Agfaphoto APX 100
Shot on 35mm at box speed with Pentax-M 50/1.4
About Agfa APX 100
This is a budget BW film brought to market under the Agfa brand, with an officially unamed manufacturer. The widespread conception in the analog community is that this film is identical to Ilford's Kentmere 100 and also Adox' CHM 100. At least in the German area, Agfa can be picked up in some drug stores. The film delivers a pleasing look with low-ish grain and a flat profile. As such, one might regard it as the budget variant of Kodak's Tmax 100.
About Agfa
Agfa once was a large and innovative German film and camera manufacturer but is today nothing more than a trademarked name that is slapped by the license holders on third party products.
Agfa was founded in 1867 in Berlin as a manufacturer of aniline dyes (Aktiengesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation) [1]. Very remarkably, only three years after the first ever observation of X-rays in 1895 they started the manufacturing of X-ray plates.
Agfa's following history is deeply connected with the history of Germany. Already in 1904 Agfa joint forces with Bayer and BASF, later in 1925 eight of the major German chemistry companies decided to stop competing und fusing into a single company, the IG Farben. This new company was the largest company in Europe and the largest chemical and pharmaceutical company in the world [2]. Still using the Agfa brand name, IG Farben competed with Kodak to develop the first color film and brought a color positive film to market only a year after Kodachrome was introduced.
Under the Nazi rule of Germany IG Farben began mass manufacturing of war supplies and also contributed to the production of Zyklon B. As more and more workers were required to satisfy Germany's needs of war supplies the company was supplied by the SS with large numbers of slave workers from the concentration camps. One of the production sites, a large synthetic rubber plant, was directly built in Auschwitz.
After the war the leading managers of the company were imprisoned and the industry giant was divided into its founding members. As such, the Agfa brand reemerged on the market and soon started to produce the photo products for which it became famous. As Germany was now divided into an East- and a West state, Agfa was also split into an East-German and West-German part. The trademark dispute was settled in 1964 when the East-German Agfa was rebranded as ORWO [3]. The West-German Agfa kept its name and set up manufacturing in Leverkusen.
The end of Agfa photo productions came in 2004 when brand name and manufacturing were separated, resulting in bankrupcy of the manufacturing branch after only a few months. Since then third parties produce Agfa products. Today only two BW films remain in the portfolio that are said to be produced by Ilford.
Links
- [1]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agfa-Gevaert#cite_note-revenue-1, retrieved July 29th 2020
- [2]
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.G._Farben, retrieved July 29th 2020
- [3]
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORWO, retrieved July 29th 2020
Packaging
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