APX Glass Plates

[Henning Serger]

If it were up to me, I’d say I miss APX 400's tonality.

O.k. I've never been impressed by APX 400, neither concerning detail rendition, nor tonality (concerning tonality: Not bad, but I did not find it better compared to the competitors).

Harman's films are all good, and there is Ilford Pan 400 you forgot to mention.

Of course. I was sure that I'll forget at least one film in my list .

Pancro is obsolesing, isn't it?

We simply don't really know exactly at the moment. It is produced by InovisCoat, which is officially still in insolvency. We have to wait and see whether they can have a successful re-start.

What is P400, their cine film, coated by Inovis?

All FilmoTec films are meanwhile coated by InovisCoat. P400 is a surveillance film: https://filmotec.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Technische-Info-P400.pdf

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Now my curiosity is piqued, because I have the glass plate attachment for my Rolleiflex.

I've used it so far to shoot Harman direct positive paper, but to have an actual glass plate would be very cool indeed.

My wallet's not going to like it, though.

 

[gorbas]

As far as I know, glass plates in "modern times" were used for astrophotography, not aware for any other practical purpose.
And I miss too original Agfa APX-100

 

[JPD]

Now my curiosity is piqued, because I have the glass plate attachment for my Rolleiflex.

I've used it so far to shoot Harman direct positive paper, but to have an actual glass plate would be very cool indeed.

My wallet's not going to like it, though.

Yes, cool indeed, and I will be interesting and fun to see the results (which I hope you will share).

I spent more money on cigars this month, but they all went up in smoke.

 

[Angarian]

Maybe I have overlooked something, but do we have real evidence that these glassplates are still in production?
The offer on the Maco page has an expiry date of the beginning of this year. And I cannot find any info on the Agfa homepage.

 

[MarkS]

Glass plates were also used in photogrammetry and aerial mapping, again for dimensional stability. But I expect that the industry has moved on from them.
Kodak offered 4x5 T-Max 100 on glass plates well into the 1990s- but the cost was 10X that of the sheet film.

 

[MattKing]

Maybe I have overlooked something, but do we have real evidence that these glassplates are still in production?

Jason Lane was producing them recently, but I think COVID disrupted that: https://www.pictoriographica.com/

 

[miha]

Maybe I have overlooked something, but do we have real evidence that these glassplates are still in production?
The offer on the Maco page has an expiry date of the beginning of this year. And I cannot find any info on the Agfa homepage.

There is no evidence, hence my question.

 

[Angarian]

Jason Lane was producing them recently, but I think COVID disrupted that: https://www.pictoriographica.com/

Thanks Matt. I know about Jason Lane. But I was referring to the OP and the Agfa-Gevaert APX glass plates.

 

[Angarian]

There is no evidence, hence my question.

O.k., I understand.
So I don't have missed any information, or overlooked data on the Agfa homepage.

 

[Don_ih]

My bet is Agfa made this batch and will wait until it's sold out everywhere before they make another batch, depending on demand (which I imagine is low). Any technical use for these plates in the past is likely still valid for some facilities that still have the outdated machinery (much like many car repair places are running Windows XP on their computers).

 

[miha]

Why not contact Agfa and ask them directly about the glass plates?

I reached out to Agfa last Friday, but it's now been a week with no response from them.

 

[JPD]

I reached out to Agfa last Friday, but it's now been a week with no response from them.

Interesting coincidence. I sent an email to another German company (not photo related) last Friday and still haven't got a reply. I'll send them another email on Monday. There doesn't seem to have been any important holidays in Germany this week.