AshigrainBlack-and-white print · Print film
ORWO PF 2 Positive Print Film
ORWO's black-and-white print for archive work.
ORWO's blue-sensitive print for archive work, from its 2014 datasheet: built to hold a negative of extreme contrast with a full grey scale. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- by 2014
- Process
- ORWO instruction 2182 (D-97 / ORWO 27), 21 ± 1 C, development 4-8 min, to an average gradient of 2.8
- Maximum density
- ≈ 3.0
- Base
- Polyester
About the film
ORWO Positive Print Film PF 2 is a fine-grain, blue-sensitive black-and-white print film, made by FilmoTec in the original ORWO factory in Wolfen.
ORWO stands for Original Wolfen, and the Wolfen factory began as part of Agfa; American Cinematographer reports that FilmoTec revived the ORWO brand in 1998. The version modelled, PF 2 V3, is documented in FilmoTec's technical information of June 2014, which names it as the successor of PF 2 V2 and PF 2 plus. FilmoTec describes it for black-and-white prints from ordinary negatives and especially for film archives, where it is meant to hold negatives of extreme contrast with a full grey scale. It is coated on 125 µm polyester or 135 µm triacetate, with an anti-halation layer that clears in processing and a permanent antistatic layer. Under ORWO instruction 2182 it is developed in D-97 or ORWO 27 for 4 to 8 minutes, to an average gradient of 2.8. FilmoTec specifies an RMS granularity of at most 10 and an MTF of at least 0.70 at 30 cycles per millimetre. American Cinematographer listed PF2 among ORWO's offerings in February 2017.
Sources for this history
- ORWO Positive Print Film PF 2 V3 Technical Information (TI-PF2 V3-VI/2014), FilmoTec GmbH
- ORWO Instruction no. 2182: processing of ORWO black & white positive print films, FilmoTec GmbH
- Orwo Film Offers Black-and-White Negative, American Society of Cinematographers
The look
ORWO Positive Print Film PF 2 is a blue-sensitive black-and-white print film made in Wolfen, documented in its V3 version of 2014. It is meant to hold negatives of extreme contrast with a full grey scale, especially in film-archive work. Its curve and sensitivity come from the maker's datasheet.
Best for
- Archive and restoration-style prints
- High-contrast negatives with a full grey scale
- Printing Tasma NK-2 negatives
Compare print films
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between blue-green and red-orange: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the reds and greens print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the red neon and skin print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between a blue and a red dye: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Kodak Vision3 500T night frame, printed on each film.
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Science & sources
A blue-sensitive black-and-white print film, shown after Tasma NK-2. Its characteristic curve and spectral sensitivity are digitised from the 2014 V3 datasheet, using the 5-minute development curve. The result combines the negative and the print.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with Ashigrain’s response on the same axes. These curves show how the model is calibrated to its sources; they do not establish a match to photographed film.
Characteristic response
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations. Halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. The look of real film also depends on development and print timing.
- The silver image has no dye chart and is taken as spectrally neutral.
- The film is blue-sensitive (about 400–520 nm as printed); its sensitivity beyond that range is not charted.
- The characteristic curve is the sheet's 5-minute curve (gradient about 2.84), one of three printed development times, so contrast at other development is not modelled. The curve stops at density 3.0, the top of the printed chart.
- Granularity and MTF are printed only as bounds (RMS at most 10; MTF at least 0.70 at 30 cycles/mm), not as curves.
- No second edition with curves is available, so no digitisation error is measured.
- The source gives no printer lamp or filter spectra. Black-and-white print timing is modelled.
Reciprocity: not modelled. Exposure time has no effect on this film.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
Sources
- Characteristic curves: ORWO Positive Print Film PF 2 V3 Technical Information, TI-PF2 V3-VI/2014, p. 2
- Process: ORWO Positive Print Film PF 2 V3 Technical Information, TI-PF2 V3-VI/2014, p. 2