Thursday, March 14, 2019

Agfa Copex Rapid 50 film - One Roll Review

I was going through some files today and realized that although I had shot this film in 2017, and noted it in my article of the pre-assembled Caffenol mix, I did not really review the film! So, here is my recollection of the Agfa Copex Rapid 35mm film.

I bought a roll of the 35mm Agfa Copex Rapid film from Freestyle to try it out. It sat in my fridge for many months before I decided to give it a try.  My delay was probably more about the development of the film than the shooting of it. At 50 ISO, it's not as slow as a lot of the strange films that I have tested, and it certainly is a stop faster than Kodak's TechPan film.  Since it's basically a microfilm, it will be inherently contrasty.  Not as much as something like Kodalith, but I assumed it was going to be more like a Technical pan type of film.

Here is Freestyle's online description of this film:

Agfa Copex Rapid 50 is a low-speed panchromatic black and white film with a nominal sensitivity of ISO 50/18°. Featuring excellent resolution, very fine grain and excellent acutance. The emulsion is coated on a transparent synthetic base providing excellent long-term and dimensional stability.

Features:

  • Traditional Black and White Film
  • 35mm x 36 exp.
  • 50 ISO
  • Manufactured to ISO specifications for archival use
  • For optimal results use: Spur Modular UR AB Developer

Note: Film has to be loaded and unloaded in subdued light and exposed film should be stored in a light tight film container.

When Copex is developed with Spur Modular UR developer, sharpness, fine-grain, exposure latitude, tonal values, speed utilization are all retained. The Parts 'A' and 'B' are needed for the absolutely streak-free development of the SPUR DSX/Agfa Copex Rapid roll film; Part 'C' is no longer needed as previously.

This film can also be processed using a black and white reversal process (SCALA) to make black and white slides (positives) with a neutral black tone, a middle graduation, very fine grain, a very high sharpness and detail resolution when processed as a black and white slide.

Black and White Reversal process expose to:
35mm: ISO 50-64
120 Medium Format: ISO 64-80
Development time: 4 minutes
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What deterred me from shooting it for so long was the specialty developer.  I like to use what I have, and I am assuming that the aforementioned developer tames the contrast.  Nevertheless, World-wide Pinhole Day was approaching, and I wanted to shoot the film in an SLR while also doing the pinhole stuff that day.  For some reason, I chose my Minolta X-370 SLR and took it along for the day.  I shot the film at 50 ISO, and used a tripod, as it was an overcast and chilly day. Some of my exposures were set at f/16, which meant shutter speeds long enough to blur motion.  As my link at top shows, I developed the film in the Labeauratoire Caffenol Concoction  for 15 minutes.  I figured, what the hell, just go for it and see what happens!

Developed in the Caffenol, the film looks a lot like some of the specialty microfilms that I have used -- though it was certainly faster.  I'll take ISO 50 over ISO 6 any day.

Here are some sample images.  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at the results.  The film is on a PET base, so it does lie flat and scans easily. I had to do some tweaking in Corel Paint Shop Pro to get the look I wanted from the scans from the Epson V700.  I guess if I were to seriously try this film again, I would try the SPUR developer. However, the Caffenol did a pretty good job,and of course, I could also try Technidol to see how that works with the Copex rapid 50 film.








The beauty of shooting film is that there are so many different approaches you can take with any particular film.  In this case, I took a chance with a non-traditional developer and it worked pretty well.  Your results may vary when using the Copex Rapid 50, but it certainly is fine-grained and may be just the solution to what you are looking for in a film.  Missing TechPan?  Give this film a try.

3 comments:

  1. You are not using the ideal developer for this amazing film stock. Try this, which I found online and have been using with Copex Rapid for years now. The results are: a dynamic range (latitude) of 14 stops, high acutance, no grain, beautiful tonality. The film is panchromatic but otherwise quite simliar to Tech Pan.

    LC+CNew

    With ANHYDROUS SODIUM CARBONATE, for developing both the Adox CMS 20 (120/135) exposed at 20 ISO, the Agfa Copex Rapid exposed at 50-64 ISO and the Rollei ATP1.1 exposed at 32 ISO with :

    Adox CMS 20: 15 mn
    Agfa Copex R: 16.30 mn
    Rollei ATP1.1: 18 mn
    (Halve all of the below volumes and amounts for 250ml 35mm tanks)
    500ml Distilled Water at 20 °C
    Sodium Carbonate (anhydrous): 5g
    Ascorbic Acid (pure 99%): 1g
    Instant Coffee for Adox CMS 20: 6g
    Instant Coffee for Agfa Copex Rapid: 8g
    Instant Coffee for Rollei ATP1.1: 8g

    No presoaking is needed

    Inversion tact: steadily during the first 60s, then:

    3 times every 3 mn for Adox CMS 20
    3 times every 5 mn for Agfa Copex R
    3 times every 5 mn for Rollei ATP1.1
    Stop bath: 30s
    Fixing time: 60s
    Final wash: 5 mn

    I lifted this formula from this url
    https://photochemical.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/caffenol-as-a-low-contrast-developer-for-adox-cms-20-agfa-copex-rapid/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. It's been a while since I posted this, and yes, there are better developers. Now I use POTA. Also, see Monochrome Mania Issue #1.
    Cheers,
    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  3. I came across 5 X 100 ft. bulk rolls of Agfa Copex Pan AHU Tri13 in Croatia and brought them back to South Africa.

    After a lot of searching, I saw a post here, giving the supposed recipe of the H&W Control developer:

    https://www.photo.net/discuss/threads/h-w-control-developer-recipe.34934/

    I asked the brilliant Ricky du Plessis of CPAC Chemicals Africa in Pretoria if he could mix this for me, and his answer has "how much do you want?"

    He mixed 2L for me, and diluted 1:15, it would last me for a long time. The first few frames were shot @ ISO 50 and developed for 12 minutes - the photos were totally under exposed, but showed great resolution when pulled back in Photoshop.

    The next roll was shot @ ISO 25 and developed for 12 minutes and these came out very well exposed. Another roll was exposed @ ISO 50 and developed for 15 minutes. Not scanned yet, but the negatives look ok, maybe a bit under exposed still.

    Fixer clears the emultion in 5 seconds, so I only fixed for 30 seconds.

    My biggest challenge is to find a camera to advance the film properly. Of my collection, the Ricoh KR5 Super was the best but still not ideal. Also tried it in a 120 box camera with adapters, but too much film is wasted with this, and leaves weird orientated frames.

    But a nice little project which I really enjoy.

    ReplyDelete

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