Orwo introduces a new film WOLFEN NP100

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 25, 2022

Saw this on FB:

"Introducing WOLFEN NP100… our brand new black and white photo film!

On social media you can find photographers new & old shooting expired rolls of original ORWO films such as NP15, NP20, and NP27. These films are still producing wonderful results even though their expiration dates were during the 70s!

This community inspired us to produce a brand new ‘NP’ addition to this world-famous range of photo films.

WOLFEN NP100 is an exceptionally fine grain 100 ASA, 36 exposure, black and white photographic film. This is one of the first professionally finished films launched by the company in decades, proudly still produced in Bitterfeld-Wolfen on the original site where film manufacture has been a tradition since 1910.

NP100 has been made available on a strictly limited run of 36,000 cassettes (36 exposures) and is right now being packaged into Industry standard DX coded steel canisters on our brand new finishing line.

We previously said that shipping was expected to start in April but due to transport delays earlier in the timeline, shipping is now expected to begin in June.

Pre-orders will launch on Friday 30th April on our new online store, orwo.shop. Be sure to follow us on social media and sign up here to stay connected with all the latest updates."

Some examples of work made with this film can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/

Fortepun · Apr 25, 2022

I, for one am very excited for what ORWO can do now. Next will be a color cinema stock from them, but I'll sure try out Wolfie, the new ISO100 black and white film that I'm just calling Wolfie from now one for no good reason.

Full Orwo blogpost with more sample shots: https://www.orwo.wtf/blog/introducing-wolfen-np100-our-brand-new-black-and-white-photo-film

Andrew O'Neill · Apr 25, 2022

Only in 35mm?

Fortepun · Apr 25, 2022

Andrew O'Neill said:
Only in 35mm?

Yes.

lantau · Apr 26, 2022

I wonder what the deal is with the limited edition of 36000 rolls. Is this film going to disappear again, or is it some sort of prototype release. A beta test.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 26, 2022

36000 rolls = 1 master roll?

Maybe there are several more master rolls, but is it worth confectioning them is something that the sales of these 36000 rolls will help decide.

AgX · Apr 26, 2022

We should not overlook that Filmotec already has a 19DIN film at offer.

Raghu Kuvempunagar · Apr 26, 2022

AgX said:
We should not overlook that Filmotec already has a 19DIN film at offer.

Orwo UN54? I heard it is no longer available as bulk roll. Is that true?

fdonadio · Apr 26, 2022

Fortepun said:
I'm just calling Wolfie from now one for no good reason.

Well, for a guy that calls himself “Fortepun”, that’s pretty much expected.

I, for one, love this kind of joke, so… keep ‘em coming!

Klaus_H · Apr 26, 2022

It seems that the announcement of an offer limited to 36000 films is a marketing campaign.
Limit an offer in terms of quantity and many customers will buy more than they need, there might not be any more supplies.

Ernst-Jan · Apr 26, 2022

Another b/w film that is only available in 135, it's great news, but not really interesting for me.

But this sentence (or part of a sentence) triggers me 'and is right now being packaged into Industry standard DX coded steel canisters on our brand new finishing line.'

A new film finishing line! That's great news!

AgX · Apr 26, 2022

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
Orwo UN54? I heard it is no longer available as bulk roll. Is that true?

No idea. It was never listed by them as 30m roll, if you mean that. But about last year they changed their sales policy and turned more towards amateur photographers.

In any case UN54 is still listed as such.

fdonadio · Apr 26, 2022

Ernst-Jan said:
A new film finishing line! That's great news!

That’s the part that I’m most curious about. Ferrania is trying to get their finishing line up and running (maybe they already did) and then, out of nowhere, comes ORWO and say they have a brand new finishing line? WTF??

AgX · Apr 26, 2022

Filmotec has got own conversion machinery. From the start.

What they did not have so far is the ability for spooling type 135. As this is a product for a market they did not serve in the past.

AgX · Apr 26, 2022

In their statement they use the term "professionally finished films".

It is enigmatic to me, moreover the whole respective sentence makes no sense to me.

But this happened not the first time in such kind of announcements. Those either are written by someone not informed or deliberately worded to confuse.

Ernst-Jan · Apr 26, 2022

AgX said:
What they lacked so far is the ability for spooling type 135.

But that is not a readily available set of machines to do so, that you can order at "Machinine- und Anlagenbau Um die Ecke GmbH"
I think this is the real bottleneck for Kodak and Fuji, as far as I know our friend Henning stated that making the pancakes was not the problem.

AgX · Apr 26, 2022

Well, I just reworded my post, as they did not lack it but rather did not have it. By lack of need...

And as long Filmotec will not crank out thousands of cassettes a day the investment hardly will make sense. More so in their current insolvency. A fact overlooked too.

pentaxuser · Apr 26, 2022

So this is a brand new film, never made before but is only going to be released in a limited run of 36,000. Given the time effort and cost of devising and then producing a brand new film why would you only have a limited release of 36,000? Does that make any sense in terms of the economics of devising and making a brand new film?

