fabulous news!

terri · May 10, 2007

Saw this announcement over on APUG:

"Fotoimpex in Berlin has announced that they plan to reintroduce AGFA MCC and MCP (under slightly different names, probably Adox), as well as APX 100 and 400 and maybe APX 25 in the next years under their name. Apparently they bought recipes and know-how and are working with former Agfa employees. For those who can read German, the announcement on their forum is here:
http://www.fotolaborforum.eu/index.php?showtopic=1772
Introduction for "Adox" MCC is now listed as April 2008, MCP August-November 2007."

This is not another rumor, as one of the actual owners of Fotoimpex came on board to give more details regarding the factory and rollout dates.

As a hand colorist and wannabe bromoil artist, I am over the moon to think I could get my hands on the old Agfa MCC 188 paper again!! :cheer: THE best paper on the market for those uses, and I still flounder looking for decent replacements. This is indeed a banner day for alt geeks like me.

I've not ever used the APX films, so I didn't miss it as acutely as the paper when Agfa folded.

mysteryscribe · May 10, 2007

this goes along with my theory that large capacity manufactures may leave the market place to be replaced by smaller and more efficient manufacturers producing similiar items.

I still think china's lucky will come on strong with the old kodak formulas one day. It might be someone else though.

If the eastern europeans would retool a few plants they could become major players in black and white film and paper industries quite easily.

Alex_B · May 10, 2007

if there is a market and demand for something, there will be industry serving it at some point .... if the market is small, industry will be small.

so here we have a good example

terri · May 10, 2007

:still twirling like a little girl:

:lol:

motcon · May 10, 2007

that is indeed good news as i was in love with agfa paper. there is one small issue, however; the equipment that they will use is not the same. the recipe is the same, but the equipment plays a role in the quality of the product.

regardless, i'll buy it as soon as it's available.....

....and as giddy as a school girl as i can be, i am just that.

terri · May 10, 2007

motcon said:
that is indeed good news as i was in love with agfa paper. there is one small issue, however; the equipment that they will use is not the same. the recipe is the same, but the equipment plays a role in the quality of the product.

regardless, i'll buy it as soon as it's available.....

....and as giddy as a school girl as i can be, i am just that.

You're absolutely right about the equipment comments.

Here are some excerpts from the APUG post by Mirko Boddecker, one of the FotoImpex owners (text copied verbatim; typos courtesy of Mirko).

".....Agfa Leverkusens way of emulsification was unique and APX recipes are made out for this unique way of making it. Thus it will be very, very hard to transfer them to another precipitation vessel using a different technology. As of my knowledge Gevaert cannot make APX films but they certainly can make other great films of all kinds if they decide to do so.

As far as our project is concerned we are in the posession of all necessary emulsion making equipment and have invested in a research project together with former Agfa engineers to recreate out of their knowledge the formulations and adapt them to our kettle size (40 Liters).

We already have newly coated lab samples of MCC which are excellent and are looking foreward to a small first test run of a few hundred sqm in July, making MCC and MCP.
These will then be given out to interested people out there to test (aplications welcome).

.....While most of this will be done either still in Agfas factory or in the facilities of the former Agfa engineers we will start building up our own facility as a parallel project.

We purchased a mid sized factory building near Berlin, located in a beautiful spa (pictures) but are still waiting for the building allowance to hopefully come in 2008 (don´t´even ask...) and until then nothing much can happen on this end.

Our main goal for this whole project is to save the products and to get the micro factory up to running stage. We are aware of the fact that actual products can only be made with the help of larger companies in an economical way for the mid term. But in case the worse happens and more big players close down we will be there ready to go from this day on.
This factory will be so small that it does not run the risk of high fixed costs running it into bankruptcy. We will start with research only and moove over to emulsification while buying contract coating capacities and confectioning from other sources (we also bought test coating equipment and confectioning equipment but it is not really intended for larger production runs and would need to be rebuild).

If we can´t make the products to meet consumers expectations in terms of price and quality we won´t put any out and use the building for trade only.

I can´t possibly answer questions about available formats, quantites and prices yet.

We are here to do business and to serve customers needs and thus we will do anything necessary to produce as many products as possible and to make as much turnover as possible.

If the market supports the making of APX-like sheetfilms in different speeds and sizes we´ll make it.

Best regards,

Mirko"

It looks promising so far, though the new factory is apparently not a done deal. Nevertheless, I'm thrilled to be spreading news of this kind.

Torus34 · May 11, 2007

Adox! The memories come bubbling up from the depths of my wetware. KB14 and KB11. [No 'serious' photographer shot KB17!] Neofin blau. Negatives that seemed at first impossibly thin, but which printed beautifully once you shifted to paper of a different contrast grade than your 'normal' stuff.

Ilford Pan-F seems to be the modern descendant in terms of negative appearance and 'feel', for lack of a better word.

terri · May 11, 2007

If you act soon, anyone who wants a free sample of the new papers can get 5 sheets of each, per Mirko:

Whoever else is interested please inquire with his/her complete address to:
[email protected]

I'm so excited.

It's not every day you get a favorite product resurrected like this.

Alex_B · May 11, 2007

terri said:
It's not every day you get a favorite product resurrected like this.

Come on, as we all know from this other thread, film is totally dead!

:mrgreen:

terri · May 11, 2007

Alex_B said:
Come on, as we all know from this other thread, film is totally dead!

:mrgreen:

Yeah, so thank god this is paper...... :sexywink:

Oh, but that doesn't explain why the APX is coming back too....rumor is 35, 120, and cut sheet sizes..... :sigh: It's hard to love dead technology, isn't it?

Alex_B · May 11, 2007

terri said:
It's hard to love dead technology, isn't it?

Guess it is really undead ... you cannot really get rid of it fully

terri · May 11, 2007

nealjpage · May 11, 2007

Alex_B said:
Guess it is really undead ... you cannot really get rid of it fully

So if I follow the email address Terri left, and let something undead into my house, will i suffer consequenses similar to that time I let the vampires in?

nealjpage · Sep 16, 2007

My free paper came the other day. It was waiting for me on my stoop when I got home from work. Now I just need to find something special to use it on.

terri · Sep 16, 2007

Excellent!

My sample arrived right as I was heading out to Montana, so it's still lying in the studio winking at me. :sexywink:

I've been waiting for weeks and now that it's suddenly here, I'm scrambling to get ready for art festivals and of course, have little time to spare - arrgghhh!! I'm keen to go play!