Good News for Film Users!

[SolaresLarrave]

I don't know if THIS NEWS (http://www.photoscala.com/node/view/1271) were reported here before, but check it out.

Agfa's not going away, but reincarnating! :)

[Got it from the Leica-sponsored forum, which in turn got it from the Amateur Photographer, who picked it up off Photoscala. I thought you'd like to know that...]

Now, start the celebration!

[bmattock]

I had not heard it, but it is most welcome news!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[amateriat]

Very interesting...if this also manages to save Rodinal, it'll be time for an RFf line dance! :)


- Barrett

[wlewisiii]

"Special technical attributes" IOW, industrial & artsy-fartsy types :D We won't be seeing it back at Walgreens probably, but it's good to see it's going to be around somewhere. Being a chemical company, the film production should actually shoehorn into their infrastructure relativly easily at low additional overhead cost. Probably the best kind of company to invest in film these days...

Good news. Thanks for the post, Francisco.

William

[bmattock]

Very interesting...if this also manages to save Rodinal, it'll be time for an RFf line dance! :)
- Barrett

Previously reported - Rodinal (and all the B&W Agfa chemistry) was purchased by German company a&o, which is producing it currently. I have heard that it is starting to show up in Canada already. Same bottle, different logo.

Of course, the usual complaints that even though it is made on the same line, by the same employees, using the same chemicals, it has somehow been tampered with and is no longer 'real' Rodinal. I have never used Rodinal, but I hope to some day. However, Rodinal users are such big babies...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[Trius]

This will be interesting to follow. Exactly what films will be continued? Vista? Agfachrome? (PLEASE!!!) APX 100 & 400? (PRETTY PLEASE!!!)

Oh, and can you bring back Portriga?

[david b]

Rodinal is available at www.freestylephoto.biz

[amateriat]

This will be interesting to follow. Exactly what films will be continued? Vista? Agfachrome? (PLEASE!!!) APX 100 & 400? (PRETTY PLEASE!!!)

Oh, and can you bring back Portriga?
Well, let's just bring back APX 25 while we're at it! (Only 5% sarcasm in that remark!)


- Barrett

[Michael I.]

I am all tingly inside

[jlw]

This is interesting, but how much film production can you do with 50 people? Note that's all they said they'll employ -- eventually maybe rising to 70, which still isn't a lot.

[jlw]

Agfa has (or at least used to have) a pretty big business doing private-label films for store chains and such. That's probably what drives the volume that attracted Hyosung to buy it.

Also, now that I think of it, if Hyosung moves all the management, marketing and planning in-house, and just retains production-line people at Leverkusen, 50-70 people probably WOULD be enough to run the actual plant. Don't count on much R&D happening, though...

[jaap]

I'll hope and pray they start producing Agfa multicontrast classic again. One of the finest black and white fibre based papers.

[lushd]

Brand new half litre of Rodinal is sitting on a shelf downstairs right now and it is great news about the film. Agfa colour film is my personal favourite and it suits the old fashioned FSU lenses very well. I am determined to remain an up to date 1950's photographer!

[robert blu]

It would be great if they go on with the Scala production ! Excellent black and white slide film, for the (few) ones who still love slide proiections! I like it !

[Uncle Bill]

I don't know if THIS NEWS (http://www.photoscala.com/node/view/1271) were reported here before, but check it out.

Agfa's not going away, but reincarnating! :)

[Got it from the Leica-sponsored forum, which in turn got it from the Amateur Photographer, who picked it up off Photoscala. I thought you'd like to know that...]

Now, start the celebration!
Not wanting to sound cynical but I want to see a link to a media release even if it is in german. Will APX 100/400 be around, will it still trade under Agfa or will be re branded? I am a really cautious optimist here.

Bill

[graksi]

Efke will make APX100 and APX400 in Maco brand later this year... (Efke make Maco products in last few years, also)... :cool:

[Mackinaw]

This topic also came up on APUG. Somebody there suggested that the "new" Agfa will only be producing the plastic base that is used for film production and they will not be coating it with any photo-sensitive emulsion.

Jim Bielecki

[bmattock]

Not wanting to sound cynical but I want to see a link to a media release even if it is in german. Will APX 100/400 be around, will it still trade under Agfa or will be re branded? I am a really cautious optimist here.

Bill

I know what you mean - and I'm one to back things up as well. I *did* find several German news releases and one in Korean that said exactly the same thing. All very short blurbs, all very tersely-worded. But saying the same thing as the link posted at the start of this thread. I'm sorry I didn't save them, but they're out there.

The one thing I did learn by dredging through the Korean stuff was that SOME of the production line will be moved to South Korea. SOME will stay in Germany (Leverhausen or however you say it). They still do not say WHAT they plan to produce.

I am cautiously optimistic, and prepared to be wrong about my incessant drum-beating on FID. Well, actually, I don't think I am wrong, but you never know. I was wrong before, once or twice.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[bmattock]

Efke will make APX100 and APX400 in Maco brand later this year... (Efke make Maco products in last few years, also)... :cool:

Where did you get that info? Maco is very tight-lipped about who makes their film, insisting that *they* make it themselves, in the factories they don't have.

I'd love to know who makes Begger as well, but again, they aren't very forthcoming, even going so far as to print "Made in France" on some boxes of film that are clearly not made in France. Well, maybe the boxes are.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[bmattock]

This topic also came up on APUG. Somebody there suggested that the "new" Agfa will only be producing the plastic base that is used for film production and they will not be coating it with any photo-sensitive emulsion.

