U S E R R E P O R TP H O T O G R A P H I C

AgfaRSX Film

With the introduction of the new Agfachrome RSX films, Agfa has improvedtheir professional transparency product line. Each of the three available emul-

sions—ISO 50, IS0100, and ISO 200—have excellent characteristics

by Jack and Sue Drafahl

On a recent newscast we heard that our areahad set a record for rainfall for the month and more rain wason the way. That could only mean one thing—a film testwas soon to arrive on our doorstep. In the next couple ofdays the rain increased and a package of Agfa RSX Profes-sional film arrived on schedule. We had not heard of thisnew film family and were surprised that Agfa had complete-ly overhauled their RS Plus line of films and replaced themwith this new RSX line.

Agfa has always prided themselves on produc-ing emulsions that have excellent color saturation, so it waslogical that the target improvements for the RSX family weremainly in the color saturation area. The trick was to increasethe color saturation yet maintain the true color of the scene,which is absolutely critical in professional photo applica-tions. To this end, Agfa has created three new films—RSX50, RSX 100 and RSX 200—each with a specific applicationin mind.

All three emulsions have improved color satura-tion, tonal separation, and are more stable with standard orpush/pull processing. The new enhanced inter-image effects

are most responsible for the improvedcolor saturation. When the RSX 100 ismeasured against the RS 100 Plusacross the entire color spectrum, it hasa 9-6% increase in color saturation. Aside benefit of this improved color sat-uration is more accurate tonal separa-tion and increased edge effects result-ing in greater sharpness.

Agfa also worked on im-proving the reciprocity characteristicsof each emulsion and reduced thecompensation time and color correc-

Left. AgfachromeRSX TOO faithfullyrenders this firetruck and its spot-ted passenger, afirehouse dalma-tian. The brilliantred of the truckwas recreatedbeautifully by theRSX 100 with deepsaturation andgreat sharpness.

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tion necessary for long exposures. For example, an eightsecond exposure on RSX 100 has 50% less compensationthan RS 100 Plus and requires a straight blue correction offive points compared to 10 points of cyan with RS 100 Plus.

Tight production tolerances played an importantpart in the quality levels of the new RSX films. To qualify asan Agfa professional film, there must be an ISO speed varia-tion of less than % of a stop and color balance changes ofless than ±5CC filter points. Agfa has received the ISO 9002Quality Assurance Certificate from Lloyd's of London for itshigh quality production of professional negative and trans-parency films. What this means to the photographer is colorconsistency from one image to the next. If you shoot aproduct on the 3rd of the month and have to shoot more onthe 29th, the images will match in contrast, saturation andexposure.

Let's take a look at RSX 50. This emulsion hasthe finest grain of the three films, and is designed for situa-tions where the photographer has the most control over thescene. In studio photography, for example, the use of high-powered electronic flashes gives the photographer controlover all aspects of a photo session. Fine grain, excellent col-or saturation, a high degree of sharpness, unlimited depth of

Right: These kayakswere photographed on

Catalina Island with RSX200. The ISO 200 film

yielded good saturationand relatively fine grain.

Below. Photographedunderwater, this fish's

rich natural colors cameout beautifully with the

RSX 100 film.Bottom right This pic-

ture, taken at the end ofour trip to Catalina,

demonstrates the excel-lent sharpness, color sat-

uration and tonal rangepossible with the newAgfa RSX 50 emulsion.

field and maximum tonal curve make RSX 50 the wisechoice. Since no trade-offs in quality are required, the naturephotographer will also love this film. It's excellent for scen-ics, flash macro photographs of flowers and insects, and iswell Suited for general sunlight photography.

RSX 100 is very much like RSX 50 except that itoffers an additional stop of exposure to help the photogra-pher control depth of field and subject movement. The tradeoff, of course, is that the grain is slightly larger and the coloris a little less saturated. The spectral responses of RSX 50and RSX 100 are very much the same, so each can be usedin similar situations and images will match in appearance onthe light box.

When we get to RSX 200, we find an emulsionthat is quite different from the first two. Since an ISO 200film would be used for situations with more difficult expo-sure problems, the contrast and color saturation have beenmodified to match these needs. The color saturation of RSX200 maintains almost the same level as the first two films,but the gamma curve has been reduced to capture the moredifficult lighting situations. Candidates for use with this filminclude low light, mixed lighting with filters, long lenses,high speed action and high contrast scenes.

