Status of film manufacturing in the world

[Wayne]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was a manufacturer in India (possible photo papers) ???

http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-india-factories-20151016-story.html

 

[captain ZZM]

Is this the same as Shanghai GP3?

Are you certain SHD 100 is still in production? Amazing that it don't get mentioned more often in this forum, i would guess it is a very cheap film which should make it easy to sell!

I correct it, Lucky is stop production B/W film, however in the market have a batch of new SHD100 exp 2017.08 because Lucky "packed" it, maybe it is old stock. And Lucky has selling a new B/W sheet film "for portrait", it exp 2018.06 and l think Lucky just packing it.

 

[xczk]

Svema (and Tasma)
I understand they are not producing any film anymore. Who purchased Svema's machines?

Svema (Ukraine) now selling films and papers under Astrum brand.
Tasma still in business too. Sell some aerofilms.
Slavich papers (Russia) are available worldwide.

 

[pdeeh]

Is this the same as Shanghai GP3?

Are you certain SHD 100 is still in production? Amazing that it don't get mentioned more often in this forum, i would guess it is a very cheap film which should make it easy to sell!

gp3 not the same as lucky.

lucky shd was horrible horrible film. I never had a roll that didn't have scratches all over it in the cassette.

gp3 though I really liked and miss it. except for the curl which was like a pigs tail.

 

[Arctic amateur]

Are you certain SHD 100 is still in production? Amazing that it don't get mentioned more often in this forum, i would guess it is a very cheap film which should make it easy to sell!

It was cheap once, but not anymore. Only two sellers on eBay right, now, and the price is comparable to T-Max.

 

[captain ZZM]

gp3 not the same as lucky.

lucky shd was horrible horrible film. I never had a roll that didn't have scratches all over it in the cassette.

gp3 though I really liked and miss it. except for the curl which was like a pigs tail.

Today GP3 no longer production of roll film, they only producting sheet film.

 

[Paul Howell]

Svema (Ukraine) now selling films and papers under Astrum brand.
Tasma still in business too. Sell some aerofilms.
Slavich papers (Russia) are available worldwide.

Is Svema being sold outside of the Ukraine?

 

[flavio81]

Svema (Ukraine) now selling films and papers under Astrum brand.
Tasma still in business too. Sell some aerofilms.
Slavich papers (Russia) are available worldwide.

Is this Astrum film really made in Ukraine, or is this repackaged film (i.e. by Foma/harman/fuji/etc) ?

 

[cmacd123]

Is this Astrum film really made in Ukraine, or is this repackaged film (i.e. by Foma/harman/fuji/etc) ?

I bought some just for fun, but have not tried developing it yet. it seems to be on a thin polyester base and so I suspect it is some sort of re-purposed areo or industrial film. it was supplied in a screw top plastic cassette with an old style long cut leader. I have heard that it is devoid of any edge markings.

If anyone has an authoritative developing time recommendation for HC-110 Dilution B at 20C I would love to hear it. if not I will try 6 minutes when I get some other darkroom work caught up.

 

[Cholentpot]

Today GP3 no longer production of roll film, they only producting sheet film.

Rumor mill has it that roll film is on its way back.

 

[MartinP]

What would be really nice to know is if Alaris has any real legal leverage with EKCo. to insure continued production of film. My assumption has always been that without cinema color negative stock that Rochester would throw in the towel. Alaris has closed the factory they own in the UK so Alaris is out of the coating business shifting to a toll manufacturing agreement with Carestream . I see Alaris trying to shift away from film as soon as it struggles in anyway .
Here's a question I would like answered by Alaris when they transfer products to Carestream can we get cut sheets of real professional grade Alaris paper again ?

I have a dream that EKCo. would get the film and paper business back from Alaris and really make a go again at being a vertically integrated imaging company . I know I probably sound crazy but without the ability to really develop new markets and products what keeps The Eastman Kodak Company truly vested in film?