Maybe ORWO has aimed this whole announcement at what it perceives as the new film buyers who adore or are assumed to adore such tactics as using meaningless phrases such "a limited edition"

It is as if it has decided that this is the right level to pitch an announcement at a set of potential consumers who have no ability or desire to examine the text and then ask questions.

It come perilously close to insulting their intelligence and gets close to the kind of sales pitch used by that late but unlamented army of double glazing salesmen who cold-called on your house.

Anyone know what makes it exceptionally fine grained i.e. by what standards has ORWO declared it to be exceptional

I wonder what the reaction would be if Ilford had announced its new Ortho film in a similar manner with a limited edition of X thousand films only

{Moderator's deletion of off topic comment}

pentaxuser

faberryman · Apr 26, 2022

Ferrania redux. Expect a deluge of cat pictures to follow.

Fortepun · Apr 26, 2022

pentaxuser said:
So this is a brand new film, never made before but is only going to be released in a limited run of 36,000. Given the time effort and cost of devising and then producing a brand new film why would you only have a limited release of 36,000? Does that make any sense in terms of the economics of devising and making a brand new film?

Maybe ORWO has aimed this whole announcement at what it perceives as the new film buyers who adore or are assumed to adore such tactics as using meaningless phrases such "a limited edition"

It is as if it has decided that this is the right level to pitch an announcement at a set of potential consumers who have no ability or desire to examine the text and then ask questions.

It come perilously close to insulting their intelligence and gets close to the kind of sales pitch used by that late but unlamented army of double glazing salesmen who cold-called on your house.

Anyone know what makes it exceptionally fine grained i.e. by what standards has ORWO declared it to be exceptional

I wonder what the reaction would be if Ilford had announced its new Ortho film in a similar manner with a limited edition of X thousand films only

I have to go now as the wife says that an Indian gentleman is on the phone kindly telling her that he is part of Microsoft and has just discovered a virus in my computer

pentaxuser

I think they will produce as much of Wolfie (yes, that's how I call this film) as possible, but ORWO is fairly unknown outside of Europe (perhaps), and so they announced that they will make 36000 in this batch, see how the market reacts, and then once it's gone, they will produce more. It makes sense to me, and it's certainly not a limited edition. It's just the first batch.

flavio81 · Apr 26, 2022

Nice, but the real good news will be color film. Because the market is already saturated with B/W film.

pentaxuser · Apr 26, 2022

Fortepun said:
I think they will produce as much of Wolfie (yes, that's how I call this film) as possible, but ORWO is fairly unknown outside of Europe (perhaps), and so they announced that they will make 36000 in this batch, see how the market reacts, and then once it's gone, they will produce more. It makes sense to me, and it's certainly not a limited edition. It's just the first batch.

Yes one would hope that they will and that ORWO has gambled correctly that the time, cost and effort that went into this making this new film will be repaid in sales

In all of this is there in fact any real evidence that this film was recently devised and made "from scratch" and if so, might it be that the profit from even 36,000 films will cover all the costs including the opportunity cost of not doing something else that might have returned a better benefit to cost?

I just don't know enough about film manufacture to even hazzard a guess as to what sales might be needed to give a positive return on 36,000 films

The use of the word new or at least the strong implication that a film is new has been used so intemperately in recent times that sooner or later the cynicism used by the marketeers will bite them back when nobody will believe anything that is said even by reputable companies

pentaxuser

cmacd123 · Apr 26, 2022

milestones That I have observed,

1) N74 is replaced by N75, which is finished (at least the roll I got) on Non-Keycode MP machine, (mechanicaly produced latent image footage numbers and no Bar Code)
2) By mysterious GP3 400 Bulk roll with N74 markings.
3) Filmotec and others bought out by Vulture Capitalists.
4) rumor that N75 is coated by the folks that bought agfas former coating plant.
5) Lomography starts selling Potsdam and other films matching specs of N75 and UN54.
6) vultures announce Motion Picture colour film. (out of the blue)
7) Now a limited edition of another 100ISO film, this time Packaged as still film, from an "All-NEW" conversion plant.

Not really enough to go on to figure out what plan if any there may be.

OH, and the same Vulture group has set up "ORWO Studios" in the US. is this a customer for the colour MP film?

I guess if they keep us guessing that they will get attention.

Lachlan Young · Apr 26, 2022

Raghu Kuvempunagar said:
36000 rolls = 1 master roll?

Maybe there are several more master rolls, but is it worth confectioning them is something that the sales of these 36000 rolls will help decide.

35-40,000 rolls of 135 is about what a minimum coating length on an average width coating machine will produce. Roughly 1600m x coating width. It's quite probably Orwo/ Inoviscoat UN54 but filled into 135 canisters. It'll be interesting to see if they've acquired a new perforator or are using BH perfs for the still material.

Europan · Apr 27, 2022

Steel canisters is proof of ignorance, at least to me. They are made of aluminium.

Orwo introduces a new film WOLFEN NP100

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