Who is who in the world of film manufacturing?

bogeyes · Oct 11, 2007

Late one night whilst surfing the net I'm sure that I saw a thread somewhere that discussed who made all the films available today and what films had ceased to be made. Did a search but can,t find it. So my question is, who are the manufactures and what films are the same under different brand names? Does anyone know who makes the colour neg film "colorama" sold by colorama?

PHOTOTONE · Oct 11, 2007

Kodak.....Kodak films
Ilford....Ilford films only..in the past some private labeling, but not now
Bergger..mostly Forte, but now Ilford will be coating Bergger films (Not relabeled Ilford films)
Forte...Forte and Arista.edu (Made in Hungary)
Foma...Foma and Arista.edu.ultra
Agfa Leverkusen...(now defunct) but Agfa and Arista II
Ferrania Only C-41 35mm color films mostly private label zillions of brands
Fuji Fuji films and possibly Voigtlander 35mm slide film (private label)
Efke....Efke films and some films for Freestyle Photo, and some Adox films

Not comprehensive, and very USA-centric, but a start. Most film manufacturers have at one time made private label product for third parties, with the exception of Eastman Kodak, and now Ilford. The product Ilford will coat for Bergger will be to Bergger formulas, and won't be Ilford films.

htmlguru4242 · Oct 12, 2007

I believe that there are at least a few more (correct me if I'm wrong, for those of you who know for sure), BUT,

Lucky (China) - Lucky Films
Slavich (Russia) - Slavich films/plates/papers (not sure if they're still around)
AGFA Gevaert - IR Aerial films that are some brand's IR films (not sure which)
another chinese manufactuer - ERA Films

PHOTOTONE · Oct 12, 2007

htmlguru4242 said:
I believe that there are at least a few more (correct me if I'm wrong, for those of you who know for sure), BUT,

Lucky (China) - Lucky Films
Slavich (Russia) - Slavich films/plates/papers (not sure if they're still around)
AGFA Gevaert - IR Aerial films that are some brand's IR films (not sure which)
another chinese manufactuer - ERA Films

Lucky..yep both b/w and color..Kodak was afiliated with them until recently.
Slavich Very nice b/w printing papers, glass plates, don't know about film
Agfa Gevaert..Yes, lots of products, some now marketed by Maco/Roelli.
Era yes...but don't know if they are still making film or not.
Filmotec...Germany makes some cinema films, custom products for Maco.

Alex Hawley · Oct 12, 2007

Polaroid is still going.

Ian Grant · Oct 13, 2007

"Filmotec...Germany makes some cinema films, custom products for Maco."

This is of course the company that evolved from Orwo, and they still use that brand name.

Ian

AgX · Oct 13, 2007

Don't forget Tasma.

And currently produced Agfa 35mm films are not only sold via Maco.

And don't forget those other companies who only coat X-ray films and silver-based graphic films.

erikg · Oct 13, 2007

Is Konica out of the market? Is 3M/Scotch out now as well?

AgX · Oct 13, 2007

3M is out of this business:

3M accquired Ferrania and Dynacolor in the sixties. The Dynacolor plant is long gone.
1996 the Imation company split off (still using the Scotch brand I guess), offering image capture and storage products (including film).
Meanwhile Ferrania split off again, with a converting facility remaining in Oklahoma.

John Kasaian · Oct 13, 2007

3 more:
Tura (Germany)
Orwo
APHS (Japan?)

JanaM · Oct 14, 2007

John Kasaian said:
3 more:
Tura (Germany)
Orwo
APHS (Japan?)

Hallo John,

- Tura is gone. Some Tura employees have founded a new company called "Photostar". They have specialised in film confectioning and are working for Maco/Rollei for example. No own film production.
But they own the Tura brand name and sell different products (color-films, batteries, Inkjet-papers, single use cameras etc.) under the Tura name.
Look at: http://www.photostar-germany.de/index.php
The old Tura company sold Agfa Films under the Tura Label.

