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the rise of Eastmancolor in the 1950s, with more and more studios in America and Europe
producing colour films. One of the main problems of Agfacolor and its derivatives was
that these films could not be developed by the same process as Eastmancolor films. So
in 1968, Agfa-Gevaert discontinued production of the traditional Agfacolor film and
changed its chemistry to an Eastman compatible process. Most other companies, except
Orwo, also changed their films to the Eastman process.
In 1995 Agfa-Gevaert stopped manufacturing colour negative film and was then only
manufacturing printing film, production of which ceased in 2005. After German
reunification Orwocolor ceased production in 1995. The factory, however, continues as
one of the last producers of b/w film stock under the name FilmoTec. Ferrania ceased
production of film stock in 2009, and closed down in 2012, but re-emerged last year,
announcing the production of new colour negative and slide films in 2014.

Film Collectors and AGFA
One of the main advantages of Agfa motion picture film stock is that its colours are
very stable, probably comparable to Kodak’s LPP film stock. If fading is observed, then
it is usually a loss of colour saturation, the film appearing paler overall. In older films,
especially in Orwo film stock, there might be a slight shift of the colours to blue/purple,
but all other colours are usually still present. And it is definitely not a shift to red/pink,
as in Eastmancolor films. This of course makes film prints on Agfa stock very desirable
for the collector.
Interestingly, with the change from the original Agfa chemistry to an Eastman
compatible process, some of the Agfa derivatives seem to have lost their colour stability.
For example, early Ferraniacolor films have very good colours, whereas later prints can
fade quite badly towards the brown spectrum (then often labelled 3M, as Ferrania was
purchased by the 3M Company in 1964).

Agfa films can be identified by the following writing between the sprocket holes:
AGFA, AG, AGFA-GEVAERT, 1S, 2S. Orwo stock is always marked ORWO, usually followed
by a letter S for safety film, and maybe a few numbers. Reversal film is typically black
in the sprocket area, with yellow writing. As with other German film stocks, early Agfa
film is often labelled SICHERHEITSFILM, German for safety film. Unfortunately, unlike
Eastman Kodak, Agfa did not have an edge code indicating the year of production of
the film stock. As such, dating of Agfa or Orwo films is not possible, apart from the fact
that stock produced before 1964 cannot bear the name Gevaert, and the name Orwo only
appeared in that year, too.

The soundtrack area in Agfa films is often dark blue in modern prints. Orwo always
has a brown soundtrack. This is in contrast to Eastmancolor films that commonly have
a black (silver) soundtrack, which remains black, even when the image has faded to pink.

Reel Deals - 13 - March 2014