. Farben deal was the seed to the Bush fortune and the basis for Prescot's move into politics after the war.......

 

[Brac]

I read that Fuji wants to close photo materials production in Tilburg, so unless Kodak still has a factory, there is no longer any production of color photo materials in Europe at all (except for Ilfochrome in Switzerland maybe.)

Ferrania are still manufacturing colour materials in Italy (often for private label brands or branded Solaris). Kodak makes colour paper at its UK factory. Whether they still make colour film there I don't know. I thought Fuji's Tilburg factory was remaining open, although not for making colour film. There may be other colour material production in Europe. It's a great shame about Agfa but we have to live with it. Fortunately there are still alternatives.

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear All,

We have had lots of requests for a whiter base for our FB warmtone product, it means a new base, some significant R&D but we are looking at it, I will advise when anything concrete is forthcoming:


Simon@ILFORDPhoto.

 

[lowellh]

Freestyle is your source of Agfa film and paper. It is under the private label of "Freestyle Reserve."

 

[cperez]

Hello Simon,

V.interesting feedback. I'm happy to hear Ilford considers comments from the community of users like this.

I liked Agfa's BS111 FB DoubleWeight papers back in the day. I have no idea what their nomenclature evolved into over the years. But that one paper was a favorite warmtone for a group of us in Hollywood. We were printing for both press and art photographer shows.

Dear All,

We have had lots of requests for a whiter base for our FB warmtone product, it means a new base, some significant R&D but we are looking at it, I will advise when anything concrete is forthcoming:


Simon@ILFORDPhoto.