Agfacolor XRG 200

On a recent photoexped i t i on to thelocal count ry fair-grounds, we attended

our first wild-west show. The excite-ment of the day included Indian dancesfeaturing some of the local tribesmen,cowboy shootouts, square dancing, anda host of Civil War soldiers and cow-

Agfacolor XRG 100 Agfacolor XRG 200

46 PnoTographicAJanuary 1992

Agfacolor XRG 100

Agfacolor XRG 200

Agfacolor XRG 100

boys. The colors were vivid, the actionwas hot, and there were plenty of water-ing holes to quench our thirst and keepus going.

After shooting several rolls of thenew film we were testing, another pho-tographer moseyed up and asked, "Whatbrings you to these parts, pardner?"

"Why, we're here for the shootoutwith the Agfa XRG film gang," weboldly answered.

"Never heard of 'em," he bellowed."Why, they're the three latest addi-

tions to the Agfacolor family. You bet-ter remember the name "Agfa": Theynow make ten different color-negativefilms," we said.

He shook his head in disbelief, so wedecided we had better tell him the wholestory.

THE AGFA FAMILY OF FILMS

The Triade clan of three professionalfilms are fine-tuned emulsions designedto match specific photographic applica-tions. Triade Ultra 50 is a high-satura-tion film designed for situations wherefine grain, maximum color saturation,and higher contrast are needed. TriadeOptima 125 is used for general-purposephotography, has an excellent grain pat-tern with normal color saturation, andhas a contrast level that matches mostsituations. Triade Portrait 160 has colorsaturation and contrast that are ideal forportrait photography.

The XRS tribe includes four f i lms

PHOTOgraphic/January 1992 47

Agfacolor XRG 400

SPECIFICATIONSFILM: Agfacolor XRG 100TYPE: Triple-masked color-printSPEED: ISO 100BALANCE: DaylightPROCESS: C-41 or AP-70EXPOSURE-TIME RANGE: '/4-Xo.«oDIFFUSE RMS GRANULARITY: 4.5RESOLVING POWER (1000:1 TESTOBJECT): 130 IpmRESOLVING POWER (1.6:1 TESTOBJECT): 50 Ipm

FILM: Agfacolor XRG 200TYPE: Double-masked color-printSPEED: ISO 200BALANCE: DaylightPROCESS: C-41 or AP-70EXPOSURE-TIME RANGE: '/4-Xo.oooDIFFUSE RMS GRANULARITY: 6RESOLVING POWER (1000:1 TESTOBJECT): 130 IpmRESOLVING POWER (1.6:1 TESTOBJECT): 50 Ipm

FILM: Agfacolor XRG 400TYPE: Double-masked color-printSPEED: ISO 400BALANCE: DaylightPROCESS: C-41 or AP-70EXPOSURE-TIME RANGE: 'X-XooooDIFFUSE RMS GRANULARITY: 7RESOLVING POWER (1000:1 TESTOBJECT): 1001pmRESOLVING POWER (1.6:1 TESTOBJECT): 50 Ipm

DISTRIBUTOR: Agfa Corp., 100Challenger Rd.. Ridgefield, NJ 07660;(201)440-2500

Agfacolor XRG 400

48 PHorographic/January 1992

Agfacolor XRG 400

designed for the professional photogra-pher who needs f i lm emulsions from35mm to 1 1x14 in a variety of fi lmspeeds, including ISO 100, 200, 400,and 1000.

The three members of Agfa's XRGgang are amateur-or iented color-negative emulsions designed to handle avariety of photographic s i t u a t i o n sencountered by the amateur photogra-pher. We explained to our new friendthat these XRG films were the reasonwe came to the wild-west show. Weplanned to run these films through thehoops and see how they performed.Well, our friend tipped his hat and leftus to handle the XRG gang alone.

AGFACOLORXRG100

The newest member of the gang,XRG 100, is a high-resolution, fine-grain color-negative film designed forsituations where light levels are good,and you might require a good deal ofenlargement in the final print. Outdoorscenics, beach scenes, close-up flash,hot-air balloons, colorful cars, and thecolorful characters of the wild-westshows all lend themselves to this film.

The XRG 100 emuls ion has jus trecently been improved to include threemasks to keep the colors separated,instead of the traditional two found inmost color-print films today. The thirdmask corrects faulty yellow absorptioninto the cyan layer. The result is clean-er-looking reds and more brilliant yel-lows. Exposure latitude covers a 5-stoprange from -2 stops to +3 stops.