Our first roundof RSX film tests took placeduring a yearly event inPortland Oregon, called thePortland Rose Festival.

Cameras, lens-es and film were packed.We had run basic exposuretests on each emulsion andwere ready for action. Wehad colorful subjects, greatnew film emulsions andlousy weather. Well, twoout of three isn't bad. Wechose the RSX 50 and RSX100 to shoot a hot-air bal-loon race; the RSX 200 andRSX 100 would be used toshoot the action and colorof the festival's parade andboat races.

The hot-airballoon race was spectacu-lar. The most impressiveballoon was a giant Ener-gizer Rabbit. This huge rab-bit was vivid pink andproved to be a perfect sub-ject to test color saturation

PHOTOGRAPHIC MARCH 1996 49

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AgfaRSX Filmand tonal gradation. The thing was so big that we had diffi-culty getting it all in the frame, even with a 20mm lens!

After almost getting stepped on by a large rabbitfoot, we moved to a large orange pumpkin balloon. Weloaded the camera with RSX 50 and took a variety of shots.About this time we were wishing Agfa had sent more filmbecause the colors and shapes were fantastic. We hopedthat the film would catch all the color and detail and that wewouldn't catch a cold from this damp weather.

When we returned to the lab, our results werejust like the scene we had enjoyed. Both the RSX 50 andRSX 100 yielded high color saturation and excellent tonalgradation. We had set our bracket back to ±0.7 of a stopand each exposure resulted in an acceptable image, but thebest image was the one rated at the Agfa's stated ISO.

Moving on to the parade, we loaded our cam-eras with RSX 100 and RSX 200 film. The parade was full offlowers, high-stepping bands and smiling faces—a great va-riety for our tests of color saturation and tonal gradations.The weather was even getting better because the raindropswere getting smaller.

The dragon boat races provided a setting forsome great color and interesting design images. We arrivedbefore the race had started and found that the crew had lefttheir red oars next to the colorful dragon boat. They musthave known that we needed bright color and patterns forour film testing. We tried several angles and compositionson both the RSX 100 and RSX 200 emulsions before the racebegan. We shot a few images of the race, but knew the bestphotographs were of the brightly colored oars.

When we got back to the lab we processed allthe pictures and reviewed the parade images first. Even with

50 PHOTOGRAPHIC I MARCH 1996

Above: A beautifuloceanside scenic shottaken with RSX 100.The film's broad tonalrange and contrast lev-el are apparent in thelevel of detail visiblein both the sky andtree in this silhouette.

the wide variety of colors andshapes, both emulsions faithfullyrecorded the scenes. Both the RSX100 and RSX 200 did a great jobwith the subject, although we de-bated which emulsion's contrastlevel was best suited to the bright-ly colored oars. We finally con-cluded that with these two emul-sions a photographer could record the same subject in twocontrast levels with similar color saturation.

The second round of tests was accomplishedwhile we were guests on the Brooks Institute of Photogra-phy's research vessel, the "Just Love." Cruising from oneChannel Island to the next provided us sunlight opportuni-ties not found in the Pacific Northwest at this time of theyear. We ran tests with the RSX 100 underwater on severaltypes of colorful fish and local animal life. On a stop inTwin Harbors on Catalina Island, we found a stack ofkayaks along one side of a shop. Each was a different color,so we tried our compositional skills testing both the RSX 50and RSX 200 films.

At the end of each day we processed our film ina custom-fitted Wing-Lynch processor aboard the boat. Thefirst roll of underwater images indicated that the RSX filmsneeded a ^-stop increase in exposure due to the water den-sity. The images taken on land were accurate at the indicat-ed ISO rating. Again we noticed the difference in contrastrange between the ISO 50 and ISO 200 emulsions. Addition-al tests pushing the ISO 200 emulsion to ISO 400 gave us re-sults that looked much like a standard ISO 400 slide film. In-stead of having three films, we really had four distinct, us-able film speeds using only three Agfa emulsions.

Now that we have X-amined our RSX tests, wecan X-claim that the improvements in the RSX films X-hibitX-tremely X-emplary qualities that X-ceeded our X-pecta-tions. There isn't any X-cuse for you not to X-periment andX-pose some RSX. While you're out X-ploring, if you run in-to that huge pink Energizer balloon, watch out for that rab-bit's foot. It's really biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig! •