AgfaPhoto CT Precisa 100 discontinued?

[RattyMouse]

Agfa-Gevaert still produces photographic film, but it is not sold to consumers. For example their aviation film "Agfa Aviphot" is repurposed by the people who own the Rollei name and sold as Rollei Retro 400S....by rating at 400ISO and over developing they turned the aviation film into a nice photo film but it cannot be sold under the Agfa name.

It is entirely possible that the JCH streetpan is an older Agfa film that Agfa-Gevaert is still manufacturing.

What the heck is 'aviation film'?

 

[Anon Ymous]

What the heck is 'aviation film'?

The kind you load on a reconnaissance plane.

 

[RattyMouse]

The kind you load on a reconnaissance plane.

I guess I find it surprising to think that film has much of a future in such an industry.

 

[AgX]

Actually the market was less in reconnaissance but civil surveying.
Anyway, the change to digital cameras in these markets is why Agfa cancelled a lot of these film the last years.

The firm converting and rebranding these Agfa films as Rollei films is Maco. They do not own the Rollei brand. Nor does the firm manufacturing the classic Rollei cameras...
The demise of german photographic industry brought about some peculiar constellations.

 

[RattyMouse]

Actually the market was less in reconnaissance but civil surveying.
Anyway, the change to digital cameras in these markets is why Agfa cancelled a lot of these film the last years.

The firm converting and rebranding these Agfa films as Rollei films is Maco. They do not own the Rollei brand. Nor does the firm manufacturing the classic Rollei cameras...
The demise of german photographic industry brought about some peculiar constellations.

So that film market has collapsed too?

 

[cmacd123]

The real estate was not part of the sale, and Agfa-Gevaert still own that AgfaPhoto brand. However they could not evade that licence agreement with AgfaPhoto Holding and as such that brand got lost for own use.

Agfa is not in a position to use the "agfa Photo" for any sales, and so it is 100% controlled by AgfaPhoto Holdings. Whoever owns the underlying real estate in the german plant, did remove the factory, it is gone. You yourself in a previous post mentioned that you had observed the buildings disappeared with Amazing speed. probably does not matter if the buildings were on a lease to AgfaPhoto or someone else.

 

[AgX]

But AgfoPhoto as manufacturing entity did not go under because their owner decided the real estate would be more worth than the actual plant. This way I understood your former post.

 

[cmacd123]

But AgfoPhoto as manufacturing entity did not go under because their owner decided the real estate would be more worth than the actual plant. This way I understood your former post.

Agfa Photo seemed to be overproducing film, to the point that folks like new adox were complaining that they could not comete, and then all of a sudden the plant closed and was demolished. At the same time we hear of a reorganization. one conclusion would be that there were corporate games to free up the real estate, much like the similar situation at Forte. the equipment business closed also and the chemical business seemed to have changed hands several times. New Adox was able to obtain rights ( not positive it is outright ownership) to the Rodinal trademark.

Short story is that it has been messy, and I personally doubt the outcome was what what agfa had in mind when the spun off the business. Agfa themselves are mostly out of the photo business, and I really wonder if the aviphot that has been floating around in various forms actually was newly made, or was in a Belgian Warehouse, and will dry up.

 

[twelvetone12]

I too was always impressed with the eagerness to demolish the Agfa plants.

 

[Agulliver]

What the heck is 'aviation film'?

Film designed for aerial photography. It has extended IR sensitivity to help "see" through thin cloud and get better photographs from a plane. Think Google Earth, though I am sure most such users utilise digital photography these days.

Rollei Retro 400S is well known to he Agfa-Gavaert Aviphot 200 - an 200ASA/ISO aviation film. Hence the somewhat high contrast and the well known IR properties of the film. When developed in regular B&W chemistry at shot at 400 it's a nice super-panchromatic film with slightly higher contrast than most. It has the advantage that if you put an IR720 filter on your camera it becomes very cheap and effective IR film.

Judging by the fact that 400S is consistently in stock I'm guessing that either there is an absolutely huge supply or that it's still being manufactured.

 

[RattyMouse]

Film designed for aerial photography. It has extended IR sensitivity to help "see" through thin cloud and get better photographs from a plane. Think Google Earth, though I am sure most such users utilise digital photography these days.

Yes, from my understanding most aviation photography is digital now so it amazes me that Agfa can stay in business selling film to an industry that hardly exists anymore. Digital aviation and satellite photography is so ubiquitous. Why would anyone shoot film in this application? Is there any advantage at all?

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...Digital aviation and satellite photography is so ubiquitous. Why would anyone shoot film in this application? Is there any advantage at all?

Could not the same questions be asked for virtually every other type of photography today?

 

[Agulliver]

I don't imagine that Aviphot is a big part of Agfa-Gevaert's business. But they are still listed on their website

http://www.agfa.com/specialty-products/solutions/aerial-photography/

Agfa-Gevaert still manufactures photographic film and some of it makes it's way under other names into the consumer photography market.

