Kodak Retina I (119)

I have purposefully been avoiding Kodak cameras. There are just too many of them and they are mostly towards the bottom end of the market. Kodak seems to have had an obsession with introducing new models - both camera and film. You would think that three or four film formats would suffice but Kodak introduced 36 different film sizes in roughly a century - a new format every eight years. Most of these were only slightly different from each other - sometime only the spool differed not the film, as with 120 and 620. Kodak were the same with their cameras.

Kodak Retina I (119)

However, the Retinas are special. Firstly, they were not designed by Kodak. When Kodak wanted to break into the serious amateur market they bought a German camera manufacturer (Nagel Kamerawerk) and had the good sense to keep Dr Nagal on as the chief designer. Retinas were made from 1934 to 1969 in Germany and this model (Retina I 119) was made from 1936 to 1938. I have used serial numbers to try and get a more precise date of manufacture. The lens was made between September 1935 and May 1936 according to my Schneider serial number list and was engraved with a serial number on 8 January 1936 according to Dave Jentz of the Historical Society for Retina Cameras. The shutter was made between 1935 and 1939 and the serial number is towards the end of that five year range so mid 1938 is my best guess. This means that the camera must have been made in 1938 and so one of the last model 119 to be made. More accurate records of serial numbers are not available from German companies - mostly because records were lost in the bombing in WWII. Dave Jentz has offered to more accurately date the camera body from the body serial number and when I have that information, I will update this blog with it.

This Retina I is very similar to good folding 120 cameras of the day (mid 1930s) and surprisingly similar to Zeiss Ikon's Ikonta 35 of 15 years later (it is also very similar to Balda's Baldina of a few years later).  Hubert Nerwin of Zeiss Ikon claimed to have spent the war years thinking about the design of the Ikonta 35 but I think he just had a quick shifty at a Retina.

Retina 1938

Ikonta 1949

The camera is made from a single aluminium alloy casting. It is covered with black leather (rather than leatherette) which, on this camera, is in excellent condition. The back has the word 'Retina' embossed in the leather in italic script. The exposed parts of the aluminium are enamelled in black. Kodak produced these cameras is twin series - the 119 (this camera) was enamelled in black and the 126 was chrome plated. Otherwise they were identical.

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Blog copyright by John Margetts, 2014
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Retina I (119) back view

The controls on the camera (as opposed to the shutter housing - details later) are nickel plated as is the hinge and catch for the back. As new, this will have looked very good - the soft-blueish nickel against shiny black. Unfortunately, the previous owner stored this camera in a damp place. The nickel plating has corroded leaving a blue/green deposit and some pitting of the metal. On the hinge and catch - both of which are steel - corrosion has allowed the under-laying metal to rust. This has ended with the hinge being rather stiff although it is already getting freer. The controls have cleaned up quite well with Brasso wadding with the exception of the knurled milling on the circumference of the film advance and film rewind knobs., although even those are now much improved.

The one part I find rather strange - finish wise - is the depth of field calculator on the base of the camera. This is made from steel - I would have expected brass on a camera this well designed - and the nickel plating has completely worn off from the edge exposing the steel which is now rusty.

So much for the cosmetics. The controls are what you need on a 35 mm camera. On the right hand end of the top is the film advance knob. Just below this is a clutch lever to allow the film advance to be disconnected for film rewind. Next to the film advance knob is a recessed frame counter. This is not connected to the film advance. Rather, when you press the small button to free the film advance to turn to the next frame, this button also advances the counter by one.

Slightly to the left of centre is the very small viewfinder. This is a reverse Galilean finder and too small to use while wearing glasses. On the left hand end is the rewind knob.

On the base are two items - a tripod boss (the modern standard 1/4 inch Whitworth thread) and a depth of field calculator together with the release button for the lens door. 

Retina I (119) - base of camera showing the focusing knob and aperture knob.

There is no connection between any of these controls and the shutter, so the camera can only advance the film one frame, so no wasted film, but cannot prevent double exposures.

This is a folding camera so the lens/shutter are hidden behind a door. This is released by a button on the base. A spring will open the door about halfway and the user has to open the door fully. The lens/shutter come forward on struts to their operational position. There is a short bellows which are made of lacquered cloth rather than leather - the more durable option. In this case they seem to be light proof but the test film will show for sure.

