Agfa near the end

[regnaD kciN]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0510/05102102agfa_end.asp

This is both a reminder on how rapidly film-based photography is fading away, and a sad moment for those of us old enough to remember a time when photography meant film, period.

Agfa's filmstock has always had spotty availability in this country, but, when I was getting into photography, it was the quality alternative to Kodak, much as Fuji is today. In particular, AgfaChrome slide film had rich, moody colors that were tailor-made for those of us who wanted an "arty" look as opposed to Kodachrome's brashness.

Of course, for those of us who now work with pixels instead of emulsions, the notion of the all-important visual quality of a given film stock seems like a quaint echo of the past; however, I still can't help feeling that the photography world will be somewhat poorer with Agfa and its film forevermore gone. :-(

[F.Gordon]

1. Shhhhhhh

There are some filmsies that lurk here that might see this as a sign of the rapture. It's really too bad that companies don't do more to keep film alive..... but I don't see it.

The new Canon 5D and 24-105 lens were designed, in part, with the filmsie in mind. IMO... I think you'll start to see a lot of filmsies chucking the film and getting this setup because it emulates digitally the old "pure film" body/lens setup.

Ms F' keeps asking me why I keep the boxes and boxes of old vinyl. I'll tell her... "because I can't get these albums on CD" (which is partially true)... but then I think.... "yea, why am I keeping all these heavy boxes?"

I've recently sold off all my old "home movie studio" equipment. It was all manual (for the most part) with S-VHS being my end source. Now my "home movie studio" is a computer and a DVD burner. The quality if better and it is waaaaaay faster than the old manual setup.

Oops... too much coffee. What was this discussion about?
:crazy:

[DS1]

2. I'll miss the Scala

wonderful tones in that film.

[alfredo]

3. I loved Agfa because I lived in an area of many shades of

brown and gold, the sub Sahara. Agfa was perfect for that. Kodachrome was so suburban middle class.


I had a friend who invested heavily in silver because he thought that once China became a economic power, they would take a lot of pictures, using a lot of silver, causing his investment to skyrocket. I don't bring up the subject to him.

[intheflow]

4. Fuji isn't making 100-speed film any longer.

Playing to the lowest denominator film camera users. I almost exclusively shot with Fuji 100-speed because of the enlargement quality. Kodak 100 sucks. Now Agfa's going, too? A sad day indeed for us "film snobs." :cry:

[regnaD kciN]

5. Fuji Velvia is still available at 100...

...although they've discontinued the 50.

[Touchdown]

6. Don't they make a 160 now?

I'm sure my sister said it was Fuji.:shrug:

[Deja Q]

7. Is that pig-latin for something I probably don't want to know about?

Jokes aside, Agfa makes rap-ca.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

8. I used to work for Agfa's film division. They were a division of Bayer.

They went public in 98ish. Bayer retained 25%.

They moved the US customer service/warehousing to Canada in the late 90's... really sad. Now I must email some former co-workers. I hope they still have jobs :(.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

9. They have a cool collection of photo's from contests online...

http://www.agfaphoto.com/application/1/en-US/photography/awards/photo-of-the-month/archive/index.html

http://www.agfaphoto.com/en-US/photography/awards/bw-photo-competition/index.html

http://www.agfaphoto.com/application/1/en-US/photography/awards/agfaphoto-award/archive/index.html

I highly recommend "The Colour Red": http://www.agfaphoto.com/application/1/en-US/photography/awards/agfaphoto-award/archive/cont_winner.html?thema=9&Agfaphoto_session=d5bffbe80ada643ece94d199d0403759


You may get some ideas for the contest here...