There should be no doubt that
digital photography has conquered the world.
But that does not mean that traditional, analog photography is
dead. Especially for Leica owners, the
use of film is still an important aspect of photography because many of the
pre-digital Leica cameras are still in daily use.
Unfortunately, many of the
old film manufacturers are no longer with us.
Great names like Kodak and Agfa have long since all but disappeared from
the market. The most common names of
film manufacturers today are Ilford and Fuji.
That makes it all the more amazing to see the resurrection of one of the
oldest and highest regarded names in black and white photography to reappear.
ADOX
This is one of the world´s
oldest brands for photochemical products.
ADOX was founded as the world’s first photochemical factory in 1860. The ADOX Dr.C Schleussner GmbH soon became one of
the leading producers in Europe. Legendary
films such as the KB 14 and KB 17, being the world´s first thin layer films,
made ADOX famous all over the world. In
the USA KB 14 and KB 17 were called "the German wonder film".
ADOX Fotowerke Dr. C. Schleussner GmbH
Small coating machine
Goebel Super1400 Filmslitter
This machine is still in the posession of ADOX Fotowerke GmbH and runs up to
today
ADOX disappeared from the
photographic market many years ago and the name became part of photographic
history. In recent years some of their
products reappeared under the name of Efke, made by Fotokemika d.d, a company
located in Samobar, Croatia.
Through the efforts of Fotoimpex
GmbH, the ADOX name has returned to Germany.
ADOX takes on the challenges of the new market for traditional
photographic products by building the "smallest photochemical factory in
the world" in Bad Saarow close to Berlin, Germany. The small factory enables
ADOX to manufacture a wide variety of materials in small lot sizes while
keeping overhead costs down.
Their main films are the ADOX®
CHS 25 • CHS 50 • CHS 100 Films. These films are old school emulsions which are
still produced according to the old ADOX formulations which were introduced in
the 1950ies. For years they have been
selling this film under the Efke label, but now it gets back its original name:
ADOX. They claim that by using ADOX CHS films your view on the world is the one
of the 50ies and 60ies, something that should go along quite well with many of
the Leica lenses of that time. These
films have a great tonal range and color separation. They modulate differently from modern films.
ADOX CHS films have their own feel and
look to them. Especially when pictures
are dominated by blue sky the areas in the sky produce a very nice darker grey
compared to more modern films giving the images a different depth and look.
ADOX CHS 25 35mm Film
These films were introduced
by ADOX in the 1950ies and quickly became the preferred films for reporters. The films have an ultra high
silver content enabling it to produce the richest grey scales and many tonal
differences between black and white.
If developed in sharp working
developers such as ADOX ADONAL, a faithful resurrection of the famous Agfa
Rodinal, the films develop a visible edge effect and very high acutance and
detail.
Because of their low
diffusion single emulsion layer technology the films are ultra sharp compared
to modern multi layer films where the light will be diffused when penetrating
through the different emulsion layers.
CHS stands for Cubiccrystal
Heterodispers Single- Layer, which means the emulsion is made up of classic
cubic silver halide crystals which are mixed in different sizes and coated in
one layer. The 25 speed film is the finest
grain film with a classic behavior of low speed films. This means for example the
film is hardly influenced by under exposure or reciprocity effects but can´t
cope with over exposure because it can´t shield itself from too much light Also, its latitude is not as wide as those of faster films.
For beginners ADOX recommends
the ADOX CHS 50 or 100. The 50 has
almost the flexibility of the 100 yet almost as fine a grain as the 25.
This makes the ADOX 50 the preferred
film. It has finer grain and better
tonalities than modern 100 ASA films, yet almost the same effective speed in
certain developers.
The CHS 100 is the highest
speed film which can be made based on this old technology. In the 1950ies it was
called a „high speed film“. Being the
fastest film it has the widest exposure latitude and contrast range but also
develops the largest film grain out of the ADOX family. So especially with this film
you might want to use ADOX ATM49 developer because it will yield a much smaller
grain than Rodinal or APH09.
If you use Pyro developers
the ADOX CHS 100 can reproduce almost one full additional tonal zone compared
to more modern films. This makes it an
excellent sheet film as grain does not matter so much in a large format.
