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According to a report by Japan Camera Hunter, Agfa Vista color negative film is no longer being produced. The site says the information—which has been rumored for a few months—has now been confirmed by ‘reliable industry sources,’ and that supplies are drying up around the world.
The film has become popular for its low cost and punchy colors, but obviously not popular enough for it to remain in production.
Since the demise of AgfaPhoto GmbH in 2005, the film was distributed by Lupus Imaging and Media, a marketing company that bought the rights to use the Agfa name on a range of items from film to memory sticks. At first, the company slit the remaining stock from Agfa’s factory in Leverkusen, but in more recent times it is widely believed Fujifilm was the manufacturer of the Vista films.
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| Japan Camera Hunter’s dramatised Death of Vista illustration. |
Agfa was one of the very early experimenters with color photography, bringing a color emulsion to the market shortly after Kodak introduced Kodachrome. Agfacolor Neu was much easier to process, however, as it needed only one pass through the chemistry to develop all three colors.
Rolls of Agfa Vista in both ISO 200 and 400 varieties are still available from specialist stores and even Amazon UK, so panic buying hasn’t quite taken hold yet. But JCH doesn’t expect stock to last too long.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)