Agfachrome CU 410

“Between 1970 and 1976, Agfa-Gevaert produced its own silver dye-bleach printing material on a white-pigmented acetate base called Agfachrome CU 410. Only available to a few photofinishers in Germany, it was used to print amateurs’ transparencies (Fig. 6.10). Agfachrome CU 410 was introduced at the 1970 Photokina. The exhibit included a display of 8 x 10 in. enlargements, along with an announcement of its availability for machine processing (Lipton 2001). The processing sequence included a developer, a stop bath, a wash hardener, wash, dye-bleach, wash, bleach-fix, wash, and stabilizer, with a total processing time of fifty minutes (Coote 1972:232). Agfa never advertised or marketed the product, and customers probably never suspected they were receiving silver dye-bleach prints. Because they were more costly to manufacture and process, silver dye-bleach printing materials and chemistry were eventually abandoned by Agfa in favor of dye coupling ones.”

(Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, on p. 219.)