ADOX films are supplied as
KB, 120 and sheet films. They even produce strange film sizes like 127 or
re-sized 620. All roll films (120 films)
are supplied in dustproof light protecting black plastic containers.
CHS 35mm and 120 Films are being
coated on clear PET. Therefore the films are sensitive to light penetrating
through the film base, fogging the emulsion. They sell all 35mm and 120 films
in black plastic containers.
CHS 25 is the finest grain
film from the historical ADOX CHS film range.
Because of the cut off in
spectral sensitivity at about 620nm red image tones tend to be converted to a
darker grey compared with modern superpanchromatically sensitized films.
This leads to a better
separation of lips from white skin in portrait photography and makes the use of
a green filter obsolete. The speed gap
between blue and green/red gives you interesting skies with better separated
clouds (comparable to a soft yellow filtering of modern films).
If developed in
ADONAL/RODINAL or Neofin Blue CHS 25 becomes ultra sharp and brilliant.
Grain is usually not a
problem with CHS 25 because of its fine grain low speed emulsion so this group
of developers can often be preferred over equalizing developers such as ATOMAl
49 / D76 etc.
Low speed films need to be
exposed for the highlights and developed for the shadows (which is the opposite
as for high speed films).
An entirely new product is
the ADOX CMS 20, the sharpest, most fine grained and highest resolving image
recording system in the world. These
films require to be developed in ADOTECH developer, they cannot be developed in
regular developers.
No other film is sharper, no
other film is more fine-grained, no other film resolves more lines per mm (up
to 800 l /mm).
ADOX CMS 20 Films
If used in pictorial
photography the film achieves 20 ASA of usable speed in ADOTECH developer. If used for high contrast purposes the usable
speed increases to 80 ASA. If developed in non dedicated low contrast
developers (HC 110, Cafenol etc) it can be exposed at 3-6 ASA.
However, ADOX does not
recommend using a different developer and they cannot guarantee the results.
The film developer
combination CMS 20 plus ADOTECH has been brought to perfection in years of
research. The film achieves grain free
enlargements of up to 2,5 meters diagonally. This equals mathematical about 500 Megapixel.
12 Megapixel equal 2,4% of 500
Megapixel.
ADOX CMS 20 enlarged from 35mm
ADOX CMS 20 enlarged from 35mm
Cropped very small section of the above full frame image
The special monodisperse ultra high resolution emulsion of the film makes it possible. The AHU anti halation layer
in between emulsion and base material guarantees sharpness yet preventing any
halation effect.
ADOTECH developer brings
perfect halftones and increases the speed to 20 ASA and creates images no one
would possibly believe to have been made with a 35mm camera.
ADOX CMS 20 has an
orthopanchromatic sensitivity which differentiates perfectly between colors.
The CMS “sees it all“. No green filter
is necessary in portrait photography.
The film´s base is totally
transparent making it theoretically possible to reverse it and use it as an
ultrahigh resolution slide film with extreme projecting possibilities. In order to do so you need to
combine a reversal process with Adotech as a first developer.
Think you can´t shoot at 20
ASA? ADOX gives the following explanation:
“If you want high resolution pictures you need to open
your lens aperture to one stop below maximum opening. Otherwise the lens diffraction will lower your
lens' resolution down to half of what this film can capture. Best lenses are F1,4 high speed high quality
lenses like Leica Summilux lenses.
This puts you effectively between F2 and F4.
Any normal day 2 hours after sunrise and up to two
hours before sunset will give you something like a 125th or a 250th of a second
at F 3,5. Therefore the film can be used
under almost any condition where it makes sense to use it because there is
actually something to see.
More speed would force you to stop down too much on a
sunny day, letting slip what your lens can actually achieve.
In bad light conditions the film makes no sense
because you barely see something so you might as well use a lower resolving
film to capture this. Basically, you can
shoot everyday with this film unless the sun is gone or behind heavy clouds or
you want to shoot indoors without a flash.”
For information on all ADOX products, go to: http://www.adox.de/
ADOX films and papers are
distributed over a selected network of fine art photo dealers.