Retina I (119) lens door open

The lens and shutter are mounted on a square nickel plated plate which is much more attractive than the system used by Zeiss Ikon and Voigtlander. To close the lens door, you have to depress two studs - one on top and one below the square nickel plate. You also need to make sure the lens is focussed on infinity as there is insufficient clearance to close the door is the lens is focussed any nearer.

The lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar - a four element Tessar copy - which is not coated. Lens coating was around when this camera was made (1938) but was only used on really high end cameras. This lens was very dirty and did not come clean using ROR lens cleaner. As the lens is not coated an was very dirty I took the extreme step of cleaning the glass with Brasso wadding. This was both the external front face of the lens and the internal back face. The glass is now as good as new.

Retina I (119) -  close up of Xenar lens and Compur-Rapid shutter

The lens is mounted on the nickel plate as already mentioned and this means that the camera can be focused by moving the whole lens and not just the front element. this bodes well for image quality. Rather than turning the lens, there is a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing which moves over about 100 degrees to focus the lens. This is easily done by feel with the left hand. Kodak have thoughtfully provided two focus scales, one in black and one in red. The black scale is easily visible when using the camera in portrait mode and the red scale in landscape mode. I have never seen this before and it is very useful. Incidentally, the focusing scale is in feet.

The aperture is also adjusted by a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing and this can be distinguished from the focusing knob by feel. This also has two scales making this camera very easy to use. The aperture range is from f3.5 to f16 - a very usable range. I do not care about having a fast lens as I usually stop down to f8 or f11 and very rarely go as wide as f5.6.

Being a Compur shutter, the cocking lever moves clockwise  (down in this case as it is on the left). As with the focus and aperture scales, there are two shutter release buttons. Kodak have managed this is a very simple and effective way - there is a very short cable release screwed into the cable release socket - by very short, I mean 1 cm in length (see the picture above). I think this is intended to give a reachable shutter release for the right hand in both portrait and landscape positions but it also means there is a convenient release for a left handed person.

The Compur-Rapid shutter offers speeds to 1/500 seconds although received wisdom is that it is nearer to 1/350 in most cases. I have no way of checking and I do not really care - the 1/500 speed is useful and usable and that is what I care about.

Inside is fairly uncluttered. The film cassette goes on the left, there is a single sprocket at the top of the sprocket shaft and there is a fixed take-up spool. The camera's serial number is stamped into the metal of the door close to the hinge.

Retina I (119) inside view.

The only other thing to describe is the depth of field calculator on the base. This is quite simple to use. You rotate the outer ring until the distance you are focused on in against the central mark and then read off the furthest and nearest in-focus distances on the inner ring against the aperture you are using. To me, this is useful to find the hyperfocal distance of the lens at various apertures. To do this, align the infinity distance against the aperture you want to use and read the hyperfocal distance off the central mark - at f16, the hyperfocal distance is 13 feet, so I would focus at 13 feet and have everything between infinity and 8 feet in focus.

Depth of field calculator

Using the Camera (16-6-2014)

I have enjoyed using this camera with the trst film. I am still waiting for the lab to finish developing the film as I managed to get the leader oily by over-enthusiastic lubrication on the film advance mechanism - they wanted permission to sacrifice the first two frames to get an oil-free piece of film to attach to the developing machine.  I should get the processed film in the morning and I will update this essay with the pictures on Thursday, all being well.

The controls are, for the most part, ergonomically placed and easy to use. The one control I found difficult  nearly impossible to use is the aperture control. basically, this is too close to the focusing knob and it is too easy to move both accidentally. In practice, I found it easier to adjust the aperture by moving the pointer on the aperture scale.

What made this camera really easy to use is the provision of two shutter releases. Dr Nagel's intention, I am sure, was to make the camera as easy to use in portrait orientation as it is in landscape orientation. I found it easiest to fire the shutter left-handed even though I am essentially right-handed. For a left-handed person it must have been the best camera around by far.

