AshigrainColour negative · Natural
Agfa Agfacolor Optima II 100
Agfa's middle path: natural colour, subtle reds.
Bright, saturated everyday colour. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Exposure index
- 100
- Daylight
- Introduced
- 1998
- Discontinued
- Process
- C-41
- Prints on
- Scan
About the film
Optima began as the middle film of Agfa's Triad, a trio of professional colour negatives with Portrait at the soft end and Ultra at the saturated end.
In Amateur Photographer's test of the trio, Joël Lacey found Optima's flesh tones the most realistic, and it was the only one of the three sold as sheet film, up to 10x8in. He wrote that fans of Agfa's subtle reds would not be disappointed, noting that Agfa had long toned its reds down a notch against its rivals. Agfa's guide of September 1998 presents the Optima II generation in 100, 200 and 400, rating its saturation high, between restrained Portrait XPS 160 and extremely saturated Ultra 50. The guide prints Optima II 100's layer structure: a supercoat and UV filter, then blue-, green- and red-sensitive layers separated by yellow and red filter layers, over an anti-halation layer, 16 µm in all. By July 2003 Agfa's guide listed Optima 100, 200 and 400 with what it called EYE VISION technology, which Agfa said matched the film's colour sensitivity more closely to that of the human eye than conventional sensitisation. Agfa-Gevaert sold its photo business to an investor group in November 2004, and the new AgfaPhoto GmbH filed for insolvency in May 2005, with more than 1,000 jobs lost.
Sources for this history
- Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Amateur Photographer test of Agfacolor Ultra, Optima and Portrait (13 October 1990), in Early Agfa colour materials, Amateur Photographer (transcribed on photomemorabilia.co.uk)
- Technische Daten: Agfa Professional Filmsortiment (F-PF-D4, 07/2003), Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Technical Data: Agfa Professional Films (F-PF-E4, 08/2004), Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Insolvenz-Poker um AgfaPhoto, photoscala
- Vor sieben Jahren gingen bei Agfa die Lichter aus, dpa (newsroom.de)
- photokina '98: Agfacolor Optima II for stringent demands on quality, Agfa-Gevaert AG
- Agfacolor Professional Negative Films (product page, May 1998 capture), Agfa-Gevaert AG
The look
A daylight ISO 100 colour negative from the middle of Agfa's saturation scale: livelier than Portrait, far calmer than Ultra. Agfa rated its saturation high, and its reds carry Agfa's habitually restrained tone. It starts as a scan; it prints on Agfa CP30 by default or on any other print film.
Saturated daylight colour on a still negative.
High saturation with clean daylight.
Best for
- Landscapes and architecture
- Natural skin in daylight portraits
- Sheet-film product and studio work
Among the films
Science & sources
A daylight still-photo colour negative rated at EI 100. It defaults to a scan. Its individual dye shapes are borrowed from Kodak Vision3 250D and its grain from Kodak Vision3 50D, because the guide does not publish them.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with the Ashigrain model on the same axes. This shows the calibration to source curves; comparison with photographed film is a separate question.
Characteristic response
RMS granularity
Density variation (σD) measured through a 48 µm aperture. Where the datasheet gives a single grain value, the response away from that point is an approximation.
| Channel | Density | Datasheet-based σD | Model σD |
|---|---|---|---|
| R | 0.3 | 0.005721 | 0.005951 |
| G | 0.3 | 0.005356 | 0.005583 |
| B | 0.3 | 0.009939 | 0.010305 |
| R | 0.6 | 0.004743 | 0.004934 |
| G | 0.6 | 0.004711 | 0.004911 |
| B | 0.6 | 0.010368 | 0.01075 |
| R | 1 | 0.004775 | 0.004967 |
| G | 1 | 0.004604 | 0.0048 |
| B | 1 | 0.008734 | 0.009056 |
| R | 1.5 | 0.003652 | 0.003799 |
| G | 1.5 | 0.004639 | 0.004836 |
| B | 1.5 | 0.008332 | 0.008639 |
| B | 2 | 0.006242 | 0.006473 |
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations, while halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. A real film capture also depends on development and print timing.
- Custom lighting spectra, camera metering and the spectral reflectance inferred from fixed-white-balance footage are modeled assumptions, not measurements of this film.
- Colour-print timing and scan balance under arbitrary lighting are modeled. Scanner colour balance has no standard physical unit.
- Only a midscale neutral and a minimum-density spectrum are printed, not separate cyan, magenta and yellow dye spectra. The individual dye shapes are borrowed from Kodak Vision3 250D (5207), a proxy rather than this film's dyes.
- The source prints one visual MTF curve, not separate red, green and blue curves. The model applies it to all three layers.
- The source publishes one RMS granularity value, 4.0 × 10⁻³, without saying whether it is read at gross or net density. Grain is proxied from Kodak Vision3 50D (5203), so the granularity values shown are that film's, not measurements of Optima II 100.
- The antihalation undercoat is printed, but halation strength, radius, layer weights and bloom are not measured.
- Individual dye amounts, layer interactions and push/pull behaviour are approximated where the datasheet provides no calibration. Grain size is assumed; published RMS granularity does not specify dye-cloud size.
- Characteristic response outside the published exposure range is an extrapolation, not measured film data.
- The default output is a scan. Scan balance has no standard unit and is modeled.
- The printer lamp and filter spectra and the Status A grey aim used in this preview are approximated; the source does not publish the required spectral or laboratory aim data.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
Sources
- Process: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 4
- Characteristic curves: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 7
- Diffuse RMS granularity: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 7
- Exposure index: Agfa Professional Films, Technical Data PF, Technical Data PF, 09/1998, 1st edition, p. 7