New Ilfocolor C-41 negative film?

railwayman3 · Apr 5, 2008

Ebay item no. 320236250080 currently offers 12 rolls of "Ilfocolor HR1000 35mm negative film", C-41 process, ASA1000, expiry 1/9/08. There is a pic of the boxes and cassette which look typically "Ilford" house style.
Is this a new product...I didn't think that Ilford had produced color film for many years?
I'd quite like to try color from Ilford, if only to support them for the efforts which they are putting into their black-and-white products.

snallan · Apr 5, 2008

Harman/Ilford Photo are only doing B&W materials. The "Ilfocolor" name was kept by Ilford, the part acquired by Oji Paper in 2005, and is used for their range of display products. As far as I am aware, and I could be wrong, they do not produce, or market any colour films.

The seller account also seems a little odd. It was created in Jan 2005, there were two transactions (both purchases) in 2006, and the seller is asking for payment by debit or credit card, to a mobile phone number. Smells a little off to me.

mabman · Apr 5, 2008

Well, if the expiry date is in 2008, depending on their regular practice the production date would be 2-4 years before that for consumer films (I believe), which would put it up to 2004, around the time Ilford declared bankruptcy.

It seems possible to me that this would be from one of the last production runs, as I don't think the entities that bought Ilford's assets produce colour film anymore.

AgX · Apr 6, 2008

Ilford Imaging (Oji) only does silver-dye-bleach material concerning halide based materials.

Ilford released in 1960 a film called Ilfacolor which ran from 1962-? as Ilfocolor.

I guess the film in question is a film from some other manufacturer rebranded by Ilford for some markets before they split up.

AgX · Apr 6, 2008

To my understanding IlfordPhoto (Harman) not even have got the facility to economically coat multilayer colour film.

snallan · Apr 6, 2008

mabman said:
Well, if the expiry date is in 2008, depending on their regular practice the production date would be 2-4 years before that for consumer films (I believe), which would put it up to 2004, around the time Ilford declared bankruptcy.

It seems possible to me that this would be from one of the last production runs, as I don't think the entities that bought Ilford's assets produce colour film anymore.

If I remember correctly (and Simon would be able to correct me here), Ilford abandoned colour film and paper, other than Cibachrome, in the early seventies.

ath · Apr 6, 2008

AgX said:
Ilford Imaging (Oji) only does silver-dye-bleach material concerning halide based materials.

They do colour materials for RA-4 called ilfocolor: http://www.ilford.com/en/products/ilfocolor/ilfoflex.asp and http://www.ilford.com/en/pdf/prods/ilfocolor/IlfoflexDigital.pdf

railwayman3 · Apr 6, 2008

AgX said:
Ilford Imaging (Oji) only does silver-dye-bleach material concerning halide based materials.

Ilford released in 1960 a film called Ilfacolor which ran from 1962-? as Ilfocolor.

I guess the film in question is a film from some other manufacturer rebranded by Ilford for some markets before they split up.

I was wondering if that were the case...seems a bit odd, though, to rebrand a 1000ASA film? I dont think that there are many (or any?) readily available C-41 films of that speed, and rebranded films usually seem to be the "everyday" 200 or 100ASA versions.

I mentioned Ilford colour films to an older photographer friend today...he remembers Ilfochrome colour slide from the late 50's/early 60's which seemed to be a Kodachrome-type and was good quality for era. In the 1960's it appears that they were overtaken by improvements in other brands, and in the later 60's Ilford offered free extras with the processing, such as replacement film, slide filing sheets and even a monthly magazine. Unfortunately these marketing ploys failed to save a product which had basically become uncompetitive in quality.

The various Ilford colour neg films also apparently never seemed to gain much market share, and again seemed to disappear from sale as more modern products started to appear.

AgX · Apr 6, 2008

Andreas,

Many thanks for correcting me on the RA-4 materials from Ilford Imaging.

It has been so long that I was busy with RA-4 that I totally forgot about them.

Railwayman,

I did not realize from that film name that it is an ISO 1000 film, in this case it is really weird.
Or..., not that much if one thinks of an ISO 800 (Ferrania?) film being `pushed´ whilst rebranding. (I guess the ISO standard would give that tolerance.)

Brac · Apr 29, 2008

The pre-Harman Technology Ilford company stopped making colour film decades ago but over subsequent years they did distribute other manufacturer's films under the Ilford label. At one time these were made by Konica and then by Agfa but distribution in the UK ceased long ago. However it seems some relabelled products were still distributed for other markets. The last I have seen was an Ilford Colour Plus 100 ISO 35mm negative film with an expiry date of 2001. It was made by Ferrania in Italy and judging by some of the languages and scripts on the box, was probably intended for sale in the mid/far east. This was of course well before the creation of Harman Technology and as they are only able to use the Ilford brand label for existing black & white products it is difficult to know exactly what the ebay seller was actually offering. I guess the expression "buyer beware" applies!

Ian Grant · Apr 29, 2008

I still have a couple of rolls of exposed but unprocessed E6 Ilfochrome, this was re-badged Konica/Sakura film. The major problem was the film was nowhere near as good as Fuji or even Kodak E6 films.

Ian

Stephen Furley · Jun 5, 2008

I have some pictures of my last (6th) birthday party. They were taken on Ilford colour negative film. This was sold process paid, and the film was returned cut up and mounted in cardboard mounts, like slides. The mounts were blue, whereas the slide films were mounted in pink/red mounts. A strip of contact prints was supplied with the negative films, but no enlargements. This was printed on unperforated 35mm wide paper, coiled up in the box with the mounted negatives. Even by the standards of the day, 1963, I wouldn't say the film was very good; Kodacolor-X was better. I remember using a roll of Ilford slide film in my Kodak Instamatic 25 camera during a school trip in 1967, but the results are lost, and I can't remember what they were like. I think they gave up colour film not too long after this. Ilford also used to sell Standard 8mm movie film, in packs of four rolls. I think they were probably right to concentrate on black and white materials.

Ian Grant · Jun 6, 2008

Ilford might have been a force in the colour film market but they were forced to stop all research into colour films etc during WWII, this was the period of major advances by both Agfa and Kodak. It was always going to be a major problem catching up,Ilford always worked with partners on colour technology, these included ICI and later Ciba Geigy.

Ian

New Ilfocolor C-41 negative film?

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