We've all read the pros and cons of Fuji vs. Kodak E6 offerings, now I was wondering if anyone is using Agfa slide films. Before you laugh too hard, the 100 speed RXs (or RX?) is available in sheets and at a much lower cost than Fuji or Kodak films. This could be important for those on a budget. In some roll film testing I did with a friend, the stuff looked good for the price. Does anyone have any thoughts about, or experience with, this film?

H

-- H (hyperfocal@attbi.com), April 04, 2002

Answers

I think I made a similar query a few weeks ago (or maybe it was on the LF Newsgroup). In any case, since then I have tried the film. I bought a box of fifty 4x5 sheets (about $65.00, or $30@ cheaper than Fuji or Kodak). I've only exposed and had developed two sheets so far, but I like what I see. It is fine enough grained, has accurate color, and good shadow detail. It doesn't have the saturation of Velvia or Ektachrome VS (but what does?), and eventually once I have better mastered the craft of LF I might be tempted to try those in sheet film format, but for the price, and for the time being, it is fine. I might be tempted to rate it at 80 ISO, however, and I mean to do some tests to determine that. (Fortunately it is cheap enough that I don't have to think twice about consuming sheets on tests.) Of course, your mileage may vary.

Tony Galt

Tony Galt

-- Tony Galt (galta@uwgb.edu), April 04, 2002.

H,

I have used RSX100 in 120 and 35mm formats, but not yet in 4x5. Based on my experience with the smaller formats, I would not hesitate to use it. It has a more natural color rendition than the super saturated, super vivid offerings from the other manufacturers. I liked the look of the film when I used it. Very nice blues and reds, if memory serves correctly.

-- Dave Karp (davekarp@ix.netcom.com), April 04, 2002.

In my opinion, AGFA RSX II is currently (even after the introduction of Provia 100F and has been so in the past) the slide film with the most neutral greys, highlights and shadows. It's color rendition is exact although less saturated than it's competitors. RSX II more grainy, but this should not be a problem in LF. If you self process your slides, you will notice that RSX II is far less susceptible to process tolerances (temperature, impurity, concentration, utilization, etc.), especially when compared to Fuji. It is fairly easy to archive consistent results with RSX II. As far as I know, AGFA is about to introduce a new Professional Color Slide generation, similar to the Consumer Line "Vista" soon.

Regards,

-- Thilo Schmid (tschmid@2pix.de), April 04, 2002.

The RSX II was all I used to use for 4x5 transparency shooting until I tried some of the new Ektachrome film. The RSX II has neutral, accurate colours while the Ektachromes and Velvia's colours are amazing.

I think that if I was doing day to day commercial work (or I was a LF beginner) and I just needed the colour had to be good, then I'd go back to the RSX II. It DOES do the job and it's cheap; but most of my LF work isn't work at all, but play. In fact a big problem is that the film becomes outdated before I can shoot it all. My point is that I don't shoot enough of this stuff to be particularly worried about cost but I should be concerned about quality.

-- David Grandy (dgrandy@grandyphoto.com), April 04, 2002.

I tried the first version of RSX 100 and 50 on 35mm a few years ago, on recommendation from wildlife photographer Moose Peterson. While the film did give very natural yellows, reds, and browns, I did not at all like how it rendered blue skies - polarized deep blue skies came out with a strong turqoise-green tint.

This was with the first generation of the film - perhaps that has been fixed in the current RSX II product. This discussion thread got me curious, so I just went out and bought a few 120 rolls of RSX II 50 to try out. Best regards, Åke

-- Ake Vinberg (ake@vinberg.nu), April 05, 2002.

A very large percentage of my commecial work is photographing paintings for art galleries for reproduction for catalogues. These are then drum scanned by the printer. The colors must be bang on as some of these painting are in the price range of $100,000 to $600,000 US. Agfa RSX 100 is the most accurate film vs. Kodak and Fuji. I rate it at 80 ISO given my meter, lighting system (Speedotrons with polorized light source and polorized lens), and the E6 pro lab that I use. I buy 50 sheet boxes from B&H usually 4 or 6 at a time. Once when I had to use Fuji Provia because I was temporarily low on Agfa, the customer noticed that the transparencies were too "bold and bright" and I had to re-shoot several of the paintings with the Agfa. Then he was happy again. I do use Fuji and very rarely Kodak, but my main 4x5 chrome film is Agfa especially when I want neutral accurate colors without the "wet paint" look. Try a box of Agfa RSX 100 II and you just may love it too! Good Luck..F. William Baker

-- F. William Baker (atelfwb@aol.com), April 05, 2002.