Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I remember press reports from a couple of years ago saying that ORWO stopped making film. What they still did for a while was spooling film from other manufacturers (Scotch, Konica and the like) and sold it under ORWO name through discount stores. In their catalog from last year, Fotoimpex offered "Maco UP 400+", saying that this is the same as HP5+. I also found "Maco UP 100+" in a cologne shop. I tried the 400+ which indeed looked very much like HP5+. My technique is however not refined enough to say, whether it was 2nd grade material or whether there was more dust and scratches from loading (was reported on Efke films). The negs had proper numbers from 1A to 36B and even a "UP 400+" printed in between the perforation. So it was not respooled bulk film, like the other offerings. Maco's website "www.mahn.net" did not reveal the manufacturer. Most probably it is just what Fotoimpex is saying, HP5+ sold under a different trademark, possibly even spooled and packaged by Ilford in the UK. Not only 2nd grade manufactures (Scotch, Konica and the like), but also Agfa and Kodak sell at least their previous generation of colour neg film under "house" label through drugstore chains or photo discounters. Hans-Peter