Agfa 35Mm Black & White Film

[joe.s-b]

We have a section of AGFA b & w negative film and many years ago AGFA produced colour pictures from it. This was arranged by my father-in-law in Norway and we have seen the colour prints from the black and white film strip that we have. The package says that colour prints and slides can be produced. How does this work?

[stewey]

If you Google "Agfa film processing", you will get all kinds of sites. I won't post a specific one because I really don't know what you're looking for. If you're looking for technical info., there is a site listed as Technical Data Agfa Professional Films - DigitalTruth Photo Source.

[Buenchico]

Colour (negative) film normally has a 'correcting mask' (giving it, typically, an orange colour) which is beneficial in the printing process. If you try to get black-and-white prints from such films you usually get poor results because the mask results in a 'washed out' look to the resultant images.

However in 1956 Agfa introduced Agfacolor CN-17 Universal Colour Negative Film, which didn't have the orange mask. That made the negatives look very much like those from B&W film and meant that the user could choose between (relatively cheap) B&W prints or (far more expensive) colour ones. The film remained in production until 1968.

Take a look at the edges of the negatives. It's likely that you'll see 'CN-17' there.

Sourced from some distant memories of photography in the 1960s, supported by this:
http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Colour_Darkroom/Early_Agfa.html#anchorAgfa15o

[joe.s-b]

.thank you. Problem solved. We have black and white negative because that is the may the local shop in Norway processed the original film many years ago as the option they used. The negatives can be processed in colour by the manufacturer which is no longer. We live and learn

[jomifl]

Ilford do a type of 35 mm film which uses the standard colour neg. process but which is developed to give B&W images. No doubt they could yield colour images if they were developed differently but probably wouldn't give good colour rendition.