Jim Bielecki

Jim, I don't want to add fuel to that rumour, but when I was staggering through Korean translations last night, I noted that they used a specific term "specialty films" which has a meaning closer to what you read on APUG - different types of plastic film, not photographic film. However...I hope they mean to continue to produce Agfa photographic films.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[graksi]

I hear for Efke - APX - MAco combination last week in Efke factory (I write some article about factory in newspapers when I working).. In few weeks Efke will repackage Agfa surveilance films too...
I don't know nothing about Berger, but I heard rumours about Rollei and old Orwo receptures...

[Socke]

This topic also came up on APUG. Somebody there suggested that the "new" Agfa will only be producing the plastic base that is used for film production and they will not be coating it with any photo-sensitive emulsion.

Jim Bielecki


Makes sense, as I've just heard from Fotoimpex some Efke products are currently unavailable because those are made on an Agfa base which is unavailable at the moment.

[peter_n]

I'll hope and pray they start producing Agfa multicontrast classic again. One of the finest black and white fibre based papers.Jaap did you find a close alternative to MCC?

[Andy Andrews]

With automated equipment, 50 well-trained employees can equal 500 that used to be required. Yes, like it or not, robots are taking over the planet. But would you let your daughter marry one?

[wtl]

Good News for Film Users!

what was the bad news before?

[bmattock]

what was the bad news before?

Agfa Photo going out of business, I presume.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[bmattock]

Daniel,

I felt the same way. However, if I mention it, certain parties fly into a tizzy, fall on the ground, spin in circles, cry like small babies, and plead with the powers-that-be to close the thread.

So I just say 'groovy' and wait until reality blows chunks in their cheerios. Let someone else learn to read beyond what they 'want' it to say. De inimico non loquaris sed cogites.

Oops.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

PS - Seriously, though - I hope that they really meant photo film.

[bmattock]

With automated equipment, 50 well-trained employees can equal 500 that used to be required.

But give the unions a chance, they can slow things down until 500 employees are required again.

Yes, like it or not, robots are taking over the planet.

Actually, we already did. But we don't like it much. Want it back?

But would you let your daughter marry one?

Gbzzetd. Does not compute. Get the intruder, get the humanoid.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[bmattock]

Speak of the devil...

Sorry folks. It is bad news, I think. Despite my pessimism, this was not something I wanted to be right about.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200604/kt2006041219380711910.htm

Hyosung Acquires Agfa Film Factory

By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
South Korea’s Hyosung group said Wednesday it took over for an undisclosed price the industrial film manufacturing department of Agfaphoto, the German photographic film maker bankrupted last year.

The facility in Leverkusen, Germany, will produce plastic films for industrial use, such as automobile windshield coatings, construction materials or films used in LCD and PDP TV panels.

Hyosung said the factory will be operated by its new German subsidiary OpCo, which became the group’s 40th affiliate.

Wilfried Sill, AgfaPhoto’s managing director, was named head of the new firm which has some 50 employees remaining for production. The new company is expected to raise the number of employees to 70 by the end of the year.

``It is meaningful that a Korean company acquired assets of a foreign firm that has a global brand and advanced technologies,’’ Hyosung said in a statement.

Hyosung, a Korean industrial conglomerate, was founded in 1957. It operates in diverse fields including chemicals, textile and industrial synthetic fibers, machinery, construction, information technology and trade.

The group said acquisition of Agfa will further boost its expansion into the chemical material industry, though it does not have immediate plans to produce photographic films which is what Agfa has been renowned for.

``Agfa has a strong competency in the field. If a company is able to make photographic films, that means it can easily make any other industrial films,’’ said the group’s spokesperson Cha Yu-na.

Agfa was founded in 1867, and has been a prominent maker of consumer products such as cameras and photographic films. However, its consumer imaging division spun off from the company in 2004 as the traditional film industry suffered downturns due to rising demand for digital cameras.

Agfaphoto eventually filed for bankruptcy after just one year of the separation in May of 2005.



indizio@koreatimes.co.kr

04-12-2006 19:37

[SolaresLarrave]

Bubble burst. Sad day indeed. Thanks, Bill.

[Sheds a timid tear] :(

[Trius]

Sorry you were right, Bill. Hate that when it happens. ;)

[Uncle Bill]

Pity, oh well what can you do. There is always Ilford, Kodak Plus-X/ Tri-x, and Fuji neopan

Bill

[bmattock]

It was just a suspicion when I read "specialty films" in the original German article. That has a meaning in the plastics industry that is not a reference to photographic film. I really did not want this to happen - I like Agfa APX 100 very much, and we need as many choices as possible.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

[fgianni]

I want SCALA back!

[Rey]

Somebody needs to bring back a few varieties of AGFA film. Last month a single roll of ULTRA color (35mm) sold for $30.00 or so on ebay! Now theres got to be some profit in putting out limited amounts of this stuff.

[Rey]

Yeah, Agfa's ULTRA was fantastic. I know some folks who still have a few rolls stashed in their freezer for that "special occasion". I wonder how long it will stay fresh?

[plexi]

At least we have Rollei`s Retro 100/400 wich IS APX 100/400, Rollei bought the remaining master rolls. Use it while it lasts. And no, this is not a rumour.