Silver Tone 400

[rogueish]

A couple weeks ago I was at a camera shop and was buying film. I got my usual Ilford (HP5,FP4,) and asked for a couple rolls of Agfa 400.
Fast forward to last Saturday. went to pop in some film and in the canister was not Agfa's APX400 but a roll of Silver Tone 400.
It doesn't say Agfa (or AgfaPhoto) on it, has NO manufacters name. Other than "for black and white prints", "made in germany", and 400 ISO 24 exp" and "DX135" there is nothing else.
Any one heard of this film, is it actually Agfa, and is the developing time the same as APX400?
Oh and the next time I buy film, I'll be looking in the canister BEFORE I pay.

 

[oriecat]

Is it like this stuff? It says it is Agfa too, but I see no mention of this film on their website.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=74917&item=3857168151&rd=1

 

[titrisol]

Yes it is Agfapan 400
I used that film (it was cheapo) and it looks horrible in Rodinal.... grainy and very compressed midtones

 

[rogueish]

Oriecat:
Yes that's the stuff. As you can see it doesn't say Afga on the actual product, thats what made it a little suspect. I was at the Agfaphoto site last night, but it didn't seem to co-operate well with my Mac. Only half the page would load and wierd spacing on the little I could get. None of the links would work, so I didn't even get a chance to search for the film.

Titrisol:
Thanks for the confirmation and the warning. Looks like I'll be doing it in some Ilford HC instead of the Rodinal.

Agfa:
Put your NAME on it!

 

[rogueish]

over developed?

Just developed the rolls of this Silver Tone 400 film. Ilford HC 1+31 for 8.5 min. Couldn't find any develop info for it. Looked at the time differences between APX100 and 400 in the different developers. Then took an wild guess

If a film is over developed, will the film base look grainy instead of completely clear? At first I thought I didn't fix long enough, but there is a definite grain to it. Refixed a cut off strip and no change. Put the leader into the fix and the film base is completely clear (as I figured it would be, but had to check)

Oh and the film it's self does not say AGFA. The only text is the frame numbers and ISO400.

 

[fhovie]

Agfa 400 was not their best product - The APX100 on the other hand is a great film - I found the 400 to really be 200 at best and it did not respond well to pushing. - Better stick with a developer that is kind to grain - like an XTOL or high solvent developer like Microdol or D23. I still have a good number of rolls of the APX400 left - I save them for tests and experiments - so far I have made some pretty decent photos with it - but if I blow it I have not wasted a roll of TRI-X.

 

[rjr]

"If a film is over developed, will the film base look grainy instead of completely clear?"

Could be - you´d have a higher base fog.

Clear(er) base would indicate that it actually is "new APX400", the old one had a greyish base (they actually called it Greybase).

You can usually identify bulk- or "Private Imaging"-films made by Agfa from the canisters they come it. They use the same as Agfa, the all black matte kind with the special cap.

Haven´t used APX400 in a long time... the old one was nothing special, muddy if exposed or developed wrong and not much different from early 1990s- Agfapan 400. But they actually changed it with the new packaging and base.

 

[rogueish]

I've got 2 developers Rodinal and Ilford HC (I'd like try a couple more but blew all my $$ on christmas). It looks like I slightly over developed as the the cut off lead went clear in the fixer and my negs have a base fog (still has a rodinal grain look to it IMO). Still printable though. Now I know 8.5 min is too long. If I ever get stuck with this film again, I'll shorten it to 7min and see what happens.
RJR is right about the canister, that's exactly what this film came in.
Thanks all!

 

[Brac]

If neither the film cassette label or the film rebate says Agfa then it's rather questionable whether this is Agfa film; at the very least it's something that's been cut from a long roll and repacked by a retailer, not by the manufacturer. Possibly it is from some kind of surveilance film - the name "Silver Tone" is probably a fancy title thought up by the retailer.