Agfa APX 100

The APX 100 sold today is not the APX 100 photographers remember. Agfa's original cubic-grain emulsion was made in Leverkusen until production stopped at the end of 2005, and the last master rolls were bought by Maco and reissued for years as Rollei Retro 100. The current product carrying the AgfaPhoto label is made by Harman in the UK under license to Lupus Imaging and Media, who picked up the brand after the bankruptcy. Most testers consider it a close cousin of Kentmere 100, with Harman saying it is not strictly identical to anything else in their catalog.

Knowing that changes how you shop. If you want the tonal character of the original APX 100, the closest current equivalent is Adox Silvermax 100, built specifically to revive the recipe. If you want a reliable, inexpensive ISO 100 film and you are not chasing a specific look, the new APX 100 is fine. It develops cleanly in ID-11, Rodinal, and HC-110. In Rodinal 1:50 the grain becomes more pronounced and contrast lifts, which suits documentary work. In ID-11 stock it stays neutral and forgiving.

Grain at box speed is moderate and traditional, not tabular. Sharpness is good but not extraordinary. Compared with Ilford FP4+ at the same speed, the new APX 100 is a touch contrastier and less subtle in the mid-tones. Compared with Fomapan 100, it is slightly cleaner and more consistent batch to batch. The Kentmere lineage tells the story.

Available in 35mm only in the current production run. No 120 or sheet sizes carry the AgfaPhoto APX 100 label, which is a real limitation for medium format shooters. Rate it at 64 in contrasty outdoor light for cleaner shadows.

Reciprocity exponent is 1.31, the conventional silver-grain baseline. Zone Light Meter applies the correction past one second. A metered 30-second exposure becomes about 90 seconds at the negative. For indoor available-light work at small apertures, where that threshold comes up often, the math is worth trusting rather than guessing.