Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 17:15:17 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 21 Feb 1999, jewelia wrote:
> now that you've mentioned it--Agfa N31p Gevatone has always been one of my
> favorites and it can be hard to find and expensive--freestyle was carrying
> it--not sure that they do--i've called and talked with agfa reps about it on
> several occasions and for years they've been swearing they haven't made it
> for years and are out of the copy film business pretty much entirely--then i
> see someone has some for sale and buy what i can--but can never afford to
> really stock up
>
> does anybody know where this stuff comes from? and 2) i've since the
> continuous tone arista for sale from freestyle which is pretty much in the
> same expensive ball park as N31--can anyone compare these two films--is
> aristatone sort of equivalent as claimed or its own sort of creature?
Agfa is definitely schizophrenic about the N31P -- which is, I'm told,
made in Belgium. In fact as I recall, used to have "Belgium" on the
wrapper. Agfa has several times now said it's all over, in fact their last
"making" as I understand it, was farmed out to a smaller company. As of
two years ago, incidentally, the graphic arts division of Agfa (New Jersey
I think) had no record of the stuff ever made anywhere on this planet.
Meanwhile, Freestyle did get a large order of it (maybe 18 months ago?)
and now I understand is getting (or has got) yet another. But it's pricey.
Probably twice what it cost when I first bought it from Arkin. These
companies do NOT want to make graphic arts films. They WILL ratchet up the
price. They make MUCH more money by pushing us all to digital (although I
repeat myself & that's not this e-mail).
So I asked the sales rep at Freestyle why we should buy N31P when (ahem,
ESPECIALLY thanks to Liam for reversal & fotodave for pos/neg & a certain
essential publication) we can do all that stuff for 30 cents a sheet with
the Freestyle APH lith film, & go up to 20 x 24, even rolls, without
breaking the bank.
Well, what's a sales rep to say? His answer did make sense, though. He
said for home use, for classroom, for individual one-at-a-time pos. to
neg, & so forth, the lith is fine, but that for a professional, making
neg/interneg as a business, with no wiggle room, the N31P is better
(especially, I'll add if you don't need great density, as for salted
paper).
In any event, it seems Agfa saw the light one more time, has done another
batch.... which may or may not (don't remember) be going to other dealers
too, I think yes.
Judy
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