Fresh Agfa film in Photonet classifieds.

[waynecrider]

35mm and 120 at what appears to be a decent price.

 

[George Papantoniou]

I found some APX 100 35mm rolls for about 3 euros/roll at a local retailer. The sad part of it, I dont really shoot any 35 (unless I want to play around with the M3). Is anyone interested (if the stock is still there) ?? There must be a couple of ten-roll packs...

 

[peter_n]

There has been lots of bulk APX 100 and 400 on eBay for a long time now (Photo Warehouse - ultrafine). B&H also seem to have plenty of both 36 & 24 exp. APX also. All the film is at reasonable prices.

~Peter

 

[michaelosullivan]

For anyone who's interested the LIDLE stores here in Ireland have twin/36exp packs of XRG200 dated 12/2007 for 2.99 euro. Presumably elsewhere in europe.

 

[cdholden]

There has been lots of bulk APX 100 and 400 on eBay for a long time now (Photo Warehouse - ultrafine). B&H also seem to have plenty of both 36 & 24 exp. APX also. All the film is at reasonable prices.

~Peter

2010 date? I'm surprised they reach that far ahead. I ordered a little of each in bulk roll just to test. Wish me luck!

 

[Petzi]

For anyone who's interested the LIDLE stores here in Ireland have twin/36exp packs of XRG200 dated 12/2007 for 2.99 euro. Presumably elsewhere in europe.

This was from the final production. I think they used up remaining stock of old boxes from XRG film before they closed. The film is actually the recent Vista film.

 

[michaelosullivan]

Well.... it says XRG200 on the film cassettes as well!

Michael.

 

[Petzi]

There is no way it would be dated 2007 if it really was XRG. The XRG film was discontinued years ago.

 

[michaelosullivan]

I can send you a roll if you like Petzi......just email me your address microsat@eircom.net

 

[Petzi]

Thanks, but I have so much film...

 

[Brac]

There is no way it would be dated 2007 if it really was XRG. The XRG film was discontinued years ago.

Ever since Lidl opened their local store near me (around 1999) they have been selling this twin pack offer of 2 rolls of XRG200 for £1.99 for the two. I'm aware that XRG ceased to be on general sale years ago but my guess is that Agfa supplied Lidl with an earlier emulsion than Vista as an economy line. Similar Kodak has it ColourPlus 200 and Kodacolor VR lines (the latter in Aldi stores & now made in China) & Fuji has a CA 200 economy line (not Superia) which sometimes pops up - for instance it was given to me as a "free film" when I had some films processed in Cyprus last year.

Going back to the XRG film in Lidl, the last I bought about 3 weeks back had an expiry date of March 2008. No doubt Lidl had a contract with Agfa and the film was produced up to the time Agfa finally called a halt. Today when I was in my local Lidl's I couldn't see any so I guess they have now sold their last stocks (though other branches may have some)

 

[Petzi]

Agfa had one coating facility in Leverkusen, and I don't see why they would specially produce an outdated item for Lidl. There is just no reason for that. Agfa had really big coating machines. Coating a special film for Lidl would have meant extra cost, not cost savings.

 

[Brac]

Agfa had one coating facility in Leverkusen, and I don't see why they would specially produce an outdated item for Lidl. There is just no reason for that. Agfa had really big coating machines. Coating a special film for Lidl would have meant extra cost, not cost savings.

The truth is neither of us really knows what it is, but as Kodak Fuji & Konica-Minolta (its VX series) produced "outdated" (ie earlier) emulsions as economy lines there seems no logical reason why Agfa should not have done the same. The giant Asda supermarket chain in the UK (much much bigger than Lidl) also used to have very cheap Agfacolor films until a few months back (ISO200 & 400) which was not marked Vista (or XRG come to that). I wonder what they were?

A further interesting point is that though Agfa purchased the "Perutz" concern in Munich decades ago, they retained the brand and ever since they continued to produce films under the Perutz label (and with the Munich address on the cartons though I accept they were probably coated elsewhere). In the UK though not frequently found, the Perutz films were always sold at cheaper prices than the Agfa. As I write I have 3 rolls of Perutz Primera Color 200 (24exp) in front of me with a June 2004 expiry date. It's difficult to believe this is Vista film - why would Agfa compete against themselves?

 

[Petzi]

The production of film greatly benefits from economy of scale. Agfa had only one big production plant as I said earlier. Kodak have plants around the world, where they may use older machinery and older processes. For them it may make sense to produce older materials. In the case of Kodak, the cheap film comes from China. On a side note, the Kodak VR film was the predecessor to Gold film, I remember when Gold film was introduced, but I think that was like 20 years ago. It seems unlikely to me that the VR film sold today is still the VR film from back then.

In the case of Agfa however, all films came from the same machine. Agfa was big in all kinds of generic or "house" brands. If you saw a film not labeled Kodak, Fuji, Agfa or Konica, it was most likely Agfa.

These circumstances, together with the fact that AgfaPhoto have stated that the recently sold XRG film is actually the latest Vista film, speaks for the assumption that it really is Vista film. Anything else would not make commercial sense, because there are probably no cost savings for Agfa in selling old emulsion. Rather, it would cause extra cost.

It does not mean competing with oneself, if the same product is sold in two different packages at two different prices to two different markets or retail chains.