The viewfinder is very small, as I mentioned above. It is the standard size for viewfinders from all manufacturers until the mid-1950s. It seems strange to me that it should be so. The folding viewfinders on my Zeiss Ikon and Agfa cameras are larger and easier to use and my Zeiss Ikon Icarette has a relatively enormous (glassless) 'sports' finder which is a large (6 x 9 cm) wire frame positioned at the lens' node  with a large enough frame as the eye-piece of the viewfinder. this move in the mid-1930s to enclosed reverse Galilean finders made the cameras significantly harder to use than their predecessors. having said that, the viewfinder is usable once I have removed my glasses - even if I have to compose by shape and line rather than by detail. Or is that an advantage - preventing me from being carried away by the detail?

The need to advance the frame counter before advancing the film soon became second nature and moving the clutch lever from Advance to Rewind before rewinding the film was obvious enough not to cause me any problems.

As I mentioned above, the camera had been stored in a damp place which has caused the cast aluminium body to corrode. An unexpected consequence of this was that, with very little handling, the leather covering came off the body. This was not a failure of the glue (almost certainly shellac) but the disintegration of the metal surface that the leather was glued to. This is not a problem - an application of emery paper to both camera and leather has allowed me to re-glue the leather (with modern plastic glue rather than shellac).

Test photographs:

(All copyright John Margetts)

As usual, these are all from around Lincoln. All the pghotographs are a bit on the bright sie (I have Gimped the version here) which suggests that the shutter is running a bit slow. The shutter is 76 years old so some speed variation is to be expected, perhaps, but the photographs are all exposed within the film's latitude so the camera is quite usable. 

The first picture (Silver Street, Lincoln) shows the effect of using a film in a dirty camera.  I did clean the inside of the camera before loading the film, but as you wind on the film, a very small amount of static electricity is generated - enough to attract any dirt inside the camera onto the film. It is visible in this picture as dark specks. Only this frame was affected.

First frame with statically attracted dirt.

Lincoln railway station

 This next picture has needed to be adjusted for parallax faults - the verticals were converging towards the top of the picture - a lens fault.

The Strait, Lincoln

Lincoln Exchequergate

Southern African buskers in Lincoln's St Benedict's Square

This next shows one of the very few bridges left in Europe with shops on them. In the Middle Ages, this was usual.

High Bridge, Lincoln.

Six-20 Brownie D

Kodak SIX-20 brownie D

This must be the simplest camera that I have.  It is a box camera from Kodak made between 1953 and 1957 in London.  It was also made in the USA.  It comes with two controls besides the shutter release.  First control is a choice between "I" (instantaneous) and "B" (bulb).  I would guess that Instantaneous is about 1/30 seconds - bulb is for as long as you hold the shutter release in.  The second control is a close up lens which allows focussing between three feet and six feet.

Side view showing both control options

The camera has two viewfinders, both 'brilliant' finders, one on the top for portraits and one on the side for landscapes.  Given that the close-up lens allows focussing up to six feet, it is fair to assume that normal focussing range is six feet to infinity.

This camera takes 620 film which is no longer available.  However, it is the same as 120 film but on a different spool - so if I wanted to use this camera, I could re-spool some 120 film onto one of my 620 spools.  I shall not be bothering.

To load the film, the back is opened, the winder knob pulled out, and the insides of the camera come away in one piece.   The film is wound onto the inset and the inset replaced into the camera and the back closed.  Now the film needs to be wound on until the number "1" appears in the red window.  Negative size is 6 x 9 cm so this camera will take eight photographs on one roll of film.

I can date this camera to within five years by the plastic winder knob and plastic shutter release.  These were introduced on the Six-20 Brownie D in 1953 and production ceased in 1957.  Kodak also offer flash contacts on the Six-20 Brownie D but these are not present on my specimen.  I can refine the date a bit by the fact that the catch for the back was also changed - from a more-or-less rectangular shape to a triangular shape.  My specimen still has the rectangular catch so will date from nearer to 1953 than to 1957.

As tiis is such a simple camera, there is not really any thing I can add other than to say that the camera still works well - the shutter mechanism (which is very simple) is as free as the day it was made.  For sixty years old that is more than I can say for myself.

Kodak Brownie Vecta

Kodak Brownie Vecta

Kodak had a long series of Brownie cameras.  These were the cheap and cheerful range and varied greatly over time. 

This article is about the Brownie Vecta which was made in the UK and presumably only available here.  I was given one of these for a birthday present when I was was eleven or twelve years old when it was a strikingly modern looking camera.  It was designed for Kodak by the British industrial designer Kenneth Grange and its 'natural' format is portrait as that is what Kenneth Grange assumed it would mostly be used for.