- Orwo: That is now Filmotec: www.filmotec.de

Best regards,
Jana

Ian Grant · Oct 14, 2007

Thats quite interesting Jana, CPAC in the US (Leicester, NY) bought into Tura around 2002, by 2004 they held 40% of the shares. I had dealings with CPAC around that time and remember I was very surprised at their investment.

Ian

JanaM said:
- Tura is gone. Some Tura employees have founded a new company called "Photostar". They have specialised in film confectioning and are working for Maco/Rollei for example. No own film production.
But they own the Tura brand name and sell different products (color-films, batteries, Inkjet-papers, single use cameras etc.) under the Tura name.
Look at: http://www.photostar-germany.de/index.php
The old Tura company sold Agfa Films under the Tura Label.

Photo Engineer · Oct 14, 2007

Ian Grant said:
Thats quite interesting Jana, CPAC in the US (Leicester, NY) bought into Tura around 2002, by 2004 they held 40% of the shares. I had dealings with CPAC around that time and remember I was very surprised at their investment.

Ian

Ian;

CPAC was founded by a former EK employee who quit in the mid 70s IIRC and founded the company to sell and service silver recovery and chemical handling for photofinishers.

They ran into quite a bit of financial problems as photofinishing began its decline and branched out into a number of other areas.

AFAIK, they are still going. I used to get their periodic newsletters, as I somehow got onto their distribution list. I have heard nothing from them lately.

They are not far from Rochester.

PE

Ian Grant · Oct 14, 2007

Photo Engineer said:
They are not far from Rochester.
PE

I know I've been there,

They obviously completely pulled out of Tura, like you I haven't kept up to date with their newsletters, but I do remember the CEO stating that Tura were under performing in their financial reports 3 years ago, which they post online.

The intention had been to sell Tura colour paper alongside their CPAC colour chemistry in Europe, to new and existing customers, complementing their silver recovery equipment.

Ian

aldevo · Oct 14, 2007

Ian Grant said:
I know I've been there,

They obviously completely pulled out of Tura, like you I haven't kept up to date with their newsletters, but I do remember the CEO stating that Tura were under performing in their financial reports 3 years ago, which they post online.

The intention had been to sell Tura colour paper alongside their CPAC colour chemistry in Europe, to new and existing customers, complementing their silver recovery equipment.

Ian

I believe Tura ceased operation sometime in 2005. Tura did have a tie-in with Agfa whereby they were allowed to produce some of their microfilm products (e.g. Agfa Copex Rapid). And possibly others. I think the agreement was somewhat similar to what is widely believed to exist between Foma and Agfa.

A lingering example of that relationship is Bluefire Police Film, which is actually the last bit of Tura-produced Copex Rapid that is being cut up in Canada.

Photo Engineer · Oct 14, 2007

We must not lose sight of the fact that as these companies go under, there are rolls and rolls of their last production runs (master rolls) that were never finished or sold. As time goes on, the rolls that are usable are being sold under different labels in 35mm and other sizes.

PE

Ian Grant · Oct 14, 2007

Following from Ron's comments, as companies go under their technology isn't necessarily lost.

Chemists & technicians are quite capable of taking their know how elsewhere. Companies even before the current downturn benefited from cross-fertilisation.

Kentmere made remarkable strides forward about 15 years ago after they employed a new photo-chemist who had obviously previously worked for a far larger company, rapidly variable contrast paper was introduced, and quality increased significantly.

Tura went when Agfa collapsed because they were totally dependent on Agfa.

Ian

Photo Engineer · Oct 14, 2007

OTOH, high speed curtain coating and color technology are being lost. Kodak and Agfa engineers, to name a few, hardly find easy jobs doing this type of work. Most of the work calls for B&W, slower speed coatings.

Many are going into color digital.

So, there is quite a bit of technology that is simply vanishing.

