Professional Quality B+W Film Manufacturers, Circa 2012 - Who?

Sirius Glass said:

I have with and for companies that got the SO 9000/9001 accreditation, and then went back to what they were doing before. They just wanted the accreditation for the bragging rights.

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... and those bagging rights can be quite valuable when bidding on contracts. ISO 9000 accreditation is very impressive to most source selection teams. The challenge can be when the contract is executed -- when the rubber meets the road. If the company is really committed to the quality process then all goes well; if not or if those processes aren't fully integrated in all divisions, then it might not go well.

Sirius Glass said:

I have with and for companies that got the SO 9000/9001 accreditation, and then went back to what they were doing before. They just wanted the accreditation for the bragging rights.

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Specifically those bragging rights translate into money.

For ISO 9001 ( at least in the UK, presumably everywhere ) you get audited big style every year, you have to earn the right to keep your accreditation, you have to correct every 'deviation' from the procedural steps.

ISO 9001 is a lot of work....but it is obviously is a huge benefit, to the products and to the business, we also run TQM which is a TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT discipline, in reality it means everyone is responsible for quality... at the end of the day quality products enhance your reputation and brand and significantly for most businesses reduce waste, which in the photo coating industry can be a very high due to the nature of the manufacturing process ( meaning you have manufacture an interim product that turns into something else ) where we have zero defect / zero risk regime, up to 10% of what you coat may never leave the factory, thats a lot of film and paper.

Simon ILFORD photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

We have ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 13485 (medical), ISO TS 16949 (automotive), OHSAS 18001 (occupational health) and ISO 14001 (environmental management).

The idea of having all of those certificates is that customers and potential customers can tell if you are the sort of company they want to deal with without having to do their own audits. i.e. they trust BSI to do the audits for them. The reality though is that most customer come and audit us anyway!


Steve.

Sorry Andre that I did'nt answer your question sooner. Agfa-Gevaert in Morsel Belgium still produces technical films (5 Aerial films from 20 to 400 Asa and Copex one of the sharpest and highest resolving films that requires special development like tech pan) that can be used for normal photography but they do have a higher red sensitivity (Superpanachromatic), despite other claims they also produce B/W paper Rapitone (unfortunately PE only). Agfa also produces motion picture sound and print film and is in fact Nr. 2 in the European market after Kodak and on the rise in North America some people prefer it to vision premiere. The problem with the Rollei/Agfa films is that they tend to be quiet contrasty and Rollei cheats with the film speed the 400S is not as one would believe the 400 ASA version of Aviphot but the 200ASA version. So exposing @400ASA is in fact a one stop push. If you use Pyro developer don't use Aviphot they don't work well together imho.

Foma Creative 200 is one of the most beautiful film currently available unfortunately the Q.C. isn't always up to snuff.

Dominik

Rollei RPX 100 is Ilford Kentmere 100.
Rollei RPX 400 is Ilford Kentmere 400.

This was the first I heard of this. I thought Rollei RPX 100 was supposed to be left over APX from the master rolls that was just re-branded, while Kentmere 100 I thought was a T-grained film. I was going to give Kentmere 100 a try since Freestyle sells 'em so cheap (and Fuji Acros is going up in price in the very near future I was told) but I seem to recall it received mostly poor reviews from users when it came out. I also find this hard to believe since Agfa APX 100 was a very popular film.

>Rollei RPX 100 was supposed to be left over APX from the master rolls
This is (was) Rollei Retro 100.

> Kentmere 100 I thought was a T-grained film
Kentemere film are of normal grain. They are similar to the old ORWO films.

Ah OK so then what exactly are ORWO films?

ORWO/Wolfen (former Agfa) produeced all GDR film. I thought some of you might still remember them.

marcmarc said:

Ah OK so then what exactly are ORWO films?

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ORWO was the state owned film manufacturer in former East Germany (GDR).
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORWO

The current films carrying the name ORWO are for cine-cameras and some technical purposes, but are now made by a company called Filmotec. The tradename Orwo cannot be used for stills-camera films for some reason. The current range is at this page, but probably only the camera neg films are of interest, UN54 and N74+.

Over at RFF, some people have bulk-loaded the Orwo cine films for use similar to the Kodak 5222 film, but the results are not quite so attractive. There is no convenient single thread to link to, but you can search the forum there.

EDIT: It seems that Filmotec don't coat the emulsion in-house, only the slitting and packaging and so on. Apparently they specify their products to an external supplier, Innoviscoat? Agfa-Gevaert? Who knows . . .

MartinP said:

The current films carrying the name ORWO are for cine-cameras and some technical purposes, but are now made by a company called Filmotec.
Over at RFF, some people have bulk-loaded the Orwo cine films but the results are not quite so attractive.
EDIT: It seems that Filmotec don't coat the emulsion in-house, only the slitting and packaging and so on. .

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That is one I wonder about also. My limited testing with the N74 seems to have it with a 6 minute time in HC-110 B. Grain is slightly more than some other films. It has possibilities as a general 400 speed film.

Filmotec Only markets it as a movie film, but the north American distributor seems to be encouraging its use as a still film. Like all movie films, the edge printing is footage numbers rather than frame numbers, but with the KeyKode style number system, their is something to reference beside almost every shot to match Proof sheet with negative strip.

Anyone knowing the ultimate source of the film?

I never heard of OROW but they were a bit before my time. After looking at their website, it appears that they mostly make movie film correct? I thought Kodak had cornered the market on that front. Anyway, maybe I'll give Kentmere 100 a try.