The Vecta was only in production for three years (from 1963 to 1966).  It is basically a grey plastic cuboid with a central lens and a viewfinder in one corner.  The shutter release is a white bar underneath the lens.  It takes 127 film which is hard to find nowadays but is still available (see Ag-photographic for supplies).

The lens is a simple meniscus lens with no focussing.  I have not been able to find out what the focal length of this lens is but it is significantly wide-angle for 127 film. It works by having a very small aperture - f14 - which gives a large depth of field. The big downside of this is that the camera has to have a slow shutter speed to compensate.  Kodak colour film produced at the time that this cameras was current had a speed of ASA 64 so we probably looking at a shutter speed of around 1/30 second.  My test film for this camera shows reasonable image quality at a print size of 4" by 6" (100mm by 150 mm) which is as large as they would have been printed in 1963.  In fact, the surviving pictures that I have from August 1968 were printed at 21/2 by 4 inches at which resolution the quality is fine.

Kodak also produced a 'supplementary' lens that fitted over the fixed lens that allowed close-ups to be taken.  I had one of these which had to be used with the printed instructions to get acceptable focussing distances.  This did not work too well as distances became critical and the viewfinder produced parallax errors so I never had a real idea of what I was actually photographing.  I gave up on using the close-up lens fairly quickly.

This camera was easy for a child to use - I certainly do not remember any problems in using it at age eleven or twelve.  There are indentations in the cube to facilitate holding the camera steady - and with a shutter speed of 1/30(ish) a steady hand is essential. I really enjoyed this camera as a child and still found it nice to use. The position of the shutter release and the fact that it is a bar rather than a button takes a bit of getting used to but nothing untoward. It was probably easier for me at age eleven as I had not then become used to using more sophisticated cameras and a bottom shutter release was all that I knew.

Test pictures from this camera:

Baggholm Road, Lincoln

Busker, High Street, Lincoln

 At this size they look OK but when enlarged (to beyond the size that was anticipated by the designers) the defects show up.  When putting the first roll of film through a "new" old camera, it is usual for the film to attract dirt from the recesses of the camera.  This shows up as black specs on the final print.  These pictures have instead white specs and very pronounced grain which suggests a film or processing fault.  I cannot tell which, but I am sure it is not the camera.

Busker, High Street, Lincoln - enlarged to show marks

Films that are currently available in the UK for cameras

I originally wrote this article in 2012 and updated it in 2013. That is three years ago and it is now very out of date. I have completely researched the availability of photographic film in the UK from scratch and shall now present the results of that research. Although I have tried to be diligent, there may be errors here and if you see any I would appreciate knowing about them.

I am leaving the old article below in blue for interest sake. As well as information about the films, there is some peripheral information about the makers which might be of interest.

The films I list are either available in physical shops in Lincoln or are available over the Interweb in the UK. I make no comment about the situation in other countries. The lists are in two parts - first monochrome films (because I prefer them) and then colour films. I have not bothered to put them in alphabetical order, I'm afraid. You will just have to read through the lists to see if the film you want is available.

As well as the make and type of film, I am noting the sizes it is available in. This will be a selection of 16 mm, 35 mm, 120 and 110.  'bulk' refers to 35 mm film in 17 m or 30 m lengths for loading your own cassettes.

