Ortho film...

[kthompson]

Jason, if they said it was meant for screenprinting, then it's probably just Kodalith. I've used quite a bit of that years ago when we made film positives & film negs in house (with a stat camera) for our silkscreening operation....everything's done by computer output now. I think some people can manage to get a continuous tone out of it, but for the most part this is just a litho film. Use it for shooting line art, or making halftones. Personally I don't care too much for the stuff, and was glad to be rid of it. The chemistry always bugged me & it had formaldehyde in parts of it. I still occasionally use it in copying old etchings, or similar line art. I'm sure you can get creative with it, but this is what it's designed for mainly.

[Jason_1622]

You're right. I went back to pick up some expired tri-x and some pmz1000 at a really good deal and checked the 4x5 boxes. It says kodalith, ortho type 3. I actually bought a little personal-size screen printing kit to toy with a while back from freestyle camera.com and haven't used it yet, so maybe this film would come in handy for that. I'll pick up a box next time I'm out. Anyone know what it develops in? What's its iso?

[kthompson]

If it's Kodalith Ortho Type 3, it's ISO speed depends on what application you're going to use it for, and what developer, and sort of light source you'll be using. In any even, it's really slow. With Kodalith chemistry, plan on starting at around ISO 8 for tungsten. We develop it in the old liquid Kodalith chem. (A+B), but only because we have a lifetime supply stockpiled...if you find the old stuff in a 2 part liquid, you mix both parts seperately (1:3) and then add them together prior to use. The developer oxidizes very fast, so you use it immediately. This stuff is pretty rough on your skin, so be careful when you use it, and it's just downright unpleasant to use in general. But you can use it under a red safelight. There's an old trick in developing this stuff by inspection. One side will hit it's d-max quicker than the other, keep flipping the film over and when both sides match (actually JUST before they match) in density, pull it out and stop/fix the film. The dev. time is critical to sharpness. But, we're talking about a 2-3 min. time here, with continuous agitation. Do it in a tray, and sort of randomly rock the tray around, it's easy to get agitation patterns on this film, so you can't treat it like paper. I think you can only get Kodalith RT in powder now, although some other manufacturers like Nacco, or Edwal also make liquid litho developers. You can also use Kodak D-11 developer, a high contrast dev., and if you use this aim for ISO 25 or so with tungsten. If you do find the old 2 pt. liquid Kodalith developer, be careful with it when you use it because it has formaldehyde in it, as well as some other things like methanol, and potassium hydroxide. You should be careful when you use it, wear gloves & protect your eyes....it can be nasty. Like I said, I avoid it if I can.

[kthompson]

Hey, I will tell you what I've used it for other than doing silkscreen film, or making copynegs. I've used it under the enlarger to make tone-line conversions and similar effects. I used to use Kodak SO-132 dupe film to make an enlarged neg. I could enlarge the hell out of a 35mm neg, and get a grainy image (almost like a mezzotint screen). Then I'd take the enlarged neg and contact it onto a sheet of Kodalith. I'd do this many, many times, until I had a bunch of film positives and film negs. I'd do them in different densitites as well, and then make sandwiched negs out of them, only just slightly knocking them out of register, so they'd almost cancel themselves out. You get this line around the image...it's technically called a tone line conversion, but mine probably weren't completely right. I used a glass carrier to hold them in the end, and would use rubylith (graphics) tape to hold them all together. You can do some wild things with Kodalith though....I did an album cover like this years ago (before photoshop). If you decide to use the film, get yourself a jar of opaque fluid, or an opaquing pen from a graphics supplier...it'll help you with the pinholes that will inevitably happen.

[jnanian]

i have used ortho film <asa 400 - 5x7"> to shoot portraits - studio setting - no filtration- processed in just like tri-x, and got really nice results. it gives a very 1940s look - lipstick appears black ... character lines become more pronounced .. i know eileen mcclure, portrait photographer in providence, ri used it quite regularly for formal portrait work, and if i am not mistaken, yousuf karsh also used it. - john