Interview

[madgardener]

Has Mirko's idea about a "captured by film" illustrated graphic gone anywhere? Any graphics artists working on it?

 

[Henning Serger]

Hello Mirko!

First, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Second, thanks to you and Adox for making such awesome B&W film and paper.

In the interview, you mentioned reversal:

Our films are for example optimized for reversal process, are offered in the largest off the shelf variety of sheet film sizes or in case of CMS 20 have the highest resolution of all halftone recording materials.

I love your CMS 20, it's the only B&W I shoot (unless it is too dark, then the last of the Neopan 1600). I've tried reversing CMS 20 a few times, never got it quite right. Has anyone at Adox (or elsewhere that you know of) found a good procedure to reverse it?

Thanks!

Dear Brian,

sorry for being so late. Too much to do in the last weeks.

Adox CMS 20 II as BW transparency:
German professional lab Photo Studio 13 www.photostudio13.de is offering reversal processing of the Adox CMS 20 II (besides several other BW films including Adox Silvermax).
AFAIK they also do international shipment.

I am using this film dveloped as BW slide in their process on a regular basis. It has a unique quality, especially concerning resolution, sharpness, fineness of grain and the overall "look" of this film as a transparency.
Dmax is good, Dmin is excellent.
The contrast is a bit higher compared to standard BW slide films.
Speed is in the ISO 20/14° - 25/15° range.

I've also tested this film as a BW slide in my standard detail rendition / resolution test (system resolution with Zeiss 2/50 ZF; f5,6; object contrast of 1:4 = two stops).
I've got 230 lp/mm in this test (!!).
You would need a FF sensor with 183 megapixels (without AA filter, with AA you need about 15% more) to get the same resolution under identical test conditions.

We've also tested the whole imaging chain: We've projected these shots and with the best 35mm projection lenses the 230 lp/mm were transferred onto the screen (!!).
So you here have by far the best picture quality available for big enlargements.
No other photographic medium can offer such outstanding quality.
We have projected CMS 20 II slides on a 5 meter width. And even at that huge enlargement you can go extremely near to the screen, you can "put your nose" on the screen and even then you can see the clearest, finest details.
It is absolutely breathtaking!

No scanner, not even the best drum scanners, is able to resolve the full detail this amazing film can capture.
But the best projection lenses (and APO enlarging lenses in the darkroom) can.
Nevertheless, so that you at least can get an impression what is possible with this film, here are two scans, but only at 4000ppi.
Have a little patience during download. Then click on the image.
Just two snapshots, handheld, with my old Nikon F90X and the AF-D Nikkor 1,8/50.

http://www.high-end-scans.de/img/bilder/web/Serger_OT_ACMS20II_28_4000ppi.jpg

http://www.high-end-scans.de/img/bilder/web/Serger_OT_ACMS20II_57_4000ppi.jpg


I hope this information is helpful for you.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[mono]

Nice cars, Henning ;-)

 

[PittP]

Dear Henning Serger,
thank you for the short reply to Brian's question (THANKS to him for raising this very pertinent point!) and the long statement about the CMS 20.
However, international shipment of films might not be the preferred option for those ones of us residing outside of Europe...
Could you kindly give some hints on how to successfully "reverse develop CMS 20"?
Cheers
Pitt

 

[Henning Serger]

Nice cars, Henning ;-)

Yes, indeed Folker, but unfortunately they are not mine......

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Henning Serger]

Dear Henning Serger,
thank you for the short reply to Brian's question (THANKS to him for raising this very pertinent point!) and the long statement about the CMS 20.
However, international shipment of films might not be the preferred option for those ones of us residing outside of Europe...
Could you kindly give some hints on how to successfully "reverse develop CMS 20"?
Cheers
Pitt

Dear Pitt,

so far I have used the development service of Photo Studio 13 for this film.
But I intend to test a new BW reversal recipe for self development with this film, too.
But these tests do need time, and I have lots to do in my job.
Therefore please be patient. When I've finished the tests and the new recipe works well, I will report here.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Are you able to make colour film? I know you can't do it profitably in today's market, but let's say, hypothetically, that Fujifilm, Kodak and Agfa gave up and cancelled all colour film. Do you have the equipment and know-how needed to make colour emulsions?

This is a good question and I have answered on a theoretical basis in other places before.
Fuji and Kodak have spent hundreds of millions of Dollars in the past to achive the level of manufacturing expertise where they are at. And this professionalism cannot be entirely written down, neither will they do it. A lot is to have trained people in house knowing what they are doing. It´s the same everywhere in any other high tech industry.
The conlusion from this is that in my opinion no one can remanufacture colour films of a comparable quality outside of any of these companies (in short time/at bearable costs). If they really were to stop manufacturing "someone" would for sure pick up on this business.
Out of the box something like lomography purple or colour implosion would be possible. We have know how (and chemical components) on hand for a low speed colour product. Unfortunately this could not be brought to a working taking speed. It´s an output material. But even if you have the know how, acces to people who did it before and a good portion of ingredients we still are talking at least half a million to produce a sample whereas this could be covered well by Kickstarter.

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Many thanks for your straightforward reply.

As one who pledged to the New55 Film Kickstarter project I recall that their concerns were not just about securing the initial enthusiastic startup money, but also the need for long-term sustainability of product sales as well.

Ken,

for this project I am optimistic because it will be only their product for the entire category.
But if we were to manufacture, say an IR film, we would be competing against MACO´s and Harman´s "pseudo" IR so we would be very limited in the premium we can ask for the product. This limits sharply the amount of start up costs possible to invest.

Mirko

 

[Xmas]

Dear Henning Serger,
thank you for the short reply to Brian's question (THANKS to him for raising this very pertinent point!) and the long statement about the CMS 20.
However, international shipment of films might not be the preferred option for those ones of us residing outside of Europe...
Could you kindly give some hints on how to successfully "reverse develop CMS 20"?
Cheers
Pitt

There should be formula on site and kits are available, maybe even locally...

http://www.fotoimpex.de/shopen/chem...g-kit-foma-for-8x35mm-2xd8-2x-ds8-1x16mm.html

 

[AgX]

A lot is to have trained people in house knowing what they are doing. It´s the same everywhere in any other high tech industry.

This is a major issue.

Mirko, you yourself are even the youngest in the photochemical industry. Time is playing against us and our endeavours with the group of experts getting smaller.