	Monochrome films
Make	film name	size
Rollei	Ortho 25	35
	80S	35		120
	400S	35		120
	Infrared 400	35		120
	RPX 100	35
	RPX 25	35
	RPX 400	35
	Superpan 200	35
Ilford	Delta 100	35	bulk	120
	Delta 400	35		120
	Delta 3200	35		120
	FP4+	35	bulk	120
	HP5+	35	bulk	120
	Pan F+	35	bulk	120
	SFX 200	35		120
	XP2	35		120
Kodak	Tri-X 320	35
	Tri-X 400	35		120
	T-max 100	35		120
	T-max 400	35		120
Fujifilm	Neopan 400CN	35		120
	Neopan Acros	35
Foma	Fomapan 100	35	bulk	120
	Fomapan Creative 200	35	bulk	120
	Fomapan 400	35	bulk	120
	Retropan 320	35
Adox	CMS 20	35		120
	CHS 100 II	35
	Silvermax 100	35
	Scala 160	35
Fotoimpex	CHM 100	35
	CHM 400	35
Kono!	Reanimated 100	35
	Rekorder 100-200	35
Kentmere	100	35
	400S	35
Agfa	APX 100	35	bulk
	APX 400	35	bulk
Rerepan	Rerepan 100	127
Bergger	BRF 400T	35
Cinestillfilm	50	35
	800	35
Spur	DSK 50	35
Lomography	Earl Grey	35		120
	Lady Grey	35		120
	Colour films
Make	film name	size
Agfa	Vista 200	35
	Vista+ 400	35
	Precisia 100	35
Rollei	CR200	35		120
	Crossbird	35		120
Kono!	125t	35
	400T	35
	400CN	35
Fujifilm	C200	35
	Pro 160NS			120
	Pro 400H	35		120
	Provia 100F	35		120
	Superia X-tra 800	35
	Superia 1600	35
	Velvia 50	35		120
	Velvia 100	35		120
	Superia 200	35
	Superia X-tra 400	35
Kodak	Colorplus 200	35
	Ektar 100	35		120
	Gold 200	35
	Gold 400	35
	Portra 160			120
	Portra 400			120
	Portra 800			120
Lomography	100	35		120
	400	35		120
	800	35		120
	X Pro 200	35
	Lobster		110
	Tiger		110
	Peacock		110
	Orca		110
	Redscale XR 50-200	35		120
	Purple XR 100-400	35	16mm	120
	X Pro slide 200			120
	Instant film
Make	film name
Fujifilm	FP100C
	Instax
Impossible	to fit Polaroid 600
	colour and monochrome

ORIGINAL ARTICLE FROM 2013

I am updating this article on 23 December 2013 with the films I can find for sale today.  Those films I mentioned in the original article that I can no longer find for sale are in blue type.  Films in black type are available.

Having purchased all these old film cameras that I am writing about, I want to use them.  In Lincoln where I live, films are much harder to buy than they were a few years ago, and much harder to get developed.  There are two places in Lincoln that will develop C41 films on the premises but for good old fashioned black and white film you either need the patience to send them away to be developed or to develop them yourself.  I develop my own 35 mm films but 120 films are beyond me and I need to send them away. If you would like to develop your own films, it is worth a look here: The Massive Development Chart

Before you can develop the films, indeed, before you can take the pictures with the film, you must first buy the film.  I thought it might be a good idea to research exactly what films are available in which sizes and exactly what you get for your money.

First, here are the makes of films currently on retail sale in the UK.  These are either available in Lincoln's shops or available via the interweb.  For Interweb purchases, I find AG Photographic to be reasonably priced and fast.  These films are variously available in 35mm, 120, 127, 110 and APS.  Those last two are not very common but a few of the films described are offered in those two formats.

1 Agfa

2 Rollei

3 Kodax

4 Ilford

5 Kentmere

6 Fujifilm

7 Adox

8 Efke
9 Foma

Some of these names will be known to everyone (Kodak, surely!) and some will be known to older photographers (Adox) and some will be new to just about everyone.  I was surprised to find that there are nine different film makers selling their products in this country.  Each of these produces a range of films so the total number of films available is still quite large - digital might well be king, but analogue photography is far from being ready to lie down and die.

I shall now give a brief list of the range for each manufacturer followed by more details on each film.

1 Agfa - APX 100, APX 400, Vista colour negative, CTprecisa reversal, APS 200 star 200 and finally Scala 200x B&W reversal.

2 Rollei - RPX 100, 80s, RPX 400, 400s, Retro 100, Inra-red, ATP, colour reversal.

3 Kodak - T-Max, Tri-X, BW400CN, Porta negative, Ektar negative, Ektachrome reversal, Elite Chrome reversal.  With Kodak's current problems, this is likely to change rapidly.

4 Ilford - FP4, HP5, Delta 100, Delta 400, Delta 3200, Pan-F, XP2, SFX 200

5 Kentmere - 100, 400

6 Fujifilm - Neopan 100, 400, 1600, 400CN, Fujicolor Pro negative, Superia negative, Velvia reversal, Astia reversal, Provia reversal, and Polaroid-type instant film.

