The revived photochemistry company Tetenal has announced the impending release of a one-roll development kit for those wanting to try out film photography or those wanting a kit to take on-location. The Magic-Box series will include all the chemicals needed to process a roll of negative film, a transparency film or 23 sheets of 8x10in color paper, with the chemistry arriving in pre-measured quantities.
Available only in German-speaking regions at first, the company says it will extend distribution in time, as it gets production up to speed. The new company, Tetenal 1847, has risen from the ashes of the former Tetenal business after employees got together to take on the company after it faced collapse at the beginning of the year. The new business has an online store already and is beginning, it says, to work on new products – including tablet form photochemistry. In fact, though, the old Tetenal used to produce tablet chemicals as well as one-shot processing kits some time ago, but it is great to see them come back to life again.
According to the website Emulsive prices for the new Magic-Box kits will be:
- TETENAL Magic Box RA-4: €14.95
- TETENAL Magic-Box E6: €15.95
- TETENAL Magic-Box C-41: €12.95
Discover the Magic of developing your own film and colour papers with Tetenal Magic Box.
New Products for analog photography from Tetenal 1847.
In the meantime, the employee-based initiative to save Tetenal has developed to a more than 40 people strong and still growing StartUp, in order to continue Tetenal ?s pivotal role in the analog photography industry. Out of the old Tetenal, the new company, Tetenal 1847, has formed with the claim to develop innovative and new products for analog photography.
Vinyl records and instant photography have shown that a new demand for “nostalgic” products has formed with a target audience that did not grow up with these very technologies initially. This is the case with analog photography as well. Be it a camera found on the grandparent ?s attic, or bought directly from the used equipment dealership, cameras, film and the overall “style” of shooting connected with it are increasingly in demand again. “The fascination of analog photography does, however, not end with the exposure of the film”, says Carsten Gehring, who together with Stefania Grimme has taken over leadership of Tetenal 1864 GmbH. He points out that the team in Norderstedt have made it their expressed goal to proliferate the fascination about analog photography even to households not previously associated with developing film. This claim is clearly visible on the new products leaving the factory in Norderstedt as well: “Magic-Box – Discover the magic of film development.”
The Magic-Box C-41 and Magic-Box E6 contain pre scaled concentrates to develop exactly one colour negative or colour slide film in 135 or 120 formats conveniently at home. The product line is completed by the Magic-Box RA-4 for 23 8×10 sized colour enlargements on photographic paper.
For the time being, the products are being launched in the German speaking market but will successively be made available in other markets as well.
This, however, is not the end, but merely the beginning. Product developers in Norderstedt already are working on the next innovation – tabletized photochemistry. Already leaked here and there, and even part of Tetenal ?s rich history, these tablets will again simplify developing film substantially.
Something is developing in Norderstedt again. This time, literally.
Source: dpreview.com
