Ilfochrome discontinued?

[Roger Cole]

I saw these links on APUG. They certainly look like the half expected bad news. Can anyone confirm them?

I was thinking about getting back into Ilfochrome but even at today's prices much less with a 30% increase I can't stockpile any meaningful amount, and I'm not about to jump back into a process that will be gone by the time I practice with it a bit.



If this is confirmed, there is now essentially no good, totally analog/optical way of printing from a positive color original.* You can scan and output with inkjet, which can look pretty good but not like Ilfochrome, or I suppose the scan can be reversed by software and output on something like a Lambda but conventional reversal printing is dead. You can reportedly also reversal process RA4 but again, not with the best of results.

http://noringcircus.blogspot.com/201...otography.html

I don't read German but I'm sure someone here does:

http://www.aphog.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19218

Someone in Switzerland and thus probably closer to the source:

http://kodachromeproject.com/forum/s...0&postcount=44

From the first link above

=======================

Dear Customer,
ILFOCHROME Classic has been a flagship brand within the ILFORD range of products for well over forty years. The importance of this range is underlined by the fact that ILFORD has continued to manufacture this product even though overall demand has decreased significantly over the last few years. The reduction in volume has led to higher production costs that have been further exacerbated by the dramatic increase in the cost of silver.
Unfortunately, the combination of low demand and higher raw material and production costs has left us no alternative but to discontinue the ILFOCHROME CLASSIC materials and related P3/P3X chemistry.
The affected products are:
ILFOCHROME CLASSIC
CLEAR DISPLAY FILM – CC.F7
TRANSLUCENT DISPLAY FILM – CT.F7
DELUXE GLOSSY MEDIUM CONTRAST – CLM.1K DELUXE GLOSSY NORMAL CONTRAST – CPS.1K
We understand the importance of these products to you and your business, and therefore, if there is sufficient demand, we are proposing a final production. We would like to offer you the opportunity to make a final purchase with the following conditions:
• An official purchase order will need to be placed by 30thNovember 2011.
• Will hold the pre-ordered rolls in storage until June 2013.
• ILFORD Payments for the order can be made in monthly installments.
As indicated, ILFORD has fully absorbed the high raw material and production and unfortunately we are unable to do this for the final production. Therefore, we will need to increase our supply price to you by 30% However, this price will be held
between now and June 2013 and covers all storage and inventory costs.
We would like to thank you for your understanding with this situation and if you have any questions or need any further information, please contact
Mr. Christian Neumann (Tel: +41 26 435 7504)
We look forward to continue serving you in the future Yours sincerely
Paul Willems CEO


=======================

*EDIT: Internegatives. Why didn't I remember internegatives? Some folks have mentioned making pretty good ones on Portra 160. Given the price of Ilfochrome that may prove to be cheaper if not as easy and still give pretty good results.

[John Henry]

Well, it's sad, but Ilfochrome/Cibachrome was a specialty type process from the beginning and so it was bound to suffer when it's user base evaporated. I have a bunch of paper, but no chemicals. I wish I could mix my chemicals from scratch just to use my old paper up or at least to see if it's any good at least. I should have used it all up in the first place, but other priorities came up and I didn't use my darkroom for anything except B&W for years. When I did do Cibachrome printing I found it much easier then what some people say and the results had a depth of color that just jumped off the paper. Ah, the good old days! JohnW

[Roger Cole]

Well, it's sad, but Ilfochrome/Cibachrome was a specialty type process from the beginning and so it was bound to suffer when it's user base evaporated. I have a bunch of paper, but no chemicals. I wish I could mix my chemicals from scratch just to use my old paper up or at least to see if it's any good at least. I should have used it all up in the first place, but other priorities came up and I didn't use my darkroom for anything except B&W for years. When I did do Cibachrome printing I found it much easier then what some people say and the results had a depth of color that just jumped off the paper. Ah, the good old days! JohnW

My experience too - very easy as long as the original was fairly flat and could be printed without masking.

A former Kodak chemical engineer has posted a proposed bleach formula over on APUG and said he could probably come up with a better one. The developer and fixer are regular black and white stuff, I believe. At least we used to buy just the bleach and use Dektol and rapid fix. Ilford changed the developer, supposedly with an ingredient that improved it, but possibly just so you couldn't duplicate it any more. I think black and white print developer will still work. It essentially IS a black and white material in a way.

[John Henry]

My experience too - very easy as long as the original was fairly flat and could be printed without masking.

A former Kodak chemical engineer has posted a proposed bleach formula over on APUG and said he could probably come up with a better one. The developer and fixer are regular black and white stuff, I believe. At least we used to buy just the bleach and use Dektol and rapid fix. Ilford changed the developer, supposedly with an ingredient that improved it, but possibly just so you couldn't duplicate it any more. I think black and white print developer will still work. It essentially IS a black and white material in a way.

Yes, the bleach is the bitch! Solve that problem and the rest should be easy. All I know is that buying the chemicals for the amount of printing that I do at one time is a "no go". I agree that the scene has to be fairly flat or things will get tricky with Ilfochome, but when you hit it right it is impressive.
Are you talking about PE (Photo Engineer) on the apug forms coming up with a bleach formula? I must have somehow missed it or forgot about it. I'll have to try and search it out again. John

[Roger Cole]

Yes, the bleach is the bitch! Solve that problem and the rest should be easy. All I know is that buying the chemicals for the amount of printing that I do at one time is a "no go". I agree that the scene has to be fairly flat or things will get tricky with Ilfochome, but when you hit it right it is impressive.
Are you talking about PE (Photo Engineer) on the apug forms coming up with a bleach formula? I must have somehow missed it or forgot about it. I'll have to try and search it out again. John

Yep. Here's Ron's post about it where he also says he'll look for info on a better, safer and more readily available, catalyst:

http://www.apug.org/forums/viewpost.php?p=866254

[Drew Wiley]

I'd just buy a complete starter set of P3 chem and mix per session. It keeps well. I'm
down to one batch of paper and chem. In the meantime I've be debugging Crystal
Archive supergloss as an alternative. Quite a bit easier and cheaper than Ciba, but
annoyingly, seems to be available only in 32 inch wide rolls. But even this kind of
project is dependent upon the suvival of 8x10 Kodak neg film. My main problem is just
time. I have a whole freezer of dye transfer printing film and can't do much with it yet.
It will indeed be a sad day if only blaaaah inkjet becomes the practical home option.
Crystal Archive itself has better display fading characteristics than Ciba but inferior
dark storage potential. But you can use all the same drums etc for RA4 as for P3.

[Roger Cole]

But you're talking printing neg film direct to RA4, correct?

Anyone have any experience getting good results from positive originals using internegs?

I just bought a bunch (thankfully, supposedly frozen, outdated, didn't pay much) of 120 Astia primarily with Ilfochrome printing in mind, plus that unopened box of 4x5 E100SW in the freezer. Oh well, it can still be scanned.

[Mark Sampson]

Kodak's internegative film 4325 has been discontinued for five years or so... killed by the film scanner and digital printing. Few mourned its loss.

[dsphotog]

I wonder how Christopher Burkett will print without Ilfochrome?

[Roger Cole]

Kodak's internegative film 4325 has been discontinued for five years or so... killed by the film scanner and digital printing. Few mourned its loss.

I know that. But Kodak recommends instead using Portra 160 and I've read reports of people doing so with good results, just not the details. I've never made an interneg. A paper easel backed with black paper maybe to prevent reflection back up through the film? Any tips on filtration and exposure etc?