7 Adox - CHS 25, 50, 100, ART, CMS 20, PAN 400, Orthochrmatic, Pan 25.

8 Efke - IR film

9 Foma - 100 Classic, 200 Creative, 400 Action, Formapan reversal.

Agfa.

There are two companies called Agfa (American readers may think of a third - Ansco Afga, now defunct) making photographic film.  Consumer films are made by Agfaphoto and industrial films are made by Agfa Gevaert.  While Afga Gevaert retains the rights to the name 'Agfa', it has licensed the name to Agfaphoto, but not the use of the Agfa logo.

The Agfaphoto logo is

and the Agfa Gevaert logo is

Products from both Agfa companies are available to the retail market, but only Agfaphoto products carry the name 'Agfa'.  Agfa Gevaert products are only available as re-badged products - several Rollei films are re-badged Agfa Gevaert Aviphot films.

Agfaphoto became bankrupt shortly after buying the right to the Agfa name in 2004.  Agfaphoto products currently on the market are either the remains of the stock produced in 2004 or produced by Lupus Imaging and Media under license.

Lupus are currently selling:  Agfaphoto Vista 200 and 400 ISO colour film, CT precisa slide film, APS 200 star 200 film and APX 100 & APX 400 monochrome films - and also the idiosyncratic Scala 200x black and white reversal (slide) film.

Rollei

Rollei films are not made by Rollei (which is now just a marketing name) but are re-badged products from other firms - Agfa for sure and possibly others.   

Retro 100 is actually Afga APX 100 which is also marketed under that name by Agfaphoto (see above).  It is very cheap in the UK - £1.89 for a 36 exposure film if bought in a pack of ten and gives good results.  It is the film that I use the most.

Retro 400S is made by Agfa Gevaert as Agfa Aviphot PAN400S and is intended for aerial photography for mapping purposes.  It has near IR sensitivity which reduces haze in landscape photography - it also lightens the colour of foliage.  This is made on a synthetic base rather than acetate and so needs to be loaded and unloaded in very subdued light.  This is because the synthetic base act much like fibre optics fibres and will transmit light into the cassette and cause fogging around the sprocket holes.

ATP 1.1  This is an ISO 32 film - very slow indeed.  It produces very fine grain and controllable contrast.  It is sensitive from 379 nm to 820 nm (i.e. well into the infra-red).  It is placed on the market as a replacement for Kodak's Technical Pan.  It has a very thin emulsion - which means it will scan better than standard films will.  It requires the use of a special developer - ATP DC.

Superpan 200  This is re-badged Afga Gevaert Aviphot Pan200 PE1.  It is intended for technical, industrial and aerial photography.  It has near IR sensitivity as does the Retro 400 film and behaves in much the same way apart from having half the speed.

80S  Yet another re-badged Agfa Gevaert product - Aviphot Pan 80.  Slightly IR sensitive ( 340 nm to 775 nm) and is available in 120, 127 and 35 mm sizes.

Rollei also sell a number of colour films under the Crossbird label which are reversal films to be processed with the C41 process.  I assume you could also process these with the normal reversal chemistry.

Kodak 

While this is current as I write, it is likely to change quite quickly as Kodak try to save their business.  

Kodak split their films into a consumer range and a professional range.

The consumer range consists of three films - Ultramax 400 colour negative film, Color Plus colour negative film, Gold 100 or 200 colour negative film, BW400CN black and white chromogenic film.  There is no slide film in the consumer range.  The three colour negative films are run-of-the-mill colour negative films.  The BW400CN film is also sold in Kodak's professional range and more details are available below.

The professional range has four colour films and three black and white films .

Porta films are fine grained, normally saturated negative film in three speeds - ISO 160, 400, and 800.

Kodak claims that it produces natural skin tones and has extremely fine grain.

Ektar  films are also colour negative films and Kodak claims it is the world's finest grain colour negative film.  It has "ultra-vivid colour" which means it produces colours that are over saturated.

Ektachrome  100G or 100VS films are reversal (slide) films.  The "G" variety has normal colour saturation (best for portraits) and the "VS" variety has over saturated colour saturation (aimed at landscapes).

T-MAX 100, 400, 3200 films are black and white films - claimed by Kodak to be the world's sharpest ISO 400 film and the finest grained ISO 100 film.  These are standard monochrome chemistry and hard to get developed locally.

