[Minox] Agfa Copex 8x11film.com

[perkeleellinen]

I bought a lot of old Minox film on ebay to harvest the cassettes. In the lot were two rolls of Copex Rapid sold by 8x11film.com:



Given the slow speed of this film, I think it might be worth shooting them. Two questions:

Can anyone estimate how old these are?
Can anyone recommend a developer?

Thanks!

 

[xkaes]

I vaguely recall that Minox sold Copex Rapid film, but that's all I remember. The Minox experts over at the SUBCLUB might have more experience with it.

As to development, you can use any typical Copex Rapid (AKA, microfilm) processing. There are many to choose from, and they are basically just very low contrast (AKA, compensating) developers. Unfortunately, you don't have much to run tests on. "Normal" developers can be used -- but special techniques need to be employed to reduce the contrast.

Processing Minox film -- of any type -- is no different from processing 35mm or 120 or 4x5 film. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions from other here who have used Copex Rapid. I've only used Kodak and Fuji microfilm -- which is basically the same. For example, I use Fuji HS-U at ISO 50 and develop in D-76 (1+7) for 13 minutes.

Microfilm is great for Minox camera because of its almost nonexistent grain.

 

[ic-racer]

I bought a lot of old Minox film on ebay to harvest the cassettes. In the lot were two rolls of Copex Rapid sold by 8x11film.com:

View attachment 391872

Given the slow speed of this film, I think it might be worth shooting them. Two questions:

Can anyone estimate how old these are?
Can anyone recommend a developer?

Thanks!

The label indicates to use Spur Nanospeed. Looks like one could buy them together at one time.

 

[perkeleellinen]

Yes, it seems Spur partnered with Minox to market interesting film / developer packages. Digging around on Subclub, I think the films are probably 20 years old. With such a slow speed I don't think I need to reduce ISO any lower.

Does Spur still make microfilm developers? If not, maybe Adotech will be a good choice.

 

[dokko]

there are quite a few people on this forum testing different developers with Copex.

I usually use Spur Dokuspeed SL, which is kinda pricy but gives excellent negatives:

https://spur-photo.com/wp-content/uploads/Data-Sheet-SPUR-Dokuspeed-SL.pdf

 

[Minox]

I used to cut this film, the Agfa Copex (bought in 35mm cassettes), shot it at 12-25 ASA and process it in either Spur's own or Rollei RLC. The second dev here gave a good tonal range with less contrast, for which this film is notorious.

 

[Sergey Ko]

ADOX CMS20II is the analog (or repacking) of Agfa Copex. So you can use
ADOX ADOTECH IV that is recommended.

https://www.fotoimpex.com/shop/images/products/media/62175_4_PDF-Datenblatt.pdf

About film speed we can only guess. I''ll try 6ASA from my practice. The main problem of an old film is not the drop in speed but veil.

Minox 8x11 with ADOX CMS20II :

 

[dokko]

ADOX CMS20II is the analog (or repacking) of Agfa Copex.

that's incorrect, they are two different micro film emulsions, with CMS 20 II being significantly higher resolution and finer grain, but also lower sensitivity.

I often wondered how Copex reacts to being processed in Adotech IV. someday I will try

 

[Sergey Ko]

that's incorrect, they are two different micro film emulsions, with CMS 20 II being significantly higher resolution and finer grain, but also lower sensitivity.

I often wondered how Copex reacts to being processed in Adotech IV. someday I will try

I can't research this myself, I just repeat the rumors I read a lot. It was not the only Agfa Copex emulsion, also was Copex Rapid, etc. I can hardly believe that ADOX produced something NEW. If they did, why the stocks now is practically empty?

 

[dokko]

I can't research this myself, I just repeat the rumors I read a lot. It was not the only Agfa Copex emulsion, also was Copex Rapid, etc. I can hardly believe that ADOX produced something NEW. If they did, why the stocks now is practically empty?

oh, Adox CMS 20 II is indeed an Agfa Microfilm confectioned by Adox (they don't make a secret out of this), just not the same as sold as Agfa Copex.

Agfa has stopped all micro film production, Adox still has some CMS 20 II stock but can't buy new one. there's also some Agfa Copex out there but also only as stock lasts.

There's a thread somewhere on this forum where Adox directly writes about this.