I just got a couple of rolls of Macophot 25 orthochromatic film. It looked like fun. The website (www.mahn.net) doesn't really have much practical information in terms of pictorial use, other than start your testing at ASA 25. Rodinal 1:25 for 4 minutes. Anyone out there have experience with this film? Any information will be helpful.

thanks,

chuck k

-- chuck kleesattel (ckleesattel@yahoo.com), November 01, 2001

Answers

Hello!

I will try this film too later this fall/winter! It seems interesting and should give you results looking like the photos taken in the late 1800's.

Please let us know your results with this film.

Since it's a film for hard contrast I wonder if Rodinal 1:25 will work for pictoral photography. A developer with catechol could be better. I used a highly diluted catechol developer with lith-film and got negs with a long tonal range.

I can post the recipe for the developer I used if anyone is interested.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), November 01, 2001.

The Maco ORT 25 is one of the "sharpest" films on the market. According an article by Jürgen Richter in the German foto journal "Color Foto" TMAX 100 resolves ca. 110 lines, Mco PO 100c ca. 260 lines AND Maco ORT 25 ca 330. Refer to the article about Maco arto films which can be downloaded from the following site: http://hamburg.germany.com/laborpartner/html/colorfoto_11.htm For pictorial photography Maco recommends using their "Laborpartner LP-Docufine LC" low contrast developer. Since the film obviously is meant to behave like good old AGFA Orto it ought to work fine in Rodinal 1:100 (or better Calbe R09 1:200) or any of the other low contrast developers on the market (Jobo, Tetenal, Kodak etc.) In Rodinal 1:25 you will get very high contrast negatives. The only real difference in the colour rendition you will get is the red blindness: Red will also be black. On the print it will make much less difference than one might think.

-- Volker Schier (Volker.Schier@fen-net.de), November 02, 2001.

Volker, do you know who the maker(s) of the Macophot films is/are? I suspect the 64c and UP 25 are the Efke R50 and R25, and one guy told me that their 400 film absolutely is a Foma film. Do you have any information on this?

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), November 02, 2001.

Dear Patric, absolutely. The Maco films are made by Efke. The IR 820 is based on the Efke 100. The ORT 25 though is not a Efke 25, which is orthopanchromatic and is calibrated for a normal contrast range. The ORT 25 is closer to a high resolution orto microfilm on a "conventional" base, exactly what the Agfaortho was. Some people again might come with the old story: Maco is in Germany and Efke in Croatia. On the films it says "made in Europe". It is funny when you compare a Efke and a Maco 120 film side by side. The machine that fixes the end paper to the film is obviously misaligned in Zagreb: The paper is glued to far away from the edge of the film, which means that it is impossible to secure the film without taking the entire paper off: Exactly the same can be seen on the Maco film.

-- Volker Schier (Volker.Schier@fen-net.de), November 02, 2001.

Yes, that paper at the end of the roll on Efke films always irritates me. :-)

I love Efke films though, and the R50 must be my favorite film at the moment, and I use the R100 all the time in my 4x4 Rolleiflex Sport.

The Ort 25 is a little mystery, but very interesting. Haven't tried it yet though, but will in the future.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), November 02, 2001.

Oh, forgot to mention that Macophot is thinking about selling their "400 cube" film in 127 size too. :-))

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), November 02, 2001.

I have gotten excellent results developing Macophot Ortho 25 in Photographer's Formulary TD-3. I have not gotten good results in Rodinal at any dilution. XTOL 1:5 is another possibility.

-- Andrew Held (Heldarc@yahoo.com), November 12, 2001.

Andrew, could you please give development time for XTOL 1:5?

-- Eugene Safian (safian3@rogers.com), May 24, 2002.