Adox CHS 100 ART



The Adox brand has had a very complex history. Originally a German company formed in 1860 by Dr Carl Schleussner to manufacter photographic plates both for cameras and X-Ray (Dr Schleussener was a pioneer in X-Ray photography).
Fast forward to 1952, when they introduced a range of 35mm films, renound for their thin emulsion and outstanding sharpness, which became very popular with photographers.

Ten years later Adox became the property of American company DuPont, who then licenced the film technology to Yugoslavian company Fotokemika, who kept on poducing the original emulsions under a new name EFKE.

Now into this century, and the films are still produced in Zagreb (Croatia) to the original 1952 specs, but the film has now returned back to the Adox branding- confused?
Well don't be! Adox 100 and EFKE KB21 are basically the same emulsion, not only that they haven't essentially changed since the 1950's
Here is a shot I took on EFKE KB21 (100) in 1991:



So how does the 2007 EFKE/Adox rate?
Firstly the film is packaged quite well, 120 rolls come in a neat container, 35mm come in the type of cassette that can be reused should you 'roll your own' and looks to be the same type as Ilford and Agfa used in the 1970s.
The films feel thin when you load them into the camera (and later in the film spiral for processing).

I set the ISO on my spot-meter to 100 as in my experience these are 'fussy' films that need good exposure and development to give best results. But when you get accustomed to their idiosyncrasies they can be more than rewarding, with smooth tonal range and very good sharpness.
Below is a shot of a local church taken on a rather dull afternoon.



and the 100% crop



If you look at the lower centre right area you'll notice the time on the City Hall clock 3:47, the sharpness is pretty good for a cubic crystal (as opposed to T-Grain) film although in duller conditions I may in future rate this film at 80ISO or process it at 1:50 as the grain is quite visible in the sky area.

This film is one I would use if I wanted high sharpness, but needed long tones with just a little grain.

All Images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007

Adox CHS 25 ART



This film has been around since the 1950's and is the same as the EFKE emulsion that was called KB14.
I had used the KB14 version of this film in the 1980's and found it to be a little contrasty for my taste (which was Agfa AP25) and as most of my shooting at the time was done on 400 speed films, I didn't really persevere in finding a good exposure/development time combination.

Now in the 21st century I find myself trying the film again, this time armed with 3 rolls and some time to 'nail' a setting.
The film is pretty much as I remembered it, contrasty, slow and pretty fine grained, I eventually settled on a development time of 18mins in Rodinal at 1:100 which gives the long range of tones I like for scanning.

Also it must be noted that this is a thin emulsion that needs to be handled carefully, especially in 120 size. With a one min pre-soak (which will look blue when tipped out).


Adox CHS 25 at 18min in Rodinal 1:100, Leica M4-P. Canon 35mm 1.8'S'

The image above was taken early in the day in quite bright sunlight and clearly shows how well this film can handle contrast if processed carefully using a lower contrast developer or higher dilution.


Adox CHS 25 at 8min in Rodinal 1:50, Leica M4-P. Canon 35mm 1.8'S'

below is a 100% crop of the door in the above image which was taken in very bright conditions at mid-day.




As you can see, the detail is good and the grain is fine especially for an 'old tech' type film and certainly OK up to 12x18 (A3+) most of the grain/noise is probably introduced during scanning.

So overall i like this film, with the exception of the excessive contrast caveat which can clearly be seen in the two images posted (the second image was processed 1:50 at recommended times and is higher in contrast).
Who'd have thought the old film was so good, whether films like Acros or T-Max 100 give similar results at higher speeds is debatable but if you like the old tech films and the way they handle this film is worth a try.
All Images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007