I just don't know what is really happening behind the scenes but I suspect we will get some bad news some day without warning .
Best Regards Mike

Remember that Alaris is not really a venture-capital style film distributor. It is actually a Kodak-UK pension fund asset. When Kodak went through bankruptcy and tried to close everything in UK, including pension commitments, they were informed that they must work to look after the pension-fund. After much discussion, assets and some cash changed hands and now the pension 'entity' (what is the right name? Trusteeship?) will, rightfully, try to maintain the pension liabilities from remaining funds and investments they have, plus the marketing and production assets trading as Kodak-Alaris. It was a complicated deal, but I think that's about right. I think the Harrow plant was closed as it had not had enough product to keep it running, and the site became a valuable asset in itself. The materials are available from other sites eg. in USA.

Svema exists in name only, if that. The factory was stripped for scrap and left to ruin. A Dutch photographic materials importer with family connections to the area actually went past the wrecked site during a family visit.

 

[Alan Johnson]

Some links to East European films here:
http://ussrphoto.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=3101&#18221
I cannot read enough German to be sure what are current.

 

[Alan Johnson]

Here is a direct link to the article listing recently current films in the table at the end:
http://www.fotointern.ch/wp-uploads/2016/07/Filme-Marktuebersicht-Nov.2016.pdf

 

[mnemosyne]

Some links to East European films here:
http://ussrphoto.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=3101&#18221
I cannot read enough German to be sure what are current.

The film described in this article are only of historical interest.

 

[mnemosyne]

Here is a direct link to the article listing recently current films in the table at the end:
http://www.fotointern.ch/wp-uploads/2016/07/Filme-Marktuebersicht-Nov.2016.pdf

The diligence of the author in putting all this information together is commendable, but the article and table should be taken with a grain of salt. While a lot of quite exotic material is listed, it does omit some only mildly exotic films (like Ilford Pan 100/400 or Kodak Pro Image ...); also the article and the table appear to contain some factual errors and contradictions. For example, the author states that production of Fuji Sensia has ceased (correct) and then goes on to inform us that Agfaphoto Precisa 100 is a rebranded version of the Fuji Sensia (not correct anymore). My biggest objection however are the (technically and aesthetically) awful example pictures presented in the article to illustrate the "virtues" of different films. These really make shure that any potential newcomer to analog photography will instantly take a deep breath and return to his digital cameras!

 

[mitorn]

… For example, the author states that production of Fuji Sensia has ceased (correct) and then goes on to inform us that Agfaphoto Precisa 100 is a rebranded version of the Fuji Sensia (not correct anymore). ...

You are right mnemosyne, it should be Provia 100 (at least according to its Barcode).

Anyway the article contains some interesting information:

He mentions Banse & Grohmann (Wephota) in Germany who are repacking, cutting and selling sheet film and paper, offering special formats on demand.
The author states that Filmotec (ORWO) has no coating machine (therefore someone else is coating their film.
He mentions one additional BW slide Film (Adox Scala 160) (which is funny because I checked their website and If I recall it right, they wrote somewhere here on APUG that it is just repacked Silvermax but now Adox states it’s a different film specially designed for this purpose).
Then he is writing about repacked motion picture film: Cinestill (removed ramjet), Six Gates Films (with ramjet).
False color films: Lomo RedScale, Rolei Redbird. Artificial aged Film (Adox Color Implosion). Pre-exposed film (Revolog).
He talks about the expected future discontinuation of colour reversal films: based on Agfa –Gevaert material, and Rollei Digibase CN 200.
And that Lomo is planning to offer a Super 8 colour reversal film.

That was a summary of the text above the table ….

And now for the Table:
He states that the AgfaPhoto BW films (APX 100 and APX 400) are produced by Harman…
Apart from that since I’m not going to translate the whole table: If you read ”Produktion eingestellt” it means that this film is discontinued… And If someone wants to read the article I’ve heard the accuracy of GoogleTranslate has been recently improved via a neuronal network (at least their translations tend to make more sense than a year ago )…

-Martin-

 

[Lachlan Young]

He mentions one additional BW slide Film (Adox Scala 160) (which is funny because I checked their website and If I recall it right, they wrote somewhere here on APUG that it is just repacked Silvermax but now Adox states it’s a different film specially designed for this purpose).

It was Mirko from Adox who said that they are one and the same, but the different packaging was essentially to try to get people to use the 160 rating if they are sending the films for reversal processing.

 

[flavio81]

It was Mirko from Adox who said that they are one and the same, but the different packaging was essentially to try to get people to use the 160 rating if they are sending the films for reversal processing.

