Film Friday: Adox announces Color Mission, a new 200 ISO 35mm color film stock whose profits will help fund R&D for future color emulsions: Digital Photography Review

Kosmo Foto reports that German photographic supplier Adox has announced it is releasing a new color film to help fund research for future color emulsions. Instead of creating a crowdfunding campaign, as some other film producers have done over the years, Adox has decided to make Color Mission, a 200 ISO film designed to bring in revenue that Adox plans to use for research and development of new color emulsions.

Color Mission 200 was co-developed and co-produced alongside an unnamed company that Adox says went into insolvency shortly after the first production run. Thankfully, Adox says this initial run should ‘be enough for this time, and possibly a bit longer,’ whatever that means. As for the name, Adox says it was intentionally chosen, as the ‘35mm rolls are on a big mission to give the analogue community a beautiful product while investing into the future of film research and production, which is one of the most sophisticated challenges in the analog industry.’

According to Adox, Color Mission 200 delivers ‘delicately vibrant minty greens, peachy reds [and] airy grain,’ all traits that are visible in the following sample images:

Adox is one of the oldest producers of photographic materials, with its history dating back to 1860, when it opened shop in Frankfurt, Germany. As noted by Kosmo Foto, Adox continuously produced chemicals, film and photographic paper until 1970, when its then-new owner, chemical giant Dupont, sold its production line machines to Fotokemika, a film manufacturer based in what was then Yugoslavia, effectively dissolving the brand.

In 2003, however, Fotoimpex brought the brand name back from the dead and has been producing various photographic materials, including paper and black and white film, since. Despite mainly focusing on monochrome film, this isn’t the first time an Adox has dabbled with color film, having produced its ‘Color Implosion surreal color negative film’ that was discontinued back in 2017. Adox says its plan is to have a new color emulsion out ‘in four years, perhaps.’

Color Mission is set to go on sale February 10, 2022 via Fotoimpex’s online store and at its Berlin, Germany retail store. Individual 36-exposure rolls are set to retail for €10 / ~$14, not including shipping.

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