Agfa APX 100

[nikonbob]

I hope I am in the right area. Does anyone have experience with APX 100 developed in D76? I saw Walkers post of antique cars taken with ORWO film and it was mentioned that it was an old Agfa formula. Just curious if APX 100 is close to the ORWO in tone range and look.

Bob

[PeterW]

Hi Bob,

Agfa's APX film made in their plant at Leverkusen is, or was, made specifically for surveillance cameras. It uses a very thin emulsion on a polyester base, also very thin so a 50 metre reel is not much more than 2 inches diameter.The emulsion is formulated to be exta sensitive to the red end of the spectrum so it produces good details in tungsten lighting in shopping malls, banks etc.

Ilford used to make a very similar emulsion called Hypersensitive Pro Pan. The Hypersensitive name didn't mean it had extra speed, it meant the film was sensitive to a wider spectrum than normal pan film. Originally the H of HP2, 3, 4 and 5 stood for Hypersensitive because it was sensitive to a wider spectrum than Ortho film.

The hypersensitive pan emulsions are quite fine grained but the tone balance is a little different from normal pan film in that red, yellow and green objects appear to be lighter in tone on a print.

As most mid-colours contain some red, this extra sensitivity to red also makes these colours appear lighter, and generally gives normal daylight pictures a slightly flat look as if they're lacking in contrast.

The above information is taken from a 1963 Ilford Manual of Photography.

Some people like to experiment with APX using a light red filter to get a sort of semi-infrared effect with very light reds and dark blues.

Funnily emough, a couple of weeks or so ago a friend who is a pro photog droppd in for a chat and gave me a couple of 50 metre tubs (actually 48.8 metres according to the label) of outdated (2005) Agfa APS 400S.

At one time he had a contract to load and check the settings on a couple of shopping mall cameras that used these big rolls of bulk film at so many shots per minute, but when the mall was refurbished some five or six years ago they were replaced with small continuous CCTV digital recording cameras. I don't think any of these big bulk film cameras are in use any more.

He had no further use for the film and it had been sitting around in his film fridge for a few years. On the label it says 'for black & white print' but I haven't yet loaded any cassettes to try it.

Here's a quick scan of the top of one of my tubs:



PeterW

[doubs43]

nikonbob said:

I hope I am in the right area. Does anyone have experience with APX 100 developed in D76? I saw Walkers post of antique cars taken with ORWO film and it was mentioned that it was an old Agfa formula. Just curious if APX 100 is close to the ORWO in tone range and look. Bob

Peter has given far more detail than I was aware of and thanks to him for the excellent information.

By some coincidence, I developed three rolls of Agfa APX-100 last week in straight D-76. Taken at ISO 100, the negatives were souped for 7 minutes at 68 degrees. Here are two shots that I'd sent to friends. They were taken last August and are of the old Baltimore & Ohio railroad station at Point of Rocks, Maryland. See what you think of them.

I think it's important to consider that the ORWO was taken with a 4.5 x 6 camera and the APX-100 is 35mm. I have little doubt that the APX-100 would look better in 120 roll formats.





Walker

[nikonbob]

Thanks for both of your answers. I think I will give APX 100 a try.

Bob

[Randy]

I've got some exposed APX 100 in the fridge in both 35mm and 120. Last time I sent some to Vermont my pics came back FUBAR. I don't have anyplace I can set up to develop pics. Wish I could do something with these. By the way, those pics are nice Walker, I've been there where they were taken. There is a simular depot north of Pittsburgh.