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  #1  
Old 6th June 2016, 08:51 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Who makes 'Agfa' C41 Film?

A few months ago I had a problem with Poundland sourced Agfa Film, giving uneven colours on the developed image so gave it away to a forum member who had a use for it in teaching.

Yesterday I ran very short of film and had to buy 5 cassettes from Poundland - just to get me out of a tight situation. When I opened the box and the plastic tub I was surprised to find that the cassette did not show the Agfa name as the old ones I gave away had done.

The colour of the cassette looked to me a bit like the old 'Tudor' brand! It had no manufacturers name or brand name at all. The colour of the cassette was in main light purple, not the Agfa redish orange.

The box on the other hand, was the normal 'Agfa' colour with all the normal wording and showing an expiry date of Nov 2017 and Made in Japan.. The edge markings on the film gave no indication of the manufacturer. Inside the box was printed the normal disclaimer in several languages. The 1st paragraph in English states:-

Limitation of warranty. This productwill be replaced if defective in MANUFACTURE, DESIGN, LABELING, OR PACKAGING etc, etc, etc

I feel there is something to be explained about the two sections I have highlighted in bold.

I have processed two cassettes of this 'Agfa' film and they look quite normal, but why the change of colour of the cassette with no manufacturers name or brand name except on the outside carton?

Last edited by John King; 6th June 2016 at 08:54 PM.
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Old 6th June 2016, 10:38 PM
DaveP DaveP is offline
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As far as all indications show the Agfa Poundland stuff is Fuji C200. Nobody else in Japan makes film so at the very least we know it's Fuji. Fuji also makes the Agfa E6 film Precisa CT (rebadged Provia).

I suspect they moved to nondescript design of the cassettes so it could be sold rebranded under various budget third party names without having to change the cassettes (hence saving on overheads).
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Old 7th June 2016, 07:51 AM
John King John King is offline
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Default Re-Branded

I can see the point about 're-branding' and saving costs of putting the brand name on the cassettes, I would think the savings would be actually miniscule. However I find it to be a little disengenuous to print AGFA on the box but not on the actual cassette. It is almost as if they are trying to cover something up.

As I said before, other than on the box there is no suggestion anywhere else who the actual manufacturers or distributors are. It could be a cheap and nasty film from China or elsewhere and it would be easy to print the cardboard box to give the impression that it is the Ahfa clone of Fuji.
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Old 7th June 2016, 08:41 AM
DaveP DaveP is offline
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It would but I think you're being a bit too cynical John! They would probably be acting criminally to fraudulently describe a product as being made in one particular country if it was made elsewhere. If it says Made in Japan on the box then it's Fuji.

Don't underestimate the overheads of packaging, especially with a bare basic emulsion like this. Bearing in mind Fuji recently started packaging their sheet film in boxes of 20 rather than 10 (same actual sized box) as a cost saving. It's also been said that back in the golden days Kodak's sheetfilm boxes were costing them more to make than the actual film contained within. Ilford recently bought their own 35mm cassette making machine to cut down on the costs of buying them in (and remedy supply problems).

I've shot one roll of the Agfa 200 stuff (I have 8 more in the fridge and one currently in a camera) and it certainly looked consistent with the online forum posts saying it was Fuji C200, same general look. I think it has the same edge markings on the film as C200
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Old 7th June 2016, 11:08 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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As Dave says it's definitely Fuji 200, I've used some and know people who use a lot of it.

The "disclaimer" is because German law is very precise and the distributors Lupus Imaging have to label in such a way because they license the brand name AgfaPhoto and have to be very careful to ensure that in the event of a defective product Agfa Gevaert can't be held responsible in anyway.

Mirko from Adox/Fotoimpex has stated that labeling in Germany is a minefield with lawers looking for mistakes, they have to label films and papers with the Metric sizes despite many of the materials being sold in Inch sizes.

Ian
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Old 7th June 2016, 02:01 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lostlabours View Post
The "disclaimer" is because German law is very precise and the distributors Lupus Imaging have to label in such a way because they license the brand name AgfaPhoto and have to be very careful to ensure that in the event of a defective product Agfa Gevaert can't be held responsible in anyway.

Mirko from Adox/Fotoimpex has stated that labeling in Germany is a minefield with lawers looking for mistakes, they have to label films and papers with the Metric sizes despite many of the materials being sold in Inch sizes.

Ian
I have a feeling that when this stuff first appeared in the U.K.( Poundland springs to mind) it was even called Agfa Vista which it wasn't . I think that Silverprint sold it as well as Agfa Vista which is of course what the boxes said.

I haven't seen it referred to as Agfa Vista for a long while. It sounds as if we have Germany's lawyers to thank and rightly so as it is Fuji which is quite a different colour signature from the genuine but long departed Agfa Vista

Mike
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Old 7th June 2016, 02:51 PM
DaveP DaveP is offline
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The stuff I have in my fridge, bought recently from Poundland, says Agfa Vista on the box.
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Old 7th June 2016, 04:55 PM
Paulographic Paulographic is offline
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I saw some in a Poundland this morning (I was searching for CD cases and it was next to them) but didn't break the seal on a box to see what was inside.
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Old 7th June 2016, 05:11 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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The problem is Lupus Imaging have the rights to use the AgfaPhoto name and also some product names as well like Vista. APX100, APX400 etc.

Ian
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  #10  
Old 7th June 2016, 05:48 PM
KevinAllan KevinAllan is offline
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Next to the barcode on the canister, you should see a six-digit numeric code.

The website http://dexter.pcode.nl/ allows you enter this code and then tells you what film type it is.

My rolls of Poundland film have the code 806253 and dexter reports that the film type is Fujicolor 200.
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