Agfa Vario XL film

[hastingsb]

I got given by my grandmother half a dozen rolls of Agfa Vario XL 120 black and white film. It's rated at any speed from 125 to 1600 ASA and is C41 process. The film expired in 1983, so I'm not too sure how exactly to expose it or develop it. I can't find any development times online. Anybody have any ideas? Thanks

[paulc]

C-41 processing times are fairly standard regardless of film. If you don't have the chemistry and/or the equipment to process at a constant 38°C, take the film to a local mini-lab.

Being over twenty years out of date, and most likely poorly stored, the results may be poor - I'd suggest shooting one roll at ISO100 and see if it is any good.

[Peter T]

Vario XL was Agfa's attempt to compete with Ilford XP1 in the early 1980s. I used the film a few times but didn't think it was as good as XP1, especially the grain which was very obvious on even medium enlargements. I developed it in Ilford's own XP1 chemicals. XL wasn't popular and Agfa pulled it sometime in the 80s. Ilford later brought out XP2 which was formulated to be fully C41 compatible.

You need to be careful with the C41 you choose because they aren't all the same. I found Tetenal C41 worked well for XP2 but a recent trial with this film in 1st Call Digibase C41 was less than satisfactory as it made the base fog level very high which spoiled the shadow detail.

[Lostlabours]

It was an awful film, not remotely up to the quality of XP1, quite grainy in comparison. It was only available for a short time before it was withdrawn from the UK market.

So don't expect too much

Ian

[photomi7ch]

Just because it is out of date does not mean it will not produce pictures. being a colour film it may produce colour shift or now't at all after exposure.

I use out of date film (a lot older than 1983) all the time and in all that time only one film has not produced any pictures. That was an exposed film left in a Browne camera. The rule of thumb is if it is still in it's original packaging un-open then there is a good chance that it will produce some good shots. You have nothing to to loose by giving one roll a try.

[Miha]

Originally Posted by Lostlabours

It was an awful film, not remotely up to the quality of XP1, quite grainy in comparison. It was only available for a short time before it was withdrawn from the UK market.

So don't expect too much

Ian

Jonathan Eastland spoke of it highly.

[paulc]

Originally Posted by photomi7ch

Just because it is out of date does not mean it will not produce pictures. being a colour film it may produce colour shift or now't at all after exposure.

Agfa Vario-XL is a chromogenic B&W film so there shouldn't be any colour shifts. If there is, the lab doing the processing needs a swift kick up the ....

[hastingsb]

Thanks for your advice guys. I'll take it to the lab and see what comes out....

[photomi7ch]

Originally Posted by paulc

Agfa Vario-XL is a chromogenic B&W film so there shouldn't be any colour shifts. If there is, the lab doing the processing needs a swift kick up the ....

I was talking generally not specifically. Thanks for pointing it out Paul.

[dsallen]

You can also try a roll processed in conventional chemicals with the film rated at 200. From memory all chromogenic films processed in conventional chemicals gave an appearance similar yo using an orange filter.

Why bother? - well its old film so why not? - plus chromogenic films processed in C41 are not archival whereas, if processed in conventional chemistry, they are.

Bests,

David
www.dsallen.de