 

[RattyMouse]

I don't imagine that Aviphot is a big part of Agfa-Gevaert's business. But they are still listed on their website

http://www.agfa.com/specialty-products/solutions/aerial-photography/

Agfa-Gevaert still manufactures photographic film and some of it makes it's way under other names into the consumer photography market.

Why don't they supply AgfaPhoto?

 

[MattKing]

A recent thread here on Photrio linked to an article about the fact that the U2 reconnaissance plane is still in use and still uses film.
If all the systems that are necessary to both use and support this type of use are still functioning well, it may make much more economic and practical sense to continue using a medium that yields the necessary results than to attempt to develop a digital replacement for it.
I doubt that a newly designed from the ground up (pun intended) reconnaissance plane would today be designed around film. I could be wrong though - I don't have the required specialized knowledge about the pros and cons of each medium with respect to this application.
There is a lot of legacy equipment out there in the world of surveillance video/photography, and a lot of people who find it easier to get the budget for supplies than for capital replacement.

 

[miha]

Why don't they supply AgfaPhoto?

Harman do that. Agfa only coat aerial film.

 

[Agulliver]

Why don't they supply AgfaPhoto?

As I understand it, the two companies do not much like each other....weren't there lots of legal wranglings with accusations from both sides around a decade ago?

 

[AgX]

Why don't they supply AgfaPhoto?

Agfa-Gevaert and AgfaPhoto Holding went to court to fight out that brand licensing issue. So they are not on good terms. Also there likely is an exclusivity contract between Agfa and Maco.

Furthermore AgfaPhoto Holding resp. Lupus rather need colour films, but Agfa meanwhile cancelled all of them.

 

[RattyMouse]

Agfa-Gevaert and AgfaPhoto Holding went to court to fight out that brand licensing issue. So they are not on good terms. Also there likely is an exclusivity contract between Agfa and Maco.

Furthermore AgfaPhoto Holding resp. Lupus rather need colour films, but Agfa meanwhile cancelled all of them.

I didnt realize that aviation film is all monochrome. Thanks.

 

[AgX]

Agfa had 5 aerial colour films on offer.

 

[SilverShutter]

My local store still has a brick of it. But I think thats the last of it, Ill make sure to grab a few next time I go there.

 

[lantau]

I've just been to the DM store next to Munich central station and it's gone. Even its place in the shelf is gone. They do have Vista 200 and 400 in stock, though.

I mentioned a few month ago that an online shop listed it as discontinued with the last stock being sold. But it was quite sudden for DM to delist it from their website. I have some left but want to get a little more. It's such a cheap way to use slide. Tri-X is nearly the same price, now.

Have to check the store near my home and buy what they have left, if any.

The store in my home town is (was) still well stocked with CT Precisa. In the past I often saw different expiration dates, some pretty close. This time all films where dated 2020/04. I bought six double packs at €12.45 each (€6.23 per roll). Luckily I can store a little Film in a neighbours freezer. Mine is full.

To put that in relation: at Foto Impex a single roll of TX400 135/36 is €6.40. My very first roll in 2015 was €4.90. If you buy ten it will be €6.10 each and only then just below the price of Precisa. E6 film wouldn't need to expensive if people used it a little more.

With the Precisa I already have frozen that is a nice stock of cheap E6 film and I won't have to worry about using it only for the best opportunities. I have been trying to use E6 mostly when traveling to interesting places.

I have a bit of a bad conscious about my relatively austere E6 use and having mostly cheap(ish)ly bought E6 in the freezer. My Velvias were close dated sold at a discount, or bought on holiday in Hong Kong (E6 and Acros is cheaper there, anything else is not). I should and and want to buy more fresh stuff from Fuji. My problem is not using it up quite fast enough to really need to restock, yet.

Even though I have used this opportunity for putting more cheap stuff in the freezer I have made my peace with current prices. If was out of Velvia 50 in 35mm I would simply order another pack of ten. Yes, it is €160. But by the next paycheck it will be forgotten. Any decent restocking of darkroom supplies will easily cost the same.

I have observed that I don't think about the cost of acquisition that much when I'm using film and paper. At least when I have bought a decent amount of a given film or paper. (I bought more than 75 rolls of, then unexpired, Provia400x 120 spread over the year, in 2016, at about €14.50 each). That doesn't mean I'm just going to blast away with it, however.

The psychology of buying a single expensive roll and using it then is a bit different. It hurts more. At least as long as I can spread out purchases of different films I can (at this level at least) cope with E6 pricing.

 

[pentaxuser]

Talking of aviation film, I seem to remember a question on developing Kodak aviation film many years ago. The person had been given some shortly after the May Day celebrations in 1960 - presumably as a present ?

He singed himself Nikita, if I recall correctly. Of course it could have been a nom de plume. Plenty of those on Photrio

pentaxuser

 

[twelvetone12]

At the end I raided my "local" dm in Basel, I got the last 8 double packs they had.

 

[AgX]

Please check if they re-fill the rack. A dozen stores I checked with the exception of one had the rack filled with at least 10 films.