The Years of Expansion

1920: The conversion to a new name: 'Gevaert Photo Producten N.V.'

The success of Gevaert could not be stopped. In 1920, the group was renamed 'Gevaert Photo Producten N.V.'. While the starting capital in the early years of Gevaert was still moderate, it had now grown to 15 million Belgian francs (375,000 Euro).

1936: Color photography is ready for the mass market

In 1916 Agfa began developing materials for color photography. One of the pioneers was Dr. Rudolf Fischer from Berlin. Agfa was the only company that continued to improve color photography throughout the 1920's until, in the 1930's, their efforts finally paid off. In 1936 Agfa introduced 'Agfacolor-Neu', a real sensation throughout the whole photographic world. For the first time a single film, single exposure and single developing process sufficed for general color photography. The film had no less than 278 patents! Two years later, Agfa would bring its color paper and a 16mm color-amateur cine film to the market. Agfa was way ahead of most of the competition.

1947: X-rays after World War II

Being also a manufacturer of various types of X-ray films, Gevaert launched a new assortment on the market. These products had higher sensitivity, better contrast, brightness, and wider exposure margins. Once again the medical world enthused over the Gevaert X-ray products.

1952: Films for scientific and technical purposes

Gevaert always put a lot of energy into research, resulting in new technologies and new products. In 1952 it came on the market with a number of innovative, highly successful products. One of them was SCIENTIA, a range of plates and films for scientists, researchers, technicians, etc. This range was used in astronomy, nuclear physics, infrared photography, micrography, etc.

1959: The first fully automatic 35mm camera

Modern amateur photography also means simple, user-friendly handling. Agfa continued to improve its cameras, and focused on very easy to operate equipment. Functionality was another important factor when Agfa came on the market with the first fully automatic 35mm camera. It was an instant success and during the next three years, Agfa sold a million of these Agfa Optima cameras.