AGFA Rumor

I heard a rumor that there's been an announcement at Photokina that AGFA has been taken over and will be producing film again.

Anyone able to verify this? No info on the AGFA site at this point.

That would be awesome if it is true.

Where did you hear this Ted? :confused:

Dave Wooten said:

Where did you hear this Ted? :confused:

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A friend emailed - he'd seen it on a news site - I'll email back and see if I can get a link.

A quick search suggests it is only digital cameras - no mention of film.

Ted Forbes said:

I heard a rumor that there's been an announcement at Photokina that AGFA has been taken over and will be producing film again.

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Never mind the films - it's the paper that's important...

j-fr

www.j-fr.dk

How about some Agfa Pan 25 in all sizes to please the most ardent users?

** Disclaimer This is a rumour i've heard ***

What I have heard is that the paper producing factory (ex-Agfa) in France was sold to Rollei to resume production..

I like this kind of rumours...

Ted Forbes said:

I heard a rumor that there's been an announcement at Photokina that AGFA has been taken over and will be producing film again.

Anyone able to verify this? No info on the AGFA site at this point.

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Nope. Papers gone, Films gone, machines aren't working anymore... They sold the name "Agfaphoto" which will be used for a line of low to mid-class digital cameras.

What a sad end for such a pride name it once was...

Marc Leest said:

** Disclaimer This is a rumour i've heard ***

What I have heard is that the paper producing factory (ex-Agfa) in France was sold to Rollei to resume production..

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Sorry, no production in France, only cuting down and packing the boxes... The paper was made in Leverkusen. Rollei has bought a lot of uncut paper and needs someone to cut it down...

I'd really love to believe this is more than a rumour (oops I mean rumor).

I'm hard pressed to find any coverage of photokina that isnt exclusively digital, so this makes me rather curious too...It's like an E3 show where they only cover the Playstation (no other gamers among us? damn...)

Stop listening to the sales clerk at Ritz Photo.

Please.

Photokina news

Fleath said:

I'm hard pressed to find any coverage of photokina that isnt exclusively digital, so this makes me rather curious too...It's like an E3 show where they only cover the Playstation (no other gamers among us? damn...)

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I'm a bit tired as I write this, so it won't be long ..

I returned from Photokina to Paris on Sunday night and wrote a quite long report for the benefit of APUG forum readers yesterday (Monday) ... I posted the the thread under "Announcements". Upon clicking the "submit" icon I saw "must be reviewed by moderator" or something .. It's still not posted, which miffs me a bit, as I wrote some scoopy info, but that's spilt milk, I guess ... So, here goes again .. but shorter. .

Rollei —not to be confused with Franke & Heidecke— laid off a lot of workers
This news, heard Saturday last, is unconfirmed.

Franke & Heidecke showed their new Tele-Rollei with a 135mm f4 Tele-Xenar with a fantastic close-focus of 1.5 meters (the 1960s model was 2.6m !) and parallax correction via a sliding ground-glass. The company seems to be healthy, but I'm wishful and a fan!

Ilford is coming out with a "world's first" : an FB paper especially designed for digital printers. Also, a new selenium toner. Simon Galley was great.

Linhof has a new, modified Master 3000 whose bed drops down lower allowing the use of lenses as wide as 38mm without vignetting. Also, there's a new dial-knob in the bed to let you focus a lens when it's deep in the housing. Lastly, you can now remove the accessory shoe to mount the camera upside-down on a tripod and therefore have no bed at the bottom of the lens (so no lower vignetting).

For Linhof's panoramic Technorama, there's the 617s III with shift. The new shift adapter offering a pretty wide shift range of 28mm. The shift adater can be used with all existing Technoramas which accept interchangable lenses.

Also for the 617 there's a new Super-Symmar XL 110mm f5.6 (75° a.o.v.),
and a cleverly designed "lighthood" which, with an adapter, holds a Schneider 3x loupe against the ground glass and allows you to slide it along the whole width for focusing.

The Linhof M679, among several other things, has a new recessed lensboard which can take a 35mm f5.6 in a Copal and a new groundglass "s" which givves a full view of the 6x9 format and can be used with Linhof's repro system.

Kienzle Phototechnik (founded in 1879) has a neat, new print washer which has an option of introducing bubbles into the wash-stream. Reminder that they make arguably some of the best enlargers in the world and offer accessories for Focomat and Varioskop enlargers. The Focomat, if I have the story straight, was co-invented by Klatt and Kienzle . . .

Jürgen Heiland was showing his new VC head. Didn't have a chance to speak very long to him because there was a small crowd gathered around him, but the product looks quite nice and high quality, as do his densitometers and other products. I did notice a tray agitator that'll go onto my Christmas list. It looked to be an adaptation of the Heiland film-tank agitator. Great, time-saving product .. instead of leaning over the tray for two minutes, I could be exposing another print (after covering the developing tray, of course!).

Camera Bellows showed their extremely well-designed 4x5 DIY kit camera, the Bulldog. Is it well-made, too? You'll have to tell us after YOU assemble one!

Fotoman is coming out with their 612 D-Max, a multi-(medium)format camera allowing 6x4.5 up to 6x12, and right/left shift up to 25mm in each direction.
They also showed a new, cheaper helicoid focus mount and a much improved viewer.

Bergger has two new films (size 120, ISO 15 and ISO 100); an ecological paper developer called ECL; and BERFIX, a brand-new, unique —and a bit expensive— fixer which Bergger chief, Guy Gerard, told me is "pH neutral, easier to wash out and, therefore safer" (in archival terms). Ironically, it's "specially designed" for PMK.