PE

bob100684 · Oct 14, 2007

PHOTOTONE said:
Kodak.....Kodak films
Ilford....Ilford films only..in the past some private labeling, but not now
Bergger..mostly Forte, but now Ilford will be coating Bergger films (Not relabeled Ilford films)
Forte...Forte and Arista.edu (Made in Hungary)
Foma...Foma and Arista.edu.ultra
Agfa Leverkusen...(now defunct) but Agfa and Arista II
Ferrania Only C-41 35mm color films mostly private label zillions of brands
Fuji Fuji films and possibly Voigtlander 35mm slide film (private label)
Efke....Efke films and some films for Freestyle Photo, and some Adox films

Not comprehensive, and very USA-centric, but a start. Most film manufacturers have at one time made private label product for third parties, with the exception of Eastman Kodak, and now Ilford. The product Ilford will coat for Bergger will be to Bergger formulas, and won't be Ilford films.

Fuji also supplies film for the ritz camera, walgreens, cvs and Rite Aid brand film.

aldevo · Oct 14, 2007

Ferrania (mentioned above) is in sort of a strange situation. They stopped making 126 early this year and they've been in and out of bankruptcy at least once since they were sold by 3M around 1999 or 2000.

Ferrania has a BIG contract to supply most of the photo film sold at NATO facilities that's scheduled to run out in a couple of years. They are also a very large producer of X-ray film and inkjet cartridges (including the specialized ones used in high-speed plotters). I think they recently started marketing somebody else's digital cameras under the "Solaris" label, too.

At one time they were finishing and packaging film in Oklahoma, but I think this facility is now closed.

Matt5791 · Oct 15, 2007

I have been in India for the past two weeks and I struck up a conversation with someone on a train (who I had noticed was using a Nikon FM3a) who said he believed there was an Indian film manufacturer - but I cant remember the name he gave. Apparrently they only make B&W.

It certainly would not suprise me if there was an Indian manufacturer, as there is a massive market just in India.

At the Taj Mahal (and other tourist destinations) there are many photographers offering to photograph tourists, all using film cameras (at least I didn't see any digital)

Matt

AgX · Oct 15, 2007

Looking at this topic I once stumbled over an Indian company who I thought was manufacturing camera film, but it turned out that they were importing Fuji films to India; I found no hints that they were (still) coating.

kraker · Oct 15, 2007

Ferrania

aldevo said:
Ferrania (mentioned above) is in sort of a strange situation. They stopped making 126 early this year and they've been in and out of bankruptcy at least once since they were sold by 3M around 1999 or 2000.

Ferrania has a BIG contract to supply most of the photo film sold at NATO facilities that's scheduled to run out in a couple of years. They are also a very large producer of X-ray film and inkjet cartridges (including the specialized ones used in high-speed plotters). I think they recently started marketing somebody else's digital cameras under the "Solaris" label, too.

At one time they were finishing and packaging film in Oklahoma, but I think this facility is now closed.

Interesting, thanks.

I believe Ferrania is the last one still manufacturing 110 film. There's still some Fuji, Kodak and Konica stock out there, but Ferrania is the only one still producing 110 film. At least, that's what I thought. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I can imagine that there's not a big market for 110 film (and that's putting it mildly...)

Simon R Galley · Oct 15, 2007

Dear All,

There used to be a coater in India called HINDUSTAN Photo Film ( HPF ) but my understanding is that they no longer coat.

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

JanaM · Oct 15, 2007

Photo Engineer said:
OTOH, high speed curtain coating and color technology are being lost. Kodak and Agfa engineers, to name a few, hardly find easy jobs doing this type of work. Most of the work calls for B&W, slower speed coatings.

Many are going into color digital.

So, there is quite a bit of technology that is simply vanishing.

PE

Dear Ron,

concerning the Agfa engineers and technology the situation is a little bit better indeed. Some of the former Agfa engineers of AgfaPhoto Leverkusen have founded their own technology based company called Inoviscoat. That are the "photo engineering wizards" who make all the scientific and technical work for Adox/Fotoimpex in the MCC/MCP/APX resurrection Project. They also know the Agfa colour technology and transfered some knowledge in colour stabilization technology to stabilize and improve the new Adox MCC.
Furthermore they have recently bought the core element of Agfa's great L6 film coating machine (high speed curtain coating).
So they have not only the knowledge, but also the hardware for some nice things in the future.... .

Best regards,
Jana

Who is who in the world of film manufacturing?

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency