Agfa Graphics Arts films - info needed

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi folks

In my never-ending quest for cheap sheet film I picked up some boxes of Agfa graphics arts film, but I can't seem to find any info on the net.

Gevarex Contone Film .0064 G0230p
Copyline HD Film HDU1p
Litex Premium Camera Film 0811p

If anyone has any info on these, would be much appreciated, particularly speed, contrast level, sensitivity, I'm guessing they are all ortho as the boxes say either bright red or dark red safelight.

[philslizzy]

Another weird film selection Ian, where do you get 'em?.

I would suggest that the first one will be copying film for images Contone = continuous tone.

The second for text or high contrast applications HD being the clue here.

The third one, dunno, but camera film may suggest its a continuous tone film for image reproduction.

The name Gevarex may suggest that the fim is a couple of (dozen) years out of date. Correct??

I used stuff like this all thru the 70's. Great fun. How do you propose to develop this or your x ray films? Tank or tray?

EDIT
Speed? well cut a few up and expose them in a 35mm camera start at 3 ISO and double up each time to 50 ISO then dev all of them for 4 minutes and see. The contrast will be all to whack but you will get an idea where to start.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Hi Phil, thanks for the tips.

I spotted this on ebay.de, cost me next to nothing.

The expiry date on all three boxes is 1995.

I process my 6.5x9 sheets in an old Envoy bakelite tank, it only takes 4 sheets at a time but only uses 5 fl oz of developer so works out very economical.



I will experiment and post my findings, fingers crossed the film is in decent condition.

[philslizzy]

Hey spot on with the exp date!! Nice tank. I used to use a tupperware container in the dark room, I posted a photo of a mock up here earlier this year. Looking for'ard to some photos!

[iangreenhalgh1]

I've used a bucket with a wire coathanger and some clothes pegs in the dim and distant past to develop 120, but I try to forget about such nightmares.

The Envoy tanks are really common on ebay, I've got three, I had four but my mum dropped one on the kitchen floor and cracked it. Still worked but leaked a bit so I threw it out. I'm gonna get a bigger one to do 9x12 as I'm hopefully about to acquire a 9x12 camera.

I chopped two sheets of the Gevarex Contone up into 6.5x9 to try in my Century Graphic 23, seems a shame to cut up 9x12 but I'm too eager to try it out. I will bracket four shots with the four sheets, exposing it as ISO 3, 6, 12 and 24, should give me a good idea what speed it likes.

[philslizzy]

Try 0.5 and 1 iso speeds too, remember it isn't camera film (in the sense that we know it) so grain and fine detail were more important. Speed not so.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I had three attempts at getting something useful out of the Contone. It's useless, heavy base fog, sadly it's deteriorated too much.

So today I tried the Litex Premium Camera Film 0811p. I was surprised to discover this is double-sided and is on a very thin and flexible base.

I rated it at ISO 12 and this seems to be about right. No base fog and sharpness is a little bit better than the double-sided x-ray film I've been using. Grain is very small and tonality is not bad as it's a true ortho film. I stand developed it in Ornano ST20 diluted 1:10 for 18 mins and this tamed the very high contrast nicely and gave me a full gray scale.

Just a couple of test shots with my Pullin Pulnar 2.8/100, both at f22, first one 1/2 sec, second one 1/5 sec.

[philslizzy]

I love the first picture, it could have been taken any time within the last fifty years! If you had a couple of knickerbockered lads with flat caps staring at the camera it might have been taken 100 years ago.

I take it the light patches on the road are uneven development?

Well done, the film looks like a go-er. You've tamed the contrast a little. Any more results on the other film, there were three werent there?

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Phil. I think that's a development issue on the road, yes.

I haven't tried the third type yet, will do soon.

For comparison's sake, here's a shot taken with Kodak Industrex MX125 at the same time:

[philslizzy]

Nice, not much in it, perhaps a little less contrast with the Industrex, a tad more detail in the shadows.

Ian, what camera you using for this? I am very interested in doing something like this myself. I had an old Speed Graphic and a Sanderson 10x8 plate camera in the 70's and had great fun. Both long gone. Just fads really.

I'm starting another topic to carry this on...

[iangreenhalgh1]

I have a Century Graphic 23, it's the same as the Speed you had but without the focal plane shutter and in 6x9 format.

Here she is with the Pullin London Pulnar 2.8/100 lens I used for these shots:



Here's a panorama made from two images stitched together, Industrex again. The full size version has such a lot of detail.



Soon I want to get a 4x5 or a 9x12.