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  #1  
Old 1st March 2022, 06:37 PM
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skellum skellum is offline
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Default They're bringing it back!!

No they aren't.
I'm a terrible liar, waiting for a meeting to start, so passing a few minutes reminiscing. Snusmumriken (Jonathan) is graciously sending me some Technidol in which to try my roll of Technical Pan. Has made me think;
Even though we have some wonderful materials, perfectly able to make very fine images, there are things I miss.
Kodachrome 25- pretty much stopped shooting transparencies when it went. Found Velvia 50 much later, but had actually lost interest in colour slides by then
Agfapan 25- gorgeous film, discovered it too late, nearly bought a pile when it was discontinued.
Kodak Royal Bromesko- Most beautiful printing paper I ever used? Hoarded my last pack until it perished. Idiot.

If I could resurrect just one product it would be Kodak High Speed Infra-red. I can now live without Kodachrome, Ilford Warmtone paper makes me happy, and I've now mastered PanF to my own liking. However, as good as SFX200 and Rollei IR400 are, they just aren't the same. HIE was spectacular and luminous in a way the others don't match.

Which film, or paper, or even camera would have you jump out of your chair when you read They're bringing it back!
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  #2  
Old 1st March 2022, 07:14 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
No they aren't.
I'm a terrible liar, waiting for a meeting to start, so passing a few minutes reminiscing.
As a relatively recent arrival to an interest in photography I don't have enough experience of "old things" ( wife excepted) to be able to say what I'd like back

All I can say is that your headline on Photrio would spark a unstoppable thread that would last till the end of time

Adding "only kidding" would make no difference once it got going

Mike
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  #3  
Old 1st March 2022, 07:25 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default Yes they are. No they are not!

I will go along with Kodak High Speed Infra Red. A wonderful unique film that had no real competitors. Rollie tried and never came close. Konica had a slow IR film (32 ISO) but that too lacked that certain something. Ilford SFX isn't too bad, it has the grain but not the glow from sunlit edges. That isn't a true IR Film anyway

It was a pig to work with until you got to know it's little foibles but what you got when it all went well was very good. It was also tricky to handle because of the film base it would act like a fibre optic if given half a chance, so loading a camera in a changing bag would give you a full 36 Exp instead of loosing the first 6 frames with fogging

All camera meters would measure for the visible wavelength, but to IR it was blind. Eventually I worked it out that on a hot summers day with few clouds set the meter at 800-1000iso. Conversley in winter with sun and clear sky the ISO could be set as low as 50. Anything in between was pure guesswork with a touch of luck

The real element of surprise was the lack of anti-halation layer that gave the overall effect of a soft focus on the edges of objects. Couple this with obvious coarse grain, it was in a class of it's own.

Last edited by John King; 1st March 2022 at 07:33 PM.
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Old 1st March 2022, 08:04 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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Tetenal's Emofin. I still have 3 packets and should really use them before they go "off", but I've got used to another developer now and don't want to spoil things.

I also have a lot of nostalgia for (Geoff Crawley's?) Paterson chemicals (Acufine, Acuspeed, etc), not really for what they did, but because of the association with that phase of my life. Likewise for SLR Camera and especially Creative Camera magazine.
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  #5  
Old 1st March 2022, 08:36 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skellum View Post
No they aren't.
I'm a terrible liar, waiting for a meeting to start, so passing a few minutes reminiscing. Snusmumriken (Jonathan) is graciously sending me some Technidol in which to try my roll of Technical Pan. Has made me think;
Even though we have some wonderful materials, perfectly able to make very fine images, there are things I miss.
Kodachrome 25- pretty much stopped shooting transparencies when it went. Found Velvia 50 much later, but had actually lost interest in colour slides by then
Agfapan 25- gorgeous film, discovered it too late, nearly bought a pile when it was discontinued.
Kodak Royal Bromesko- Most beautiful printing paper I ever used? Hoarded my last pack until it perished. Idiot.

If I could resurrect just one product it would be Kodak High Speed Infra-red. I can now live without Kodachrome, Ilford Warmtone paper makes me happy, and I've now mastered PanF to my own liking. However, as good as SFX200 and Rollei IR400 are, they just aren't the same. HIE was spectacular and luminous in a way the others don't match.

Which film, or paper, or even camera would have you jump out of your chair when you read They're bringing it back!

AP25 was a fantastic film, APX25 was a touch better. I have a couple of rolls of 120 rills still. Agfa stopped making it after production of a key chemical used in the emulsion was no longer available. Sales were too low to cover the research and development of a new version.

Same thing happened when the developing agent used in Promicrol and Atomal ceased production, it's large scale use was in some Russian chemical manufacturing process, when that ceased it was no longer economic to synthesise.

Kodachrome 25 was a good weather film, I preferred Fujichrome 50, I needed fast processing for work, so Kodachrome was not suitable. I switched to Fujichrome in the E4 days, better greens and not as contrasty as Ektachome

I never really used much Kodak paper, maybe more than Ilford in my early teens, but then always Ilford as I had a trade account. Although I switched tp Agfa Record Rapid maybe 1987.

I was never really an Infra Red fan, although I've some good images made on Kodak's Infra red film. Just not my way of working.

Ian
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Old 1st March 2022, 08:49 PM
Michael Michael is offline
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Kodak EPN would have me making transparencies again; and Fuji's Reala might entice me back.
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Old 1st March 2022, 10:55 PM
Svend Svend is offline
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Fuji Pro 400H colour neg film. That would be the one and only stuff which would have me shooting colour film again. I've tried Kodaks' Portra 160 and 400, as well as Ektar, and while they are very good in their own way, they just didn't work for the subjects I like to shoot in colour. Pro 400H was by far my favourite. So versatile and easy to scan to get accurate, pleasing colours in a print. Since it's demise, and after trying others, I just shoot colour in digital now.
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  #8  
Old 2nd March 2022, 07:59 AM
mpirie mpirie is offline
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Ah, jeez, you guys don't make it easy do you?

I started reading the thread and thought "that's obvious, Kodak Tech Pan in 120 or 5x4, assuming Technidol was available too"......but then AP25 and HIE comes out.

If I was forced to pick one, then Technical Pan for me.

Mike
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  #9  
Old 2nd March 2022, 08:42 AM
Paulographic Paulographic is offline
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I liked APX25 and got more consistent results with it than PanF. APX100 was my favourite medium speed film. For a while Jessops own brand 100 was Agfa as was their multigrade paper, something I guessed when noticing the inner wrapping was the same and it behaved the same. I preferred the Agfa paper to IlfordMG and when it went bought all I could especially from Branches of Jessops and their own brand too, on the internet too. I don't think everyone was aware that the Jessops was Agfa Multicontrast.
I used my last Tech Pan and Technidol in 2010, and my last APX25, doing still life work. I found the Tech Pan too contrasty exposed at ISO12 but the APX was spot on for me done in Rodinal.
Someone mentioned Fuji50 slide film. I used this in the 1970s on the recommendation of a professional to photograph artwork. Very accurate colour reproduction and fast turnaround at a lab in Leeds.
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Old 2nd March 2022, 10:36 AM
big paul big paul is offline
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I wish they would Bring back the good old days
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