Some facts
Some clear explanation about Maco and this new Rollei Retro 100 Tonal film, verified by facts which are valid in the actual film business.
As we all know Maco is not a film manufacturer but a marketing company that relabels mainly Agfa films.
If you say that Maco is only a marketing company, then you have to be consequent and must say that
all photo companies which are ordering custom coatings and have established their own brand names are only marketing companies.
Freestyle, Tetenal, Fotospeed, Adox, Bergger and many other firms have all established their own brand name (and they are responsible for the product quality of these own brands) and are distributing products under these brands, which are produced by other specialised companies.
Developing your own brand and worldwide distribution needs much more than only marketing capabilities. You have to be a competent and reliable partner for the manufacturer. You must have a strong financial power. You must have a good (World wide or at least Europe wide) distribution system. It is very hard work to build all this up.
Photographers, who know a little bit about the market, would never say that companies like Freestyle, Adox or Maco are only marketing companies.
If you think it is all about marketing and advertising, then try to order some film or paper from Kodak, Fuji, Agfa, InovisCoat, Foma or Efke and establish your own film brand. If you prefer Kodak film? Then ask Kodak and order some masterrolls, create a brand name and start a business which will make all the things so much better compared to the companies you have criticised. Good luck.
It will be interesting to find out what is really inside the film cartridge. So, what orthochromatic or similar films on a polyester base around ISO 100 are currently offered by Agfa, probably industrial or surveillance film? I bet it will be one of those.
You are wrong. This film is a
unique product, based on a Maco owned recipe, designed and produced by a cooperation of different manufacturers. And available on the market exclusively as Rollei Retro 100 Tonal.
A lot of new Research & Development was necessary, because some former raw materials are not available anymore, and intensive research had to be done for suitable replacements. The emulsion was also optimised for modern coating machines. And a lot of money had to be invested. Film R&D is not cheap at all.
It's quite funny that once again someone tries to warp reality in a way to sell a "legitimate successor" of a totally different product.
That is also wrong. Maco has made a very clear and precise official statement, that Rollei Retro 100 Tonal is
not intended to be a successor for the APX 100 / Rollei Retro 100 film.
It was clearly said that Rollei Retro 100
Tonal is meant to be in the tradition of the former Maco
PO 100C film.
Here is the official statement:
http://www.aphog.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=13819.
Rollei Retro 100 Tonal is designed to have nearly the same characteristics like former Maco PO 100C.
Concerning the name: The main film line of Rollei-Films programme are films with classic cubic crystals: Retro 80S, Retro 100, Retro 400 (meanwhile sold out), Retro 400S. The name Retro represents a film type with classic cubic crystals (similar to Kodak or Ilford with their T-Max and Delta lines for T-grain films, the film line shares the same basic name).
Retro 100 Tonal has a classic cubic crystal emulsion, therefore the name Retro. 100, of course, is the film speed. Tonal stands for the
different tonality of this film compared to the majority of films on the market, which have a standard panchromatic or superpanchromatic sentization. Whereas this film has an
orthopanchromatic characteristic.
It is clearly visible by name that Retro 100 Tonal is
different to Retro 100.
You have mentioned the new T-Max 400 film. A nice film, quite different from the first version. You have to do new tests with developers and times to get the best with the new emulsion. Different film, but same name. Was Kodak fooling the customers? I dont think so. Keeping established names for product lines is quite common in this industry. Look at Ilford: The Delta 400 emulsion was modified two times (1994 and 2000), name Delta 400 stayed, FP4 and HP5 were replaced by FP4+ and HP5+, XP2 by XP2 super.
But in the end, my personal experiences with my own (Dutch) customers is that photographers are not interested in names of films, but only in quality and price. If they like the film, it doesnt matter at all whether Kodak, Freestyle, Adox, Ilford, Bergger or Rollei-Film is printed on the box. The pictures counts, not names.
There will be plenty of discussions this year about original APX vs. Maco's relabeled Agfa films vs. Adox' films made on the used Agfa machines vs. all other films around 100 ASA.
We have already seen the reactions of the market and some companies long ago: With closing of the AgfaPhoto Leverkusen plant, and the following strong price decrease of the remaining AgfaPhoto film stock (sold as AgfaPhoto APX and Rollei Retro films) a market for very cheap high quality film with classic cubic crystal emulsions was established.
This now quite cheap old AgfaPhoto film stock attracted lots of users, especially beginners, students and photographers with low budgets, and was very successful on the market.
Freestyle reacted first and entered the competition in this (new) low price market with his Arista Premium and Legacy Pro films.
Then Ilford answered with its Kentmere films. All low price, high quality products aiming at photographers who are or have to be price sensitive.
And now InovisCoat is working on their new APX based emulsions for this market. Main part of the planned production will be sold again as AgfaPhoto APX, the brand name used by Lupus Imaging. They will do
worldwide distribution. And later the films should be available as Adox, too.
We have a
free market, everyone has the right to offer products, and several companies are already offering products in this market segment.
But, Rollei Retro 100 Tonal is
not intended for this market segment.
In the end photographers will make their choice, and manufactureres and distributers will have to accept that.
But for sure I hope the film will find it's way via the regular sales channels.
best regards,
Robert
(Dutch Rollei-Maco distributor)