B&W film developing NOW Agfa Wolfen Color Film

[marvbej]

My local camera store in Forest Hills, Queens, imported some E.German stuff in the late ,50s--early  '60s. I used some Agfa Wolfen (not yet Orwo) Agfacolor UT 50 color reversal film. It wasn't too good and processing was slow because it had to be sent to Germany (West, oddly) but it was definately an Ossie product.
'






Sent from Samsung tabletJohn Jensen <***@sbcglobal.net> wrote:Eastman Kodak claims Kodacolor print film was introduced in 1942.  Post 1945 I am sure Kodak 'improved' its film based on Agfa technology.

John
From: Marc James Small <***@comcast.net>
To: ***@freelists.org
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 11:00 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: B&W film developing

\Kodak eventually found another way to achieve this but it was not
fundamentally different from the AGFA method. Kodachrome, despite its
great success, was really only a stop-gap since it required a very
complex processing method well beyond what could be done by most
commercial labs let alone the amateur photographer.  Kodak had a
Kodacolor and Kodachrome. One was an additive process using particles
of dyed starch (or maybe a reseau, I don't remember at the moment) the
other a lenticular process which was used for color motion pictures.
Neither was very satisfactory or very successful.

Kodak did study the late Prewar AGFA process but was barred by patent
law from using this.  That constraint ended in 1941 with the German
declaration of war on the US.  During both world wars, the warring
powers imposed Enemy Alien Property acts which effectively seized the
intellectual property rights of the opponents.  AGFA -- a part of AF
Farbinindustrie -- had spent time and effort to expand their process so
the US, which briefly occupied the AGFA plant at Wolfen, seized the
process and made it a free grab for any US company  and Kodak came to
the plate and took it.  Thus was born Kodacolor.  Yes, Kodak had a LOT
to do with it, but AGFA did the bulk of the work.

When the boundaries of occupation were established, the Wolfen plant
fell into the Soviet Zone but it seems that the US had completely
stripped the plant so that the Soviets learned nothing of significance. 
In the end, the East Germans rebuilt the plant and marketed their wares
as ORWO -- Original Wolfen -- but ORWO only got into color after the
reunification of the Germanies, and that did not last long.  But, damn!,
ORWO made some from schwarz-weisse films.

This is definitely on-topic as the only 120 chrome film available today
-- the Rolleiflex TLR's take 120 film --- are derived from this rivalry
between Kodak and AGFA.

Marc


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[Don Williams]

Post by marvbej
My local camera store in Forest Hills, Queens, imported some
E.German stuff in the late ,50s--early '60s. I used some Agfa
Wolfen (not yet Orwo) Agfacolor UT 50 color reversal film. It wasn't
too good and processing was slow because it had to be sent to
Germany (West, oddly) but it was definately an Ossie product.

I lived in The Netherlands in 1963 and eventually switched from
Ektachrome 64 to Agfachrome 64.

I liked the saturation better, but more important was the fact that I
could drop a roll in the mailbox in Leiden after work and receive the
processed transparencies at my home the next day. I believe they
were actually processed across the border and the European mail
system was (probably still is) a wonder.

My Ektachrome from those days is pink but the Agfa stuff is pretty good.

As I gradually moved from 2 1/4 to 35mm in later years I moved to
color negatives because the resolution had improved to just about
match transparencies and I could get processing at CostCo, complete
with a preview page and a CD.

DAW

[Marvin]

FWIW I now recall that the Agfa Wolfen slide film I used was Agfacolor UT18– 18˚ DIN, not 50 ASA, although they were the same speed.

My local camera store in Forest Hills, Queens, imported some E.German stuff in the late ,50s--early '60s. I used some Agfa Wolfen (not yet Orwo) Agfacolor UT 50 color reversal film. It wasn't too good and processing was slow because it had to be sent to Germany (West, oddly) but it was definately an Ossie product.

I lived in The Netherlands in 1963 and eventually switched from Ektachrome 64 to Agfachrome 64.
I liked the saturation better, but more important was the fact that I could drop a roll in the mailbox in Leiden after work and receive the processed transparencies at my home the next day. I believe they were actually processed across the border and the European mail system was (probably still is) a wonder.
My Ektachrome from those days is pink but the Agfa stuff is pretty good.
As I gradually moved from 2 1/4 to 35mm in later years I moved to color negatives because the resolution had improved to just about match transparencies and I could get processing at CostCo, complete with a preview page and a CD.
DAW