Photokina: Positive news for film

[Elita Chrome]

Fabulous report! Makes my heart and my cameras happy. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

[georges h]

Thanks for this report. New films , specially B and W are really good news for analogic users.

[JanaM]

Hello Henning,

thank you very much for your excellent reports! Well done.

I visited Photokina, too, and my impressions were the same as yours.

Just to add, one Kodak representative told me, that their sales of 4x5" sheet film were increasing by about 40% last year (colour and BW).

Dear apug members,

some of you asked me for further details about the filmtest results of Zeiss. They had problems to find these publications on the Zeiss website.
Here they are (all published in their magazine "camera lens news 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, and in their magazin "Innovation: Fotografie spezial"):

http://www.zeiss.de/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_17e/$File/cln17e.pdf

http://www.zeiss.de/C12567A8003B8B6F/EmbedTitelIntern/CLN_19_en/$File/CLN19_en.pdf

http://www.zeiss.com/c12567a8003b58b...256f2c0023b06b

http://www.zeiss.de/c12567a8003b58b9...257118005d1d20

http://www.zeiss.de/c12567a8003b58b9...257118005d1d20

http://www.zeiss.de/C12571FF0043275C
/0/7F4268A116C2BC66C1257210003FDFB0/$file/inno_photo_de.pdf

( page 10 + 11, article by Dr. Hubert Nasse, senior scientist and chief optic designer, and the pages about the Zeiss Ikon rangefinder camera)

http://www.zeiss.com/C12567A8003B58B...25711B0038D874

(furthermore please go to the "virtual tour of the lens production", and then to Foyer 06, "results of unparalled quality", there is an outstanding picture with the legendary Kodak Ektar 25)

Zeiss is clearly emphazising the qualities of film, especially it's superior resolution. Zeiss is the world's most important optic company. About 99% of their camera optics are made for digital cameras. But nevertheless they have the courage to tell the truth: film has higher resolution in most cases (of course dependant on the film you are using). If they make such strong statements, it is of greatest importance, because they are an absolute reliable source. Nearly no other optical company has such detailed knowledge, so deep scientific roots and scientific test methods. But their test results are a bit hidden on their website. Therfore I hope my links are helpful for you.

And as I have said before, my own test results clearly show the superior resolution of film as well. But probably you will trust Zeiss more than me (nevertheless I am working on a publication of my test results. Currently I am looking for a scan service with a drum scanner, which can manage resolution values higher than 140 Lp/mm).

…….....

Best regards,
Henning

Thank you for the excellent links and detailed information.
By the way, some friends and me have done similar tests, and we can confirm your and Zeiss test results. If you need best resolution of fine details, without moirés and artefacts, you have to use film. It's the best choice for this purpose.

Kind regards,
Jana

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

I understand that as : the emulsion is the APX 400 one, corated onto a Clear PET base.

Aurelien,

what makes you think this film is APX 400 ?

Best regards,

Mirko

[Aurelien]

Mirko,

In fact Hartmuth told me that just the film base was change. That 's why I deduced that emulsion was the same as retro 400, so far, the same as APX 400. But when I looked at the datasheets and in particular the spectral sentivity, I doubt...

[Sal Santamaura]

Hi Mirko,

At the end of this thread

http://photo.net/black-and-white-pho...g-forum/00R1tH

in a post marked "Oct 08, 2008; 03:24 p.m" Walter Ivens claims that plans to reintroduce APX films are cancelled. You previously posted here that bringing back the APX films would be a later project dependent on success of MCP and MCC papers. Please let us know whether Adox is simply waiting for those paper successes and the old APX stock to be sold or if a new decision has been reached to never pursue APX films. Thanks in advance for clarifying.

[Henning Serger]

Mirko,

In fact Hartmuth told me that just the film base was change. That 's why I deduced that emulsion was the same as retro 400, so far, the same as APX 400. But when I looked at the datasheets and in particular the spectral sentivity, I doubt...

There is an official and very clear statement from Maco that Rollei Retro 400S has not the APX 400 Emulsion. Retro 400S is a different film on PET base, with higher resolution and a different spectral sensivity.

Best regards,
Henning

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Sal,

I don´t know who Walter Ivenz is.
The APX project is not canceled at all.
In fact we had film to show with us at Photokina and whoever was interested could look at the results. We have recreated the base emulsion with identical curve shape, development times, resolution, and granularity but we still need to work on the spectral sensitization a bit (red/blue balance).

Currently there is still APX 400 35mm in the channel from the Agfa insolvency so we do not push this project.

We cannot make sheetfilm only. We need to have a market for 35mm, 120 and sheetfilm in order to justify the costs of scaling up the emulsion.

Based on my informations about old stocks we are looking at the first half of 2009 for this project to be lifted from research to production stage.

We feel that APX is a slightly better to control film than for example AVIPHOT PAN 400S PE1/PE0 under normal picture taking conditions (on the surface of the earth), especially in respect to curve shape in the midtones.
We also plan to keep it on triacetate.
This is why we feel there is room for the "good old APX 400" next to what others have.

Kind regards,

Mirko

[Henning Serger]

Hello Henning,

thank you very much for your excellent reports! Well done.

I visited Photokina, too, and my impressions were the same as yours.

Just to add, one Kodak representative told me, that their sales of 4x5" sheet film were increasing by about 40% last year (colour and BW).



Thank you for the excellent links and detailed information.
By the way, some friends and me have done similar tests, and we can confirm your and Zeiss test results. If you need best resolution of fine details, without moirés and artefacts, you have to use film. It's the best choice for this purpose.

Kind regards,
Jana

Hi Jana,

thanks about the information concerning Kodak sheet film. My talks at Photokina with Kodak were concentrated on 35mm and 120 film.
Good news indeed.

And nice to hear that your photographers group achieved results in the same range like Zeiss (and me). And that my links to the Zeiss sources were welcome. I think it is very important nowadays (in the time of marketing hypes) to look at scientific sources and to make own tests on a scientifical basis.

Best regards,
Henning

[Cropline]

Thanks Henning,

I was looking at the Photokina sight for additional film information -aside from Kodak-and found none.
I have posted this link to two other websites to help spread to word.