Student grade black and white film during the early 1970s

[alanrockwood]

When I was in college, back in the Paleographic Era (if you don't mind me coining a phrase) in the early 1970s there was an inexpensive student-grade black and white film that was sold at the college book store. For the record, it definitely wasn't Kodak or Ilford film. I am trying to remember what brand it was, but it was manufactured somewhere in Eastern Europe, but not Russia as I recall. Does anyone remember the brand (or brands) of inexpensive student-grade black and white films that were sold at your college bookstore in the early 1970s?

My vague recollection is that it might have come in either a green or blue box, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that.

 

[macfred]

Maybe ADOX KB14 / R14 (ISO20); KB17 / R17 (ISO40) or KB21 / R21 (ISO100) ? = KB was 35mm, R was 120. KB21 was sold in a green box - AFAIK KB14 had yellow boxes; KB17 was red.
Later on (mid - 70's) it was sold as EFKE.

. View attachment 288370

 

[macfred]

An EFKE branded one in 120

 

[AgX]

macfred, the OP has it about the early 70's. In the early 70's the west-german wholesaler only offered Agfa, Ferrania, Ilford, Kodak and Perutz (which by then no longr was a film-manufacturer but only a brand of Agfa). All at about nearly same price. Keep in mind that then still retail prices typically were prescribed by the manafucturers.
The only way to evade this practically were house-branded films offered by big retailers, mail-order retailers. And maybe Orwo films. However the average photo-shop ot photo-drugstore tried to get as big rebate by the wholesaler as possible, thus also bought as much as possible from the same wholesaler, and thus was dependent on the range that one got.

I even think in the photo world "student-grade" then was rather a american thing. Over here it rather was "you get what you pay for, it is up to you", thus a different point of view.

In the late 70's it were Ilford films in all tastes and conversions that were at the shelves at photo-stores here.

In the 80's there was PAL paper at dumping prices that came to the market. But I do not even know how it was marketed. But I rather think that it was Mirko in the 90's who with his local mini-business evolved this "student-grade" thing.


But I doubt there are members here from this part of the world old enough to be really helpful, as one need to have this information first hand, as from printed matter this is hard to deduce.

 

[macfred]

macfred, the OP has it about the early 70's. In the early 70's the west-german wholesaler only offered Agfa, Ferrania, Ilford, Kodak and Perutz ...

Jep, I saw he asked for the 70's - for me the quote from the wikipedia sounds like those films were well known and distributed in the US.

From wikipedia.com :

ADOX was a German camera and film brand of Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner GmbH of Frankfurt am Main, the world's first photographic materials manufacturer. In the 1950s it launched its revolutionary thin layer sharp black and white kb 14 and 17 films, referred to by US distributors as the 'German wonder film'. In the 1970s Dupont the new owners of the ADOX brand sold the recipes and machinery of the film (but not the brand name) to Fotokemika in Croatia who continued to produce the films according to the 1950s ADOX formulas under the EFKE brand ...

from ADOX history : Legendäre Filme wie der 1950 vorgestellte ADOX KB 17 als erster Dünnschichtfilm brachten ADOX Weltruhm, weit über die Grenzen Deutschlands hinaus. In den USA hießen der KB 14 und KB 17 nur “the German wonderfilm”.

from anolder thread here one Photrio :

I started using 35mm film in the late 60's and adox was one of the brands I often found in stores as being sold at a discount for being short dated ...

 

[Tel]

Does anyone know how long Freestyle has been selling Arista EDU films? (I always assumed these were targetting the student market, hence the EDU designation.) I know Foma has been in business for about a century, so it could have been rebranded Foma if they were able to export to the West. And I know that Ultrafine has been selling to the educational market practically since its inception, so it might have been a rebranded film they sold too.

Edit: I can't speak directly to the question, though. Although I am an old enough dinosaur, I was shooting Ektachrome ET and Tri-X in the 70s. I don't recall Kodak's pro films being prohibitively expensive even when I was in college.

 

[Paul Howell]

I bought film from Freestyle in the 70s, dont recall the name of the house brand, over the years they have sold Forte, Ilford, Foma, GAF, Mitsubishi, 3M (color).