FotoImpex was there in full force with their large array of black & white products, including their popular Adox line. Even before the digital wave, they'd done alot to keep b&w products alive and in the mainstream. They've taken hard knocks from competitors and suppliers, so —from the customer side of things— I'd like to openly and unabashedly give them a plug: I hope you'll support this tiny company. They've supported us.

There. Hope this one gets posted before it becomes old news (unless it already is.. if so, sorry)

Cheers,

Christopher

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Christopher Nisperos said:

I returned from Photokina to Paris on Sunday night and wrote a quite long report for the benefit of APUG forum readers yesterday (Monday) ... I posted the the thread under "Announcements". Upon clicking the "submit" icon I saw "must be reviewed by moderator" or something .. It's still not posted, which miffs me a bit

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Your post did appear, but a moderator moved it to the "Miscellaneous" forum because the "Announcements" forum is meant for announcements about the APUG system itself, not product announcements or reviews:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Marc Leest said:

** Disclaimer This is a rumour i've heard ***

What I have heard is that the paper producing factory (ex-Agfa) in France was sold to Rollei to resume production..

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Rollei make nothing. They are a branding company located in Berlin whose main (intellectual) property is the "Rollei brand" which gets liberally applied to an assortment of cheap Chinese digital cameras.

The Rollei film is just branded "Rollei". Its really OrWo/Forte (Filmotec) or Agfa film cut down and processed by either Forte or the remains of Tura and sold under the "Rollei" brand.

The Agfa Photo brand for cameras has, however, been "sold" and shall soon adorn cheap Chinese digital cameras.. competing with the cheap Chinese digital cameras under the Rollei, Minox (which, however, in contrast to Rollei and Agfa still make good German cameras and high end sports optics such as binoculars), Voigtlaender (which belongs to Ringfoto and is only licensed to Cosina for use in branding their Bessa camera line) and other once glorious brands.

srs5694 said:

Your post did appear, but a moderator moved it to the "Miscellaneous" forum because the "Announcements" forum is meant for announcements about the APUG system itself, not product announcements or reviews:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

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Ah! Thanks alot.

.

Thanks Chris,
I did see your earlier report and appreciate you taking the time to share!

Marc Leest said:

** Disclaimer This is a rumour i've heard ***

What I have heard is that the paper producing factory (ex-Agfa) in France was sold to Rollei to resume production..

Click to expand...

No.

Sorry. Cheers. R.

edz said:

Rollei make nothing. They are a branding company located in Berlin whose main (intellectual) property is the "Rollei brand" which gets liberally applied to an assortment of cheap Chinese digital cameras.

The Rollei film is just branded "Rollei". Its really OrWo/Forte (Filmotec) or Agfa film cut down and processed by either Forte or the remains of Tura and sold under the "Rollei" brand.

The Agfa Photo brand for cameras has, however, been "sold" and shall soon adorn cheap Chinese digital cameras.. competing with the cheap Chinese digital cameras under the Rollei, Minox (which, however, in contrast to Rollei and Agfa still make good German cameras and high end sports optics such as binoculars), Voigtlaender (which belongs to Ringfoto and is only licensed to Cosina for use in branding their Bessa camera line) and other once glorious brands.

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Do you think I can sell my glorious family name (Georg Adolf Von Truten Excalibur Richelieu De la Patelle Don Carlos Heusenberg-Benz Mc Trout) to a Chinese company to use as they want (for the branding of Cigars, or Condoms ??) ???

edz said:

Rollei make nothing.

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Not exactly. Don't forget Rollei Frank & Heidecke, who make excellent cameras. But when it comes to film, you're right. They (and Maco) are 'converters', that is, they buy their film in 'pancakes' cut from mother rolls and repackage them for consumer use. They say their films are currently sourced from Agfa (the last few mother rolls), Agfa-Gavaert (allegedly still coating aerial films in Belgium) and elsewhere.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)

Roger Hicks said:

Not exactly. Don't forget Rollei Frank & Heidecke, who make excellent cameras.

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No doubt about that, but that's Franke & Heidecke, not Rollei anymore.
Heck, they even have to pay licence fees to be allowed to name their cameras "Rolleiflex" (as Maco pays to name their films "Rollei". Two completly independable companys, and IMHO the F&H guys did well to seperate from the Berlin part, which is downsizeing ATM.

Christian Kolinski said:

No doubt about that, but that's Franke & Heidecke, not Rollei anymore.

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Franke & Heidecke is a NEW company with a reborn name making reborn versions of once glorious cameras that sold under the F+H brand. The Frankes bought out the Heideckes in 1966 and the company became by 1979 Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke to better exploit the "Rollei" brand... and then brankrupt.. and abroad.. and eventually just "Rollei"... um.. Rollei Fototechnik.. with or without Koreans (Samsung).. Managment buy-out.. Back to Germany.. and a few years ago.. a split within the management buy-out.. the guys with the pencils to Berlin leaving the die-hards behind in Braunschweig... where some grand children could to found to re-apply again the Franke & Heidecke name to.. um.. cameras..

...Europe is a confusing place.
It's pretty sad to see all these beloved brands being killed, burried, and then dug up and carried off during the night to be tacked on to some lame product though. Again, globalisation for you I guess (taking Business Studies makes it easier to complain).

But a lot of thanks to Christopher Nisperos for relaying all that information for us, maybe APUG should be sending it's own reporters to these shows.