Who knows this ORWO Pan100 film ...

rst · Dec 11, 2020

Hey, I got 20 rolls of a film I never saw or used before:

Does anyone know it? It might be a repackaged film, so would be interested in what it really is and even better: how to develop it in ID-11.

Thanks and cheers
Ruediger

AgX · Dec 11, 2020

Never saw this either. I only know of the Ilford made films from the early 90's for back then still existing ORWO, but those had the yellow-on-black design. (That came at least for type 135 in two package design versions, with different amount of yellow striping.)

rst · Dec 11, 2020

The expiration date is 2005.

dynachrome · Dec 11, 2020

I think Ilford made it.

Pentode · Dec 11, 2020

Here’s some information you might find useful:
https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/orwo-pan-100.202400/

Pentode · Dec 11, 2020

And some more:
https://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=Orwopan+100&Developer=&mdc=Search&obs=Y

AgX · Dec 11, 2020

Well, at photo net there was speculation that it was made by Filmotec. If so, they once had some ambition at consumer still
film.
But Filmotec did not have type 135 or 120 conversion capability.

rst · Dec 11, 2020

Thanks for the info folks. Maybe I just give the times found on the dev chart a try. Should not take more than two or three rolls of bracketed exposures to get close to a decent result.

Cheers
Ruediger

David Polanski · Jun 25, 2021

Hi Ruediger,
I just picked-up some of this as well and am wondering how things went for you with it?
'would be keen to hear a first-hand account of using it vs those dev chart times... some pics of your shots with it would likewise be great!
Herzlichen Dank,
David

rst · Jun 27, 2021

David Polanski said:
Hi Ruediger,
I just picked-up some of this as well and am wondering how things went for you with it?

Hi David,

Honestly, I have not tried it yet. So thanks for giving me a little kick on this, I am going to load some of it into my Rolleicord right after pressing the send button for this message.

ciao
Ruediger

Klaus_H · Jun 27, 2021

The ORWO PAN 100 120 films sold in the current millenium had been manufactured by Forte (Hungaria).
At that time the 135 ORWO films had been based on Ilford FP4 and HP5, the 120 films used Forte material.

Agulliver · Jun 27, 2021

The backing paper looks like the Forte 120 film I used in the early 2000s, and that of the "Classic Pan 200" which I think was marketed by Fotoimpex and was certainly known to be Forte Pan rebranded.

So....that adds a little credibility to the idea that this is Forte film. If so, it's definitely traditional in all senses of the word and an old 50s formula....but as long as it's been stored well it should be good. I used the last of my Classic Pan 200 in 2017 and it was working well.

rst · Jun 28, 2021

Thanks for all the info. I have used one roll with an exposure series. And also exposed a roll by rating it at 50ASA. I am going to develop it for 10 minutes at 20°C in ID11 1+1, that should not be too far off.

The backing paper is black with text printed in white and the reel looks like in the images below:

Cheers
Ruediger

rst · Jun 29, 2021

Here is my opinion after developing the film: I would expose it with a maximum of 50ASA. Next time I will develop it a little longer. I do not make a science out of it, I have another 18 of the film, will use it just for fun and once used up, there will be no more of them.

What else stood out: There are no frame numbers exposed at the edges. Unlike my standard films, the film seems to have a tendency to curl up.

Everything else will show up when I scan it, unfortunately I don't have an enlarger anymore, so I can't show results here. But pictures from our garden are not that interesting either.

Cheers
Rüdiger

David Polanski · Jun 29, 2021

Thanks so much for doing some testing with this, Rüdiger, and thanks as well to everyone else's info contributions to the thread—my boxes of the stuff are still en route, but I feel I'll be nicely forearmed thanks to your efforts once they arrive!
-dp

rst · Jun 29, 2021

Just for fun to show what I mean with "tendency to curl", on the left Ilford HP5+, on the right Orwopan 100.

Time will tell how long it takes and how many books it needs for the Orwo to get it ... kind of flat. At the moment it is no fun to work with.

Cheers
Ruediger

David Polanski · Jun 29, 2021

yikes—that's some crazy curl! hopefully, once flattened, the results will justify the extra hassle.

gorbas · Jun 29, 2021

In the last 10 or so years I used 15-20 rolls of this film. Unfortunately all of mine come with out outer box, just in white wrapper as in your pictures with the same backing paper and roll. It's very decent film. I have a few rolls left. From everything I saw it's identical film as ORWO NP-20 from the 80's and I used hundreds of rolls of it in that time. It's not Ilford or Forte or anything else repackaged. Most likely they had master roll siting in cold storage from who know when and they finally cut it up. I used it at 64ei and processed it in previous version of HC110 - H dilution.
And yes, left overs from this master roll were used as shock absorbers for sleeping railway cars. It has crazy strong curl in it.
It's not end of the world yet!

AgX · Jun 30, 2021

The expiration date indicates that it is not very old stock. I do not kow of original Orwo masterrolls kept in a warehouse. Would the OP have given the legal name of the ORWO entity that made it, one could place it even better in time.

rst · Jun 30, 2021

AgX said:
The expiration date indicates that it is not very old stock. I do not kow of original Orwo masterrolls kept in a warehouse. Would the OP have given the legal name of the ORWO entity that made it, one could place it even better in time.

Here you go:

ORWO Media GmbH
06766 Wolfen Germany

Expiration date is 2005

Cheers
Ruediger

AgX · Jun 30, 2021

This restricts marketing of that film to 1998-2002.

rst · Jun 30, 2021

From the development of those two rolls I learned all I need to know about the film: I will not use the other ORWOs. Getting them into the Scanner is a pain with the masks I have. It would be easier in an enlarger I guess. But I prefer films which dry flat. So I stick with Ilford without a detour via ORWO.

Cheers
Rüdiger

gorbas · Jun 30, 2021

Rüdiger, I don't think that you will easily find another batch of 120 ORWO film. There is always way around. Their current camera 35mm films dry flat. I just used some DP-31 (movie lab Double positive) 35mm film and it's on different base and a bit curlier than UN 54 and N74

rst · Jun 30, 2021

Yeah, I am definitely not looking after more of these. I got them from a friend who no longer uses 120 in exchange for some 35mm which I no longer use. Now after processing two of them I am going to sell the rest.

Cheers
Rüdiger

gorbas · Jun 30, 2021

Well....I would happily buy it from you, but shipping from Germany to Canada is most likely very prohibiting.

Who knows this ORWO Pan100 film ...

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