Agfa Ortho 25 Expired B&W Film Review

Agfa Ortho 25 is the vintage predecessor to the modern Rollei Ortho 25 — a fine-grained, slow-speed orthochromatic film for black-and-white photography.

In this review, I’ll share a brief history of this emulsion, explain its technical properties, and share some results along with my opinions about using and developing this film more than twenty years past expiration.

In this review: Agfa Ortho 25 history and technical specifications. Exposing expired black-and-white negative films. Stand development in Rodinal. The orthochromatic effect with Agfa/Rollei Ortho 25. Agfa/Rollei Ortho 25 contrast. Where to buy Agfa and Rollei Ortho 25, and how much does it cost? Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Agfa Ortho 25 history and technical specifications.

I briefly discussed the Agfa brand in my earlier review of one of my all-time favourite colour films: Agfa Vista 200. A German dye-making factory made an investment in film photography in the late 1800s. It continued to grow until the early 2000s, when it rolled back film production and moved into other technological sectors. However, it retained the Agfa Photo brand, which it licenses to other businesses. Their former film factory has since been taken over by ORWO.

As you may have gathered from the intro above, a nearly identical film, Rollei Ortho 25, is a change of brand. Rollei is another famous 20th-century manufacturer that has nearly folded and, in a modern capacity, licenses its name to DW Photo — and, as of recently, to MiNT for their new Rollei 35AF film camera. But of course, rented brands don’t make tracing products’ origins easy; the Rollei 35AF cameras are made by MiNT, whereas Rollei films (formerly, Agfa black-and-white films) are manufactured by Maco.

Back to the Ortho 25. In this review, I’m covering the vintage version of this stock, the one that expired in July 2000, over 24 years before I had the chance to develop it. My version had a wavelength sensitivity of 380-610nm, which covers most of the visible light except the reds.

Not seeing the red makes this film orthochromatic, which is how all early black-and-white film used to behave until advanced dyes were introduced into the chemistry that gave the emulsion the ability to sense the entire colour spectrum. However, we’ve never given up producing orthochromatic emulsions as this is the type of film that can be developed with the red safety light (all other films have to be developed in complete darkness). I wrote more about orthochromatic films in my review of Ilford Ortho Plus.

One difference I’ve noticed between my very old Agfa film and the new Rollei Ortho is their sensitivity to blue light. Agfa (and earlier Rollei) is sensitive up to 610nm (datasheet), whereas the new Rollei Ortho Plus caps at around 580nm (datasheet). For reference, human vision is sensitive up to around 700nm, which means that the freshest Rollei Ortho Plus films are less sensitive to the right, which should make for an even more dramatic effect in photography. Though I haven’t had the chance to compare those emulsions side-by-side, the samples online suggest that the difference is negligible.

Both Ortho films use an archival polyester film base rated LE-500, which means it should last five hundred years. This film was designed for archival and astrophotography purposes, which explains this insane longevity property. But my favourite property of this film base is its “non-curling” making, which makes the development, drying, and scanning very easy.

Last but not least, Agfa/Rollei Ortho 25 films are exceptionally sharp and fine-grained, capable of resolving 330 lines per mm, making them one of the most detailed black-and-white films money can buy today. You can go further, of course, with Adox CMS 20 II, which can resolve 880 lines per mm — that film is known to be the most detailed photographic medium ever made, including modern digital sensors.

Exposing expired black-and-white negative films.

If it was a colour-negative film, the common wisdom would suggest exposing it at EI 8. But it’s not; instead, I shot it at box speed in my Olympus Mju I, taking advantage of the DX code on the canister.

That Olympus point-and-shoot delivers remarkable bokeh for its relatively slow 𝒇3.5 lens, and it’s easy to hold steady. Virtually every shot on the roll was in focus and looking good without many issues.

If I did end up rating this film at EI 8 (and I am glad I did not), it would have to be shot with a manual camera with a faster lens, like my Voigtländer Vitessa A, which I used to test the Lomography Fantôme 8.

Stand development in Rodinal.

If you sift through old forums online, you’ll find cranky white men bad-mouth stand development.

Like every method, the process of adding a few drops of developer to cold water and letting it stand for an hour without much agitation isn’t appropriate for every project. Adding too much developer can blow highlights, and this process can generate unsatisfactory results with some films. But having used it with my even more ancient ORWO NP 20 film, I decided to ignore the naysayers and dunk my Agfa Ortho 25 into a weak solution of Rodinal together with a roll of Kodak T-Max 100 (review coming soon) for an hour to see what happens.

Both films came out looking very good. My Agfa film did end up having exceptionally bright highlights — but those are to be expected with this film. I’ve browsed a few dozen samples online for both Agfa Ortho 25 and the new Rollei Ortho 25 emulsions, both of which rendered identical to my results.

The orthochromatic effect with Agfa/Rollei Ortho 25.

Understanding that black-and-white film isn’t sensitive to red light can give an expectation that anything remotely red would be rendered pitch black. Of course, that’s not the case with the orthochromatic films.

Pure reds aren’t particularly common. They usually contain a bit of green or blue in them. Sometimes, the surroundings would reflect or cast some of their colours onto deep reds; other times, the textures that host the red hue would reflect most wavelengths from certain angles. It may also be difficult to distinguish the orthochromatic effect of red blindness from a dark shadow on black-and-white film. However, I managed to have samples of the same poppy flowers on both Agfa Ortho 25 and the expired Kodak Gold 100 film for comparison.

While the Gold 100 and Ortho 25 shots above aren’t one-to-one comparisons (they were taken on different days from different angles), they demonstrate the effect pretty well. Note that in the colour photograph, the flower petals have two colours: deep black at the base and red on top. That distinction is erased on the Ortho frames, which do not differentiate between black and red — the entire flower head is dark grey or black.

Also, note the red roses in the photo below. They are a little difficult to see in this photo, but I assure you, they are not black to the eye.

On a related note, I searched online examples of an actual black rose and found only terrible digital filter imitations. This film does a much better job of adding drama.

Agfa/Rollei Ortho 25 contrast.

Out of the tank, my Agfa Ortho 25 showed a bit of fogging. This is expected out of film that’s been waiting to be shot for such a long time. Thankfully, it did not affect the results significantly. However, I did end up adding a touch of contrast to the blacks, as they looked a little washed out.

Whether fresh or expired, Ortho 25 is a high-contrast black-and-white film, and thus, you should consider what it can do to brightly lit scenes. You may not be able to restore shadows or highlights as you would with wide dynamic range films, such as Ilford HP5+.

Where to buy Agfa and Rollei Ortho 25, and how much does it cost?

The expired Agfa version of the Ortho film can still be found on eBay and other used goods markets. I’ve added the link for it below. The majority of it seems to be in medium format, which is great for making images of exceptional resolution. But you can get more or less the same thing brand new as a Rollei film today at many specialized film photography stores today — also linked below.

❤ By the way: Please consider making your Agfa Ortho 25 or Rollei Ortho 25 film purchase using the links above  so that this website may get a small percentage of that sale — at no extra charge for you — thanks!