The Agfa Dia Direct is a black and white film. It was produced by Agfa in Leverkusen, Germany. It is a black and white film for the direct creation of positives. This means that the images can be projected directly onto the wall by a slide projector without any intermediate step.
At the time, B&W film was advertised as having a very wide exposure latitude and a fine-grained emulsion. To that end, it was guaranteed brilliant gradation, clear highlights, graduated midtones and rich blacks. The film had an anti-halation layer that was also supposed to provide good sharpness.
Agfa advised a setting of ISO 32 (ASA 32) when exposing the Dia Direct. If you can still find a roll of the film today, you should probably expose it a bit stronger. Whereas a low-sensitivity black-and-white film will not lose that much sensitivity over the years.
The purchase of Agfa Dia Direct at that time included the cost of developing (without framing). For this, the film had to be sent to Agfa.
Technical datasheet
| Attribute | Specification |
|---|---|
| 35mm Format | Yes |
I’m writing teaching material to teach photography and I want to talk more about Agfa Dia-Direct. Having been a strong user of this film during my days, I feel that Dia-Direct was one of the most underrated films I have ever used. I would like information please:
1. In what year was Dia-Direct first made commercially available?
2. Was it called Dia-Direct originally?
3. What is the meaning of ‘Dia-Direct’ in English?
Thank you.