Tri-X film seems to be the only Kodak film to be available in 120 size as well as 35mm.  It is only available as ISO 400 film.

BW400CN is a chromogenic film (chromogenic means 'makes colours') that is developed in colour C41 colour film chemistry but produces a monochrome image. This means that most towns will have at least one shop that can develop it on-site and usually within an hour.

Chromogenic films have no grain in the accepted sense as the image is formed in a dye cloud.

Ilford Photo

Ilford has suffered the same fate as Agfa.  As film usage has dropped off the consumer division division has been sold off with the original company continuing to make professional films.

As Agfa's consumer division became Agfa Photo, Ilford's consumer division is now Ilford Photo.   Ilford Photo now belongs to Harman technology and seems to be in fine fettle.  They produce a range of ten films - one sold as Kentmere - all of which are monochrome films.  Some of these have a venerable heritage (FP4, HP5 have been around a long time) and others are newer.  If you want colour Ilford films, you can't.  Ilford used to produce colour films but no longer do.  (confusingly, both Ilford Photo and Ilford Imaging produce a range of papers called "Galerie".  In the case of Ilford Photo, these are silver halide papers and with Ilford Imaging they are inkjet papers.)

I shall present the films in the order that Ilford Photo do in their brochure.

Pan F plus  is a slow - ISO 50 - film with very fine grain.  Available as 35mm and 120.

FP4 is a standard medium speed - ISO 125 - tolerant film.  It is very hard to go wrong with FP4 and it is probably the classic monochrome film.  Available as 35mm, 120 and sheets.

HP5 is a fast - ISO 400 - film which is much grainier than the last two.  It is also available in 35mm, 120 and sheets.

Delta 100 & 400 The ISO 100 version is slightly slower than FP4 and both are made with modern crystal structures which gives finer grain than traditional cubic crystals do without sacrificing speed.  Also available in 35mm, 120 and sheets.

Delta 3200 uses the same technology as the above two Delta films but is very fast - ISO 3200.  Only available in 35mm and 120.

XP2 is a ISO 400 chromogenic film (analogous to Kodak’s BW400CN film) that needs to be developed in the colour C41 process.  It is available in 35mm and 120 formats.

SFX200 is a "creative" film which has some Infra red sensitivity (cf Rollei Retro 400). It is developed in standard black and white chemistry.

OrthoPlus  This is basically a very old fashioned film as it is not sensitive to red light.  It is intended for specialist applications but could be used for a very retro (pre WWII) look.  It only seems to be available in sheet film format.

Kentmere is available in ISO 100 and ISO 400 forms and is only available as 35MM.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm still have a good range of films available.  They produce colour negative, colour reversal and black and white films.  They split their films into consumer and professional films as seems to be the fashion these days.

Consumer films:
Superia colour negative film is available in speeds of ISO 200, 400, 800 and 1600.   They only produce this film is 35mm.

Professional films:

Fujicolor is a colour negative film available in three forms.

Superia reala is a ISO 100 film available in 35mm and 120.

Superia X-tra is a press film that is only available in 120 but in several speeds.

Pro is mainly aimed at portrait photographers.  The ISO 160 film is available in 35mm, 120, and sheet film formats and the ISO 400 film is available in 35mm and 120 formats.

Fuji also make FP100C instant colour film

Fujichrome is a colour reversal film in two forms.

Velvia has ultra-high saturation, intensely vivid colours, high contrast (in Fujifilm's own words) so is not particularly natural looking.  The designer of this film once claimed he wanted to make a film that reproduced skies like people remembered them when they came back from holiday.  It is available in 35mm, 120 and sheet film formats.

Provia is also claimed to give vivid colours but perhaps not to the same extent as the Velvia films.  Provia films are available in 35mm, 120 and sheet film formats.

Neopan is Fujifilm's monochrome offering.  It comes in three forms.

Neopan Acros is a very fine grain medium speed (ISO 100) film  It is available in 35mm and 120 formats.

Neopan 400 is a faster film (ISO 400) which is again available in two forms.  First, the conventional form which is only available in 35mm and secondly the chromogenic form Neopan 400CN which needs to be developed in the colour C41 chemistry.  This form is available in 35mm and 120 formats.

Neopan 1600 is a very fast film only available in 35mm.