CZECH REPUBLIK
Centrum FotoŠkoda
VodiÄkova
37
110 00 Praha 1 Tel.: 222 929 029
GERMANY
FOTOIMPEX-BERLIN
Pieskower Straße 30A
15526 Bad Saarow
Germany
Tel.: +49 33631 • 6459 - 0
Fax.: +49 33631 • 6459 - 190
Moersch Photochemie
Am Heideberg 48
50354 Hürth
Germany
Tel.: +49-2233-943137
Fax.: +49-2233-943138
Lumière-Shop
Fotolaborgeräte und Zubehör
Zum Köppchen 9
D-51674 Wiehl
GERMANY
Tel: +49 (0) 2262 - 701 666
Fax: +49 (0) 2262 - 701 668
ENGLAND
Silverprint Limited
12 Valentine Place
London. SE1 8QH
Tel.: 0207 620 0844
Fax: 0207 620 0129
MAJ Photographic Limited
Trading as Ag Photographic
1 - 3 Woodthorpe Road
Kings Heath
Birmingham B14 6EE
Tel.: 0121 444 5352;
Fax: 0121 444 1908
Firstcall Photographic
Limited
Cherry Grove Rise
West Monkton
Taunton
Somerset TA2 8LW
United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0)1823 413 007
Fax: +44 (0)1823 413 103
ITALY
ars-imago international
s.r.l.
Via degli Scipioni 24/26
I - 00192 Roma
Tel. +39 06 454 92 886
Fax. +39 06 454 93 381
NETHERLANDS / BELGIUM
VOF FotoFilmFabriek
Carolinie Oster en Mark van
Etten
Hof de Vriendschap 8
3312 EK DORDRECHT
Nederland
Tel.: +31(0)78 6 35 02 36
PORTUGAL
COLORFOTO
Praça de Alvalade nº2D
1700-035 Lisboa
Tel: +351 217932475
Fax: +351 21 7931009
www.colorfoto.pt
SWITZERLAND
ars-imago GmbH
Ägeristrasse 5
CH-6300 Zug
Tel. 0900 697 467 (Fr.
1.79/Min.)
Fax. +41 41 710 78 27
USA
Freestyle Photographic
Supplies
5124 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
United States
Tel.: 1-323-660-3460
WORLDWIDE REQUESTS and dealer
requests:
FOTOIMPEX
ADOX Fotowerke GmbH
Pieskower Strasse 30 A
15526 Bad Saarow near Berlin
Germany
info@adox.de
For information on all ADOX products, go to: http://www.adox.de/
Those appear to be very interesting films. Where can I buy them?
ReplyDeleteI have added the information at the end of the article.
ReplyDeleteCan these films be developed at am upscale photo lab?
ReplyDeleteTheoretically, yes. The CHS films should be no problem, although the quality of the results depend very much on the developers used. The Adox recommended developers are designed to give the best results with these films.
ReplyDeleteThe CMS films cannot be developed at a commercial lab unless they have the special Adotech developer available. By design, the CMS films have to be developed in Adotech developer. Other developers don't work.
Wow, this is enough to make me want to grab some of my film Leicas and go out and shoot. Especially that CMS 20 film sound very interesting. But I don't have a darkroom to develop it myself.
ReplyDeleteYou don't really need a darkroom. If you have a daylight developing tank like Jobo or Patterson, all you need is a dark closet or other dark place to load the tank. The rest of the operation is with lights on. Or, if you could find one of the Leitz Rondinax tanks or its Agfa equivalent, these can even be loaded with lights on.
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with the Leitz Rondinax developing tank. How is it possible to load the film without the lights off?
ReplyDeleteThe Rondinax tank was jointly developed by Leitz and Agfa. It had a compartment that held the cassette with the exposed film. It was important not to rewind the exposed film totally into the cassette because a metal clip would attach to the film leader which then was guided into the developing reel. Once loaded correctly, a lightproof cover was put onto the tank and the film was guided onto the developing reel with a knob on the side of the tank. After pouring in the developer, it was necessary to continuously turn the knob slowly because the developing reel was only partially submerged into the developer. The tank also featured a thermometer on the side to be able to monitor the developer temperature.
ReplyDeleteYou Tube has a video showing the use of the Rondinax tank at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCl3MaVYuSQ
Forgive me for finding and viewing late this article. But this is very nice news/development. I hope I can try out their films sometime. Hope their operation gets big so their films have a wider reach in the globe. Right now I tried looking for this brand in my country but there isn't. But it would be very interesting to find some and try them out. :)
ReplyDelete