Efke-Dupont connection.

Reading in one of my older Photo Techniques magazines, where they list available photo papers (circa 1999-2001 or so), they mention in the introduction to Efke papers, that the factory had some connection to the old Dupont photo company. I wonder (and I use some Efke papers) if the current Efke papers resemble any of the classic Dupont papers?

From other threads, most seem to think that Dupont sold, or spun off, its film production line to Adox and some, inculding myself, speculate that Dupont may have sold it's paper line as well when Dupont ceased paper production in the mid 70s. Adox VC seems to resemble the old Dupont Varigrame, although the paper base is differnt.

I don't know about DuPont's European operations (they may very well have been sold to Adox), but DuPont continued to make motion picture, x-ray, and industrial photo products in the US at least into the late sixties.

PHOTOTONE said:

Reading in one of my older Photo Techniques magazines, where they list available photo papers (circa 1999-2001 or so), they mention in the introduction to Efke papers, that the factory had some connection to the old Dupont photo company. I wonder (and I use some Efke papers) if the current Efke papers resemble any of the classic Dupont papers?

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Many Fotokemika products were licensed DuPont formulas. Current VC paper resembles Varilour, including the tendency for silver to plate out to the surface
Mark

DuPont continued to produce graphic arts products until the late 80's early 90's. They had a great camera speed positive dupe film, but they had a premium price on it.

Hi Mark:
Excuse my stupidity but what do you mean by "the tendency for silver to plate out to the surface"
Thanks for any input, Howard Tanger

Mark Layne said:

Many Fotokemika products were licensed DuPont formulas. Current VC paper resembles Varilour, including the tendency for silver to plate out to the surface
Mark

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Dupont bought the original Adox photograhic manufacturing company either in the 60's or 70's. The Adox company was in (West) Germany and that's where the factory was. I remember the films were packed in red & white boxes. Then at some time in the 70's (I think) Dupont decided to cease manufacture of Adox consumer materials. They licensed the technology to Fotokemika in the former Yugoslavia (now in Croatia) and it seems the actual coating machinery was sold to Fotokemika and installed in a factory in what is now Croatia. Efke continued the manufacture of the film emulsions with the same designations (R14/KB14 etc) but branded as Efke (and in green & white boxes). The boxes used to say they were licensed by Du Pont. Latterly by the early 90's they said (according to a box I am looking at) "Manufactured under Licence. Du Pont de Nemours/Deutschland/GMBH". Presumably the consumer papers were licensed as well as the films.

Later it gets further complicated because Du Pont apparently let the Adox trade mark lapse and a photographic enterprise registered it for most of the world but another one did so in Canada. Now it seems the films with slightly different designations (ie R14/KB14 became R25/KB25 based on ISO rather than DIN speeds etc) are suppled to some retailers as Adox and to others as Efke. Who actually owns what I'm not clear. And to muddy the waters further at one point some film manufactured a couple of hundred miles from where I'm sitting was labelled and sold as Adox and a little of that seems to still be available from some retailers.

In the UK for some years the Efke films were sold by the Jessops group under their own label and I believe the ISO 100 film in 120 & 127 rollfilm still is.

kiku said:

Hi Mark:
Excuse my stupidity but what do you mean by "the tendency for silver to plate out to the surface"
Thanks for any input, Howard Tanger

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Apparently Fotokemika's coating machine applies a heavier layer of emulsion and I often see a silver sheen on the surface of a print. Not objectionable but you can get grey water when you squeegee some prints. I dont consider the high silver content a bad thing
Mark

To my eye, the Efke (Fotokemika) papers are the closest to Agfa's Brovira and Portriga paper from the 30s/40s still available today. When matched with their Efke films, the look is nothing short of spectacular.

It seems a lot of photographers enjoy demeaning the high dollar exchange rate, which makes this film a bargain by calling it "cheap" and dismissing it on those grounds. Well, their loss is my gain, leaving more for me, and the rest of us who use/enjoy this great film.

The Efke 25 is simply the sharpest film I've ever put through a camera. It's like HD for your lens! Processed in Rodinal, there is nothing to beat it.

Rolleijoe said:

To my eye, the Efke (Fotokemika) papers are the closest to Agfa's Brovira and Portriga paper from the 30s/40s still available today. When matched with their Efke films, the look is nothing short of spectacular.

It seems a lot of photographers enjoy demeaning the high dollar exchange rate, which makes this film a bargain by calling it "cheap" and dismissing it on those grounds. Well, their loss is my gain, leaving more for me, and the rest of us who use/enjoy this great film.

The Efke 25 is simply the sharpest film I've ever put through a camera. It's like HD for your lens! Processed in Rodinal, there is nothing to beat it.

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Have you tried semi-stand development with tfx-2?? I get prints that are so sharp they're almost painfull to look at!