AGFACOLOR XRG 200

Agfa XRG 200 color-negative film isdesigned for general-purpose photogra-phy, or for when you just aren't surewhat conditions you will be up againstwhen you grab your camera to takesome shots. The emulsion compositionof this film includes two masks similarto the masks in the XRG 100 emulsion,which are used to separate pure colorsfrom one another. The overall sharpnessand grain pattern are not quite as goodas those of XRG 100, but they are stillgood enough for enlargements up to16x20. This film would be ideal for sub-jects in shade, telephoto-lens photogra-phy, zoom-lens work, and distant flashpictures. Exposure latitude of this emul-sion is similar to that of XRG 100 at -2stops to +3 stops. Improvements to thisfilm, similar to the third mask found inthe XRG 100, are in progress. The finalversion of this film may be on the mar-ket by the time this review appears onthe newsstand.

AGFACOLOR XRG 400

For low lighting, high-speed action,or long telephoto lenses, Agfa XRG 400

would be the film to choose. This high-speed color-negative film includes thetwo color masks found in XRG 200, andhas similar color saturation and resolu-tion to the XRG 200 emulsion. XRG400 has surprisingly small grain, per-mitting enlargements up to 11x14 withlittle loss of image quality. This emul-sion is also destined to have the sameimprovements made to XRG 100, andshould be coming out of the chute in thenext few months. Exposure latitude ofXRG 400 is consistent with the othertwo XRG f i l m s at a -2 stops to +3stops.

FIELD TESTS

Two cameras were used in our fieldtests, so that two of the three films werealways available to shoot with. At theonset, we loaded XRG 100 and XRG400 films and scanned for our first sub-jects. Using XRG 100 fi lm first, wedocumented a variety of flowers alongthe pathways that lead through the fair-grounds. With bright sunlight and nosubject movement, we were able to cap-ture the fu l l color and sharpness ofnature's own color card.

From there, we took the camera withthe XRG 400, moved into the shade,and took several portraits with a 200mmf/2.8 lens and a shutter speed of /:nu>.Moving back into sunlight, we pho-tographed some local I n d i a n tribesdancing in a circle. We found the shut-ter speed so high with the 200mm lens,that we switched to a 50()mm mirrorlens we normally don't use for nearbymoving subjects. We were impressedwith the VW shutter speed possible withthis combination of lens and film.

From there we alternated films andshot a variety of situations, includingwestern music shows, cowboyshootouts, rodeo clowns, and a varietyof western activities. After three hoursand ten rolls of f i lm, we made ourescape and returned to our hideout (lab)to process the f i lm and analyze theresults.

Of the ten rolls we shot, no frameswere lost due to bad exposure, and onlya few to subject movement. All threefi lms looked the same when we laidthem on the lightbox, and differencescould only be discerned in the grainstructure under a 10X loupe. As youwould expect, the grain increased fromthe XRG 200 to the XRG 400 film. Wenoticed that the pictures taken in mixedshade and sunlight seemed to have animpressive ability to capture detail fromhighlight to shadow. We decided to seejust how good these films could performwhen put to the printing test.

PRINTING XRG NEGATIVESOne of the most impressive aspects

of printing the XRG color negatives wastheir compatibility with one another.We were able to print negatives from allthree emulsions with the same printingpack. This is extremely handy for thephotographer who likes to make colorprints in his or her own lab without theworry of having to balance each of thedifferent emulsions. We did find that wehad to make corrections for three pic-tures taken in full shade, but the correc-tion was the same for all three films.

FILTRATION

You should use a blue No. 80A filter(or equivalent) for pictures taken withthe Agfa XRG films under tungstenlighting, assuming you that have enoughlight to compensate for the two stops oflight lost to the filter's absorption. Ifyou need every ounce of exposure youcan get, you can shoot without the filter,but you will have to compensate whenmaking the color prints. Agfa has no fil-ter recommendation for fluorescentlighting, but we have found that mostcolor-negative films come close to fullcorrection with a CC30 magenta filter.UV filters are not necessary for any ofthe XRG films, as they have a specialUV-blocking layer that achieves thesame results. The only outdoor filteryou may want to use is the polarizer, inorder to minimize reflections and createdarker skies. As when using any color-print film, be sure to let your processinglab know if you use any color filters forspecial effects: otherwise the lab (or itsprinting equipment) will automaticallycorrect the color shift when makingyour prints.

RECIPROCITY FAILURE

If you shoot your XRG picturesbetween [A second and VM>.««>, you will notneed to make any corrections forreciprocity failure. At one second, youshould increase the exposure by onestop, and at ten seconds the exposureincrease would be two stops. For thosephotographers who spend a looooongtime taking astro photos or time expo-sures over 100 seconds, they will haveto increase their exposure by at leastthree stops. With these films' extremelatitude, you don't have to be exactabout these computations, as the expo-sure latitude will cover most errors inexposure.

CONCLUSIONS

We worked Agfa's XRG gang longand hard, and the films performed likechamps. These are some rough andtough additions to the Agfa clan. Theguys with yellow and green duds betterbe looking over their shoulders, becausethe Agfa boys are raising up quite aruckus. Iffl

PHOiograptiic/January 1992 49