 

[Alex Benjamin]

The info on the Wiki2 discontinued film page is indeed pretty detailed. Maybe by going through it something will jog your memory.

 

[AgX]

I saw he asked for the 70's - for me the quote from the wikipedia sounds like those films were well known and distributed in the US.

By the 70's the Schleusner works (Adox) were already sold, the Adox brand had vanished. Adox great years were the early 60's. Then the process of consolidating started amongs the european manufacturers.

 

[macfred]

By the 70's the Schleusner works (Adox) were already sold, the Adox brand had vanished. Adox great years were the early 60's. Then the process of consolidating started amongs the european manufacturers.

Never said otherwise (see #5); but of course it is of crucial importance that you say it again yourself with your own words ...
The Fotokemika takeover was at the beginning of the 70s. From about 1973, there was the EFKE replacement; at that time there probably were remaining stocks with the original ADOX label (''short dated'') at discount.

 

[AgX]

I did not repeat what you said. You quoted Wikipedia and there it was stated that Adox went under in the 70's, I just corrected this.
If needed I could look up the precise year of end of production. Would take some time though. Last trace in sales literature I found was for 1969.

Anyway, even before, thus mid-60's, Adox films cost here up to the cent as much as their Agfa counterparts.

 

[MattKing]

I don't recall Kodak's pro films being prohibitively expensive even when I was in college.

I'm not sure the "pro film" designation applied to Tri-X in the 1970s.
During university in the 1970s, we used bulk load 135 Tri-X that we got at a student discount price.
In those days Lens & Shutter in Vancouver - which was started up to serve the university and student market - sold huge volumes of Tri-X that way.
Was there any GAF/Ansco black and white film around back then?

 

[choiliefan]

In the early 70's Freestyle sold a lot of military surplus and out of date film and paper at their store.
If Julie were still around, he'd confirm this.
A buddy in HS introduced me to AGFA film around this time and as I recall, it was cheaper than Kodak.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

In my day - late 60's early 70's - it seemed most students bulk loaded Tri-X & Plus-X. For sheet film it was whatever was in the camera store's outdated basket at half price.

 

[cmacd123]

I can recall buying Bulk from freestyle. Some of which liiked like they converted it themselves. I recall some Plux-X-Areo ASA80 with no edge markings (which seemed to be very sensitive to scratching, and was slightly foggy) as well as some that was described as Fuji 125, (which had the distinctive base colour of Fuji stock, and also no edge markings.) The "fuji" worked well, BUT notice that Fuji themselves were selling a 100 and 400 at that time, so who knows why their was some 125.

one of my High school buddies also got some GAF/Ansco 125 bulk from that source in the early 70s.

the Eastern Europeans did sell film (and Cameras) at a discount to get hard currency. Foma and Forte as well as ORWO may have come to the west by that route.

 

[AgX]

My vague recollection is that it might have come in either a green or blue box, but I wouldn't bet the farm on that.

Aside of Adox, the best of green that comes to my mind of german films are

Orwo NP 20 and NP 22

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/hAIAAOSwlr1eRBlg/$_35.JPG
https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/...ACKUNG-Schachtel-alte-DDR-Reklame-Werbung.jpg

 

[Paul Howell]

I'm not sure the "pro film" designation applied to Tri-X in the 1970s.
During university in the 1970s, we used bulk load 135 Tri-X that we got at a student discount price.
In those days Lens & Shutter in Vancouver - which was started up to serve the university and student market - sold huge volumes of Tri-X that way.
Was there any GAF/Ansco black and white film around back then?

GAF closed shop in 1977 or so, Kmart sold GAF as their house brand. 1977, GAF, Dupont stopped producing Varigram, Miranda, Topcon, Kowa, and Petri all got of the photo bus.

I had forgotten that Freestyle bought and sold surplus DOD film and paper.

TriX was the film that most PJ's used, when I was with UPI we were provided with TriX. I carried TriX and few rolls of Plus X for environmental portraits, TriX was my preferred film, at times I used Ilford or Agfa, sometimes GAF, GAF 500 was a horrible film.