Been five years on sale, yet Paul & Reinhold remains a mystery

[Fortepun]

Quickly, to the old thread on P&R: Oh no yet another B&W film

My point: Most mystery films are hardly mysteries. Agfa Aviphot variants, Tasma or Kodak traffic or aero surveillance films, experimental coatings from Inoviscoat/Filmotec. ORWO technical films (sound, X-ray, duplicate, leader, etc), frozen Kodak like Washi K, and that pretty much covers them all. Rated differently, modified slightly, marketed under 5 different names, but you figure it out.

Rollei (Maco) Paul & Reinhold 640 is on a triacetate base, not PET, so it can't be aero film, at least based on what's available now. It can be Orwo something, but it doesn't look like the Orwo films I've tried before. Frozen stuff from the past? That's cool, but hell, there must have been a lot of it, because this double pack hit the market in September, 2020 as a limited edition centenary film, and remains readily available. I like it a lot, very versatile and sharp enough for the benefits of its latitude.

 

[revdoc]

Or it's just Kentmere 400...

 

[loccdor]

I'm done with Rollei products, even of rebranded films I like. Poor quality control in my experience. Not sure I've ever shot a film from them that didn't have this or that problem...

 

[osullic]

Packaging states it's manufactured in Italy, so that would make it a Ferrania film, right?

 

[Fortepun]

Packaging states it's manufactured in Italy, so that would make it a Ferrania film, right?

We've been over this. Nobody knows what percentage of the work has to be done by Ferrania to qualify for the made in Italy part, but maybe they package it. Also, kind of strange that Ferrania couldn't produce any P80 or P33 for a long time, yet the Rollei is always back in stock. And if you think about it, the highest ISO film Ferrania is just about to make again is P33, so it's hard to imagine this being their product at ISO 320-1000.

 

[Paul Howell]

Looks to be Harman packing, Harmon has packaged film in the past. Might be a Rolli emulation produced by Ferrania package by Harman.

 

[Fortepun]

Looks to be Harman packing, Harmon has packaged film in the past. Might be a Rolli emulation produced by Ferrania package by Harman.

Sounds great, until you look at the costs. I don't think a roll could be at this price if the film had to be produced both in Italy and post-Brexit UK, only to be shipped to Germany for wholesale.

 

[Sanug]

I used both Rollei P+R and Kentmere 400 and exposed at ISO 800. Developed both together in the same tank. The results look the same.

 

[Fortepun]

I used both Rollei P+R and Kentmere 400 and exposed at ISO 800. Developed both together in the same tank. The results look the same.

That's great, but why the Made in Italy in that case?

 

[MattKing]

Perhaps Ferrania were the contracted finisher/confectioner.

 

[MCB18]

Perhaps Ferrania were the contracted finisher/confectioner.

This would be my guess.

As annoying as it is, the “made in X” label doesn’t mean a whole lot anymore. I’m not sure if anyone is interested in Lockport or penetration testing, but if you are, you may be familiar with the fact that a certain lock company (allegedly) lied about their stuff being made in the USA, when all they did was import a lot of components and assemble them here.

For a more relevant example in photography, Astrum labels all of their films as made in Ukraine. I think it’s pretty well known that they don’t have a coating line anymore, unfortunately. They finish stuff that they either have stockpiled, or buy new, depending on the film. They do an excellent job with finishing, but they don’t coat it.

 

[osullic]

FWIW, I have a roll of Rollei Retro 400S here and it says "Made in Belgium" on it, and a roll of Rollei RPX 400 that says "Made in UK".

 

[Fortepun]

FWIW, I have a roll of Rollei Retro 400S here and it says "Made in Belgium" on it, and a roll of Rollei RPX 400 that says "Made in UK".

Yeah, RPX is known to be Kentmere and 400S is made in Belgium because Aviphot is an Agfa-Gevaert product.

 

[mshchem]

Perhaps these people put any thing they want on the package?

The target customer is probably not as demanding of quality as a Kodak or Harman customer.

I have zero interest in the "I wonder who makes it products"

I'm getting ready to load up a couple bulk film loaders. Kentmere 200 and Kodak Tri-X. I know who makes these.