Again, Fuji kasme black and white instant film - FP3000B

Adox

Note: As of late 2012, Adox currently cannot produce some of their films due to their manufacturer in Croatia  ceasing trading.  This affects the CHS films listed below.  I am retaining the listings for  the present in case Adox resume manufacture and I shall keep an eye on the situation - I shall update this post when there is something new to add.

This is a very old firm.  It was originally set up as Fotowerke in Germany making plates from about 1860.  They started making cameras as well from the early part of the twentieth century.  In 1952 they introduced their 35mm very fine grain film.

In 1962 Adox was sold to DuPont in the USA.  DuPont licensed the film technology, but not the Adox name, to Fotokemika in Yugoslavia where the films were (are!) made under the Efke brand name.

In 1999 the Adox brand was bought by Agfa so now Adox is a German company again.  However, Agfa never used the Adox name and in 2003 it was de-registered as a trademark by the German Patent Office.

The Adox name was now taken up by different companies in the USA, Canada and Germany.  None of the current Adox companies are related to the original German Adox company.

The films listed below are are made by ( or for) Adox Fotowerke GmbH, Bad Saarow, Germany.

Details on developing Adox films in various developers can be found at: http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php?Film=Adox+CHS&Developer=&mdc=Search

 The Adox range is divided into a Premium Line and an Art Series.  First the Premium Line.

Premium Line consists of two films with a third film in progress.

CMS 20 is the world's finest grain film with the highest resolving power.  The resolving power of this film is stated as being 800 lines/mm which is better than most (all?) camera lenses can produce.  An example - good Canon lenses (the L series) will give around 350 lines/mm at f4.

CMS 20 needs a dedicated developer - Adotech - to work properly.

Pan 400 is a rework of Agfa's APX 400 with some small improvements.  There will be a Pan 100 film at some point, but not yet.

Art Series  These are the CHS films which are based on 1950s recipes - so very old fashioned.

Adox claims great tonal range and colour separation (its a black and white film!).  These films have a high silver content which gives richer grey scales.  The CHS in the name stands for Cubiccrystal Heterodispers Single-layer - just so you know.

Available film speeds are ASA 25, 50 and 100 (ok, should be ISO, not ASA, but if we are going to be retro . . .)

These films are coated onto a PET base so light piping can be a problem.  This is when the film base acts like an optic fibre and conducts light into the cassette or under the backing paper.  To counter this, always keep Adox cassettes and rolls in the black plastic containers they are supplied in (yes, 120 roll film from Adox is supplied in a black plastic container).

CHS 25 & 50 while this is a panchromatic film, it has a red end cut-off at 620nm so reds will come out darker than with a modern panchromatic film.  it is available as 35mm, 35 mm bulk, 120 and sheets.

CHS 100 II is more panchromatic than the ASA 25 and 50 films with a red end cut-off at around 620 nm.  This is also available as 35mm, 35mm bulk, 120 and sheets (with a wider range of sheet sizes than the ASA 25 and 50 forms).

Ortho 25 is an orthochromatic film and so not really sensitive to red light - red end cut-off is 610 nm.  This will produce a tonal range similar to that which was normal in the 1980s.  In portraits, lips and skin blemishes will be black.  In landscapes, brickwork will be darker.  This is available in 35mm, 120 and sheet.

110  Adox do not currently produce 110 film cartridges but are in the process of introducing it.  Adox say this will be a slow process and the 110 cartridges will be available towards the end of 2012 or later depending of income from other lines.

126 Until recently, Adox did produce 126 film cartridges but do not anymore.

Silvermax 100 has been recently introduced in 35mm only.

Adox  have also started making colour film. Their one offering sounds very strange - CVolour Implosion which 100 ISo and 35mm only and, according to Silverprint who retail it in the UK, "it has extra large grain, beautiful colours with bursting red and washed out blues and greens." In other words, it is a rubbish film!

Foma.

Foma is a Czech firm making four films - 100Classic, 200 Creative, 400 Action and R (reversal film. All are black and white films. 

Lomography.

Lomography are a recent addition to the world of film makers.  They are the only firm to make 110 cartridges.  Their range is currently:

Colour Tiger, Orca Black and white, Peacock - all in 110 cartridges - Earl Grey, Color Neg and Redscale (colour film) - all in 120 fcassettes - and Xpro 200 which is available in 35mm and 120.