Which is a good idea. In the same way one can remember that "this film canister contains Silvermax intended for reversal processing", without having to explicitely mark the film.

 

[mitorn]

Which is a good idea. In the same way one can remember that "this film canister contains Silvermax intended for reversal processing", without having to explicitely mark the film.

So my memory didn’t trick me.
Yes you are right it is a good idea to sell it in a different canister.
But still, Adox states on the webpage on Adox Scala (http://www.adox.de/Photo/adox-scala/ ): “SCALA is a black and white reversal film intended for reversal processing. This is not a negative film which could be reversal processed rather it has been designed especially for this purpose” and in the German datasheet on Silvermax they write that Silvermax can be optionaly developed as BW slide film. Moreover there is no word about Silvermax on the webpage of Adox Scala. I’ve found only one page where they imply that Silvermax and Scala are the same film (Sorry it is only available in German: http://www.adox.de/Photo/scala-filmformate/ )
Maybe I make a fuss about it, but it seems to me as if they try to promote as a complete different film.
I find it quite amusing, that Adox tries to hide silvermax in a different packaging

 

[flavio81]

So my memory didn’t trick me.
Yes you are right it is a good idea to sell it in a different canister.
But still, Adox states on the webpage on Adox Scala (http://www.adox.de/Photo/adox-scala/ ): “SCALA is a black and white reversal film intended for reversal processing. This is not a negative film which could be reversal processed rather it has been designed especially for this purpose” and in the German datasheet on Silvermax they write that Silvermax can be optionaly developed as BW slide film. Moreover there is no word about Silvermax on the webpage of Adox Scala. I’ve found only one page where they imply that Silvermax and Scala are the same film (Sorry it is only available in German: http://www.adox.de/Photo/scala-filmformate/ )
Maybe I make a fuss about it, but it seems to me as if they try to promote as a complete different film.
I find it quite amusing, that Adox tries to hide silvermax in a different packaging

I see no contradiction. Perhaps silvermax was designed from the ground up to be reversible. That doesn't prevent it from being a negative film as well.

I think Mirko has explained openly about silvermax 100 and scala 160 being the same emulsion used for two different things.

 

[flavio81]

PS: They are being honest also in the english version:

"SCALA is practically APX 100 with a slightly finer grain and lower speed plus an increased silver content, the clear base and the AHU. In the reversal process it´s speed raises to 160 ASA. Shot to a negative it shall be exposed to 80-100 ASA (see ADOX Silvermax)."

 

[mitorn]

PS: They are being honest also in the english version:
"SCALA is practically APX 100 ... (see ADOX Silvermax)."

I might have skipped that (I thought that the two language version were identical… it turns out they are not, in the German version there is no word about Silvermax).

I see no contradiction. Perhaps silvermax was designed from the ground up to be reversible. That doesn't prevent it from being a negative film as well.
I think Mirko has explained openly about silvermax 100 and scala 160 being the same emulsion used for two different things.

Yes you are right, it is possible that they designed Silvermax to be reversible.
And I agree that Mirko was completely open here on apug, but not everyone knows about apug. I know I am meticulous, but my point is that Adox should write explicitly on their webpage, that Scala and Silvermax are the same film, to ensure that everyone can get it.

 

[BobCrowley]

We visited Windsor but they weren't familiar with the coating techniques needed for DTR. We do all that ourselves after a failed and expensive stint at a large Massachusetts coating company in which I lost $200,000.

The Windsor plant is the Windsor Coating operations EK had for many years. Substantially all of the X-Ray film was and is coated in Windsor. When the Health Sciences Division was sold to Carestream (a huge mistake), Windsor became a shared facility with EK running at some times and Carestream running at others. Apparently the EK share was sold/given to Alaris and now run by Carestream, or maybe EK is still there, too. Besides X-Ray product, I believe color paper is also coated at Windsor. Probably a good move for Alaris because Windsor is a more modern facility. Also, I believe that New55 has had their products coated by the Windsor plant.

It is (or at least was when this was first transferred) probably run by all the original EK employees now under a different employer. Many of the engineers I used to work with became Carestream employees in the same building in Rochester after the sale.