Silvermax film

Well, Maco once converted stock made for type 135 into type 120

Click to expand...

Well, they drowned in claims for these true "roll-films" (lack of NC layer) plus the only way they got these made was hand-rolling at Fotokemikas.
For each of the above reasons this film would not have passed our QC.
We manufactured a stach of state of the art 35mm film on 35mm base intended for Super8 and 35mm. When the film was ready to slit Ferrania was to close it´s doors (back then it looked final) and our slitting capacities were not yet set up so we slit all material to pancakes. Silvermax as well as the PAN 400 (which failed). Both are made on the same batch of base. These pancakes ae now cool stored and we have Material available for at least 4-5 years. Before this date I see little chances to even consider a remanufacturing apart from the other reasons I gave. All you technically thinking people need to start involving economics in your thought process. Fotokemika did not voluntarily gave up last year because the were making to much money. The same for Ilford/Switzerland and all others in the imaging market.
Not everything which might be technically possible can be done after evaluating the costs and (very important second number) necessary investment volume.

We do what we can, promise ;-)

Mirko

I (and more people than just me I'm sure) am very grateful for the work that you do.
Silvermax has become my standard small format film and MCC 110 the paper of choice. When the CHS II is ready in LF I will use that one as well. I really wish you guys the best and I'm very grateful that you are there.
Thanks Mirko

Thank you Mirko.

I was only referring to what would be technically possible, also hinting at shortcomings of such solutions.

That any step in production (making, converting, packaging etc.) must also be related to expected sales (or rather profits) is obvious. We typically don't know these relations, but still might speculate on why something is not offered.

Jesper said:

I (and more people than just me I'm sure) am very grateful for the work that you do.
Silvermax has become my standard small format film and MCC 110 the paper of choice. When the CHS II is ready in LF I will use that one as well. I really wish you guys the best and I'm very grateful that you are there.
Thanks Mirko

Click to expand...

+1

Time for another order of Silvermax I think.

It's always good to have someone like Mirko here to constantly remind us that it's not always financially possible to do something. While there is a list of films I would love to see offered by ADOX or any company, I doubt they will see the light of day simply because of economics. That ADOX can stay in business and even being able to maintain their selection of films is amazing to me. Kodak and Fuji each have shrunk their film lines down to only a few offerings is very telling to me about what the film world is doing.

Unfortunately the best we can hope for would be for some billionaire to step in and give a company like ADOX several hundred million Euros without any strings attached. I seriously doubt that is going to happen.

Thank you Mirko for everything your company is doing. We do appreciate it, even if we sometimes sound like whiny kids who are never happy.

ADOX Fotoimpex said:

We manufactured a stach of state of the art 35mm film on 35mm base intended for Super8 and 35mm.

Click to expand...

Mirko, can you comment on the advantages of the Silvermax developer over other developers?

Thanks,

Tony

Mirko, can you comment on the advantages of the Silvermax developer over other developers?

Click to expand...

Here´s a quick extract of the product page taken from www.adox.de:

ADOX SILVERMAX Developer

SILVERMAX developer has ben especially formulated for the SILVERMAX 21 film.
It is activating the silent reserve sleeping in each SILVERMAX 21 film by expanding the photographic capabilities of the film.
The DMAX is reduced and the curve extended. Thus SILVERMAX developer yields in combination with SILVERMAX 21 film a total of up to 14 zones in the negative.

Confectioning:

Ready to go Kit for 6 films including ADOFIX and ADOFLO*
50 ml to mix 1,5 Liters of developer and to process up to 6 rolls of film*
250 ml to mix 7,5 Liters of developer and to process up to 30 rolls of film*
(*In a Jobo tank filled with 250 ml of developer per film)

Dilution: 1+29 (10 ml plus 290 ml of water to mix 300 ml)

Developing time for SILVERMAX 21 film:

11 Minutes at 20°C

(Agitate the first half minute continuosly and then tilt every 30 seconds once)

PDF Datasheet

________________________________

I have underlined the important line. The developer is specially formulated to modify the characteristic curve of the film in a way that you have a normal grade in the midtones but extended coverage in the ends. You could theoretically take another developer and start adding or taking out chemicals and run test rows to optimize this developer as well. In the end (depending on the type of developer) you might end up with similar results.
If you just change the dilution/developing time you will not get to this extend of curve modification.

However: Any deveoper will develop Silvermax to greyscales and a latidute which is at least comparable to other high quality B&W films.

When we introduced Silvermax some people stated that "etxra silver" was just a marketing gag as it would be useless. In some way they were right. If you do not use a specially formulated developer you "give away" most of the advantage in negative/positive work.
(If you reverse-develop the film however you benefit from the extra DMAX).

I hope this makes sense to everyone.

Mirko

Thank you, Mirko. I'll order the developer as well.

Dear photographers,

I wrote

> Silvermax is Scala 200, which is based on APX 100

That may be misleading. Silvermax is made using the scala recipes, but its is not Scala from 2005 or earlier. It is fresh material.

I value the forthrightness of Mirko an Adox, all details on all product of Adox are available, nothing is hidden. And I value of course their initiative to enrich the market with own products.