AgfaUltra 100

Agfa Ultra 100 is a discontinued ISO 100 color negative film for C-41 processing, made by Agfa-Gevaert and known for very strong saturation [1] [3]. Wikipedia’s list of discontinued films describes it as a consumer film with Eye Vision technology, and dates it to roughly 2001 to 2005 [2]. Martin Parr is said to have used it for his holiday and leisure reportage [3].

Look and color

• Saturation is the point of the film. Kosmo Foto calls it “exceptionally saturated”, with bright colors even on expired rolls [3]. DazB writes “very highly saturated” and adds that the colors are still faithfully reproduced [4].
• Reds and yellows stand out. “Reds are really RED” is the line 35mmc and Steve Huff’s guest reviewer both come back to [5] [6]. DazB also singles out the yellows, deep blue skies and vivid greens [4].
• Versus Ultra 50. 35mmc describes Ultra 50 as warmer and more saturated, mostly in red, and Ultra 100 as slightly less saturated and less warm [5].
• A holiday-postcard rendering. 35mmc and Steve Huff’s guest reviewer both describe an “old world”, false-color look, like a summer postcard [5] [6].
• Eye Vision sensitization. Agfa’s brochure says the film’s three sensitized layers are matched to the color perception of the human eye, which it says reduces color errors such as a green cast under fluorescent light or a red shift in some blue flowers [1]. It is not a claim about saturation, and it is the only color statement Agfa makes: the brochure gives no colorimetric data.
• Skin and color casts. None of the sources we read describes skin tones or an overall color cast.

Tonality

• Curve. On the datasheet’s characteristic curves, the green layer has a toe around −2.0 log H, then runs straight to +1.0 log H with no visible shoulder. The slope reads at about 0.6 between −1.0 and 0.0 log H (our reading of the graph) [1]. Ektar 100’s green curve reads at about 0.57 in the same region (also our reading) [7].
• Latitude. Agfa gives −2 to +3 f-stops, and the layer thickness is 25 µm [1]. Its general advice for negatives is to err toward more exposure, which it says also increases color saturation [1].
• Shadows. DazB reports shadows rendered as pure black [4], while 35mmc finds better shadow detail than on Ultra 50 [5]. Few sources discuss contrast directly.

Grain and sharpness

Agfa rates granularity as RMS × 1000 (a measurement scale, not comparable with Kodak’s Print Grain Index) [1].

• Reviews contradict each other. DazB saw minimal grain [4], Steve Huff’s guest reviewer found it noticeable and part of the vintage look [6], and 35mmc says Ultra 100 is finer than Ultra 50 but that both have visible grain structure [5]. The datasheet number sides with the finer-grain reports.
• Sharpness. Agfa lists a resolving power of 140 lines/mm at contrast 1000:1 and 60 lines/mm at 1.6:1, and publishes a modulation transfer curve [1].

Spectral sensitivity

The blue-sensitive layer has a broad shoulder from about 405 to 450 nm and peaks near 470 nm, the green layer peaks near 555 nm and the red layer near 620 nm; blue and green cross near 488 nm and green and red near 577 nm [1]. The green layer falls steeply between 565 and 590 nm, so it and the red layer overlap only over a narrow band. The Grain Archive style is tuned from the datasheet and the reviews above; it is not computed from these curves.

Names, status and history

• Predecessor. 35mmc describes Ultra 100 as the replacement for Ultra 50 [5]. Wikipedia’s list gives Ultra 50 as a professional film of about 1990 to 2001 and Ultra 100 as a consumer film of about 2001 to 2005, sold in 135 with 36 exposures [2].
• On sale in 2003. The May 2003 brochure lists Ultra 100 in 135-36 only, at ISO 100/21°, with the Eye Vision sensitization shared with the Vista and APS star films [1].
• End of production, sources differ. Kosmo Foto says Agfa discontinued the film around 2005 [3], DazB says 2005 or 2006, when Agfa stopped making film [4], and Wikipedia’s list ends it in about 2005 [2]. We list 2005, as reported, not as an official date.
• Scarcity. DazB calls it extremely hard to find [4]. Kosmo Foto says the rolls it found were nearly a decade past their expiry date but usable if kept frozen [3].
• No renames found. We found no verified alias or successor under another name.