Early this year a reader sent me a Minolta Maxxum 5, which I reviewed here. In the box were four rolls of film: two of the original Agfa Vista 400, and two of a film I’d never heard of: Tura 125. This is a black-and-white film from a German company that made some of their own films and papers and white-labeled films from other manufacturers. They primarily rebranded Agfa and Ilford films, I gather. Tura appears not to have made it after those two companies declared bankruptcy in 2004 and 2005.
I dropped a roll of the Tura 125 into that Maxxum 5 during my birthday week in August and brought it to a local car show. On advice of the fellow who sent it to me, I shot the film at EI 100.
There’s not a lot of information about this film on the Internet. The fellow who sent me the film gave me his development time for the stuff in D-76, but I don’t keep D-76 here. I’m HC-110 and Rodinal all the way. Persistent Googling finally led to a long-ago forum post where someone said he used the times for the original Agfa APX 100. The Massive Dev Chart didn’t have an HC-110 time for this film at EI 100, but it had a time for the similar Ilfotec HC, so that’s what I used. It worked beautifully.
This is a beautiful film with rich tonality. I especially enjoy how it renders blacks, and how silvery the film looks overall. This matches my experience with the couple of rolls of original APX 100 I’ve shot, so I am inclined to believe that Tura 125 is that film. I’ve heard speculation that Tura 125 is Kentmere 100, but I’ve shot enough of that film to know that it doesn’t look this good.
This car show is an annual event at the local American Legion. It’s a “bring what you got” kind of show that draws cars mostly from this county. Entries run the gamut from newer supercars to old pickup trucks to true classics like this 1927 Buick.
These cars were a great trial subject for my first roll of Tura 125. The 35-70mm f/4 Maxxum AF Zoom lens attached to my camera brought out this film’s sharpness.
As you can see, this film’s grain is imperceptible in blog-sized images. When you look at the scans at full resolution, the grain is barely perceptible. And the grays on this truck’s tailgate are positively creamy.
This 1950s Ford F-1 truck was painted in a bright metallic blue. The Tura 125 did a great job picking up the metallic flecks in the paint. The chrome trim looks so rich.
Even if Tura 125 isn’t rebranded original APX 100, it’s still a gorgeous film and I’m glad I got to try it. I have one roll left, and it’s worth saving for something special.
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