Orwo B&W film

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PhotoBob

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I recently was given a whole bunch of film, i.e. bricks of 120 sized Orwo which is a German film. It is quite outdated, I shot a few rolls, processed them and one roll came out not too bad despite the fact that the stuff expired about 15-16 years ago!
Does anyone out there have experience with this film, I never heard of it or knew of its existence till it was given to me.
Is it comparable to Ilford - Kodak - Agfa?
I found a little data on the Internet but would like information from the group if possible.
Thank you
 

kapro

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It's old East German film. Company (Agfa Wolfen)was founded somewhen at the begining of 20th century, nationalized after the WW II. Production under the name ORWO (Original Wolfen) has been running since 1964 (remember well, it’s my birthday year). During the communist era it was one of the best films money can buy in Czechoslovakia. Most probably those were similar to Agfa films as it was production of old nationalized Agfa factory. Orwo factory produced some of the Agfa’s “fake” developers as well.
 

Brac

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In the 80's & 90's there was a company in the UK regularly importing most of the Orwo range - NP22 (ISO125) & NP27 (ISO400) in both 120 & 35mm plus NP15 in 35mm. I liked the NP22 a lot - quite a robust & easy to develop film. I've still got some rolls in the frieezer which I won't part with. But the NP27 was quite grainy which could be useful in some situations. I recently sold my last rolls of that on ebay! Later when Orwo stopped film production, they rebadged some Ilford films but I understand they are now completely out of business. But the Orwo chemicals continue in production by Calbe and some are rebadged for Adox.
 

Kino

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ORWO is still alive and makes strictly b&w film, both still and motion picture, in a tiny little corner of a vast plot of land that used to be the Wolfen Agfa Plant. They may show color on their website, but that is not made in house.

(note: I now see in google searches that there are claims that all the still film is being made by Illford -- don't know for sure)

http://www.filmotec.de/English_Site/english_site.html

As I was told by the Managing Director, Ranier Redman and Frank Bohme, their physicist and marketing director, all the emulsion formulas are modern and NOT revamped AGFA emulsion recipes; which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you think!

I have used their DP3 Panchromatic Fine Grain Interpostitive motion picture film in 35mm to minimize dichroic fog and colored deterioration stains on the restoration of "The Man from Planet X" and Val Lewton's "Cat People", to name only a few.

On "MFPX", the original camera negative had developed a dichroic fog on certain sections of the negative that was yellow in color (blocking blue light), so when we printed it on the ortho 2302 Print Stock, the all but invisible stain printed almost solid black! Quite confusing at first, until I caught a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye while examining the negative to try to find the cause of the printing error. We retested the negative for DP3 and exposed the interpositive using yellow light and the stains largely disappeared.

We could NOT use Kodak 2366 Fine Grain Interpositive stock, as it is strictly orthocromatic.

It is a good stock; it only runs a bit "hotter" than similar Kodak stocks in Kodak chemistry and has a more classic grain structure than the T-grain stocks (bit clumpier grain).

Sorry for wandering off topic...
 
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PhotoBob

PhotoBob

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OrWo

Boy, I'll tell ya ... I am sure glad to find APUG.
Thanks guys so much for the information.
I have boxes and boxes of 120 Orwo. I processed some after exposure and even though it is about 16 years out of date have found what looks like printable images on the ISO400 roll.

Take Care,
 

nworth

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I haven't used ORWO film since some time near the date of your films. At that time their 100 speed film was an old style, thick emulsion film with medium grain and decent sharpness. It had pretty good gradation, however, and produced pretty decent pictures. I had no objections. I suspect it would probably perform decently despite a certain amount of exposure and development abuse. But these old style films had fairly short expiration times - for good reason. Over time they gain fog and grain and loose speed. As long as you have the stuff, you may as well try it. But don't expect much - the age has probably taken its toll. It develops well in D-76. You may need some benzotriazole.
 

Changeling1

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brsc@telus.net said:
I recently was given a whole bunch of film, i.e. bricks of 120 sized Orwo which is a German film. It is quite outdated, I shot a few rolls, processed them and one roll came out not too bad despite the fact that the stuff expired about 15-16 years ago!
Does anyone out there have experience with this film, I never heard of it or knew of its existence till it was given to me.
Is it comparable to Ilford - Kodak - Agfa?
I found a little data on the Internet but would like information from the group if possible.
Thank you

Freestyle used to sell tons of it back in the 80s and into the 90s. Wasn't my cup of tea but I know they sold a gang of the stuff.
 

glbeas

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I have some in the basement fridge, the 400 speed stuff age fogged but the 125 speed was nice and clean. I processed it in Rodinal 1:50. Don't have the times with me though, they are down in the dungeon and I'm two floors up from it right now.
 

Magnus W

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I have about 15 rolls of 135/36 NP20 (80 ASA). They expired in January 93, but have been in the freezer all the time. I'm looking forward to a little experimentation.

-- MW
 

Mark Layne

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I have several bricks of Orwopan 125 35mm which I have been told is rebadged FP4. Frankly it looks more like Apx 100, however at least one brick is unuseable due to scratches clearly visible the length of the film
Mark
 

Curt

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I used ORWO, I think I bought it from Freestyle in the '70's, and used it in the '70 and got some really nice results. Test it and use it and enjoy using a classic film.
 

Brac

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Kino said:
ORWO is still alive and makes strictly b&w film, both still and motion picture, in a tiny little corner of a vast plot of land that used to be the Wolfen Agfa Plant. They may show color on their website, but that is not made in house.

(note: I now see in google searches that there are claims that all the still film is being made by Illford -- don't know for sure)

http://www.filmotec.de/English_Site/english_site.html

As I was told by the Managing Director, Ranier Redman and Frank Bohme, their physicist and marketing director, all the emulsion formulas are modern and NOT revamped AGFA emulsion recipes; which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you think!

It's interesting to read this. What seem to have survived are niche products for motion picture stock, holography etc etc but not general purpose films for still cameras. Probably wise because even now there is still a lot of people making B & W camera films (far more than are making colour)
 
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PhotoBob

PhotoBob

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Hi Everyone:
Thank you all once again for your two-bits worth, I have really appreciated your time here.
I shot and processed another roll of the NP27 (I think) ISO400 ORWO 120 film and the negs look alright. I follow the time in my Kodak Darkroom Data Guide for Tri-X roll film and processed at about 21 celcius for about 5.5min.
 
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