Current Lith Paper Availability

[faberryman]

I am out of my supply of Fomatone paper for lith printing. I consulted Tim Rudman's blog (last updated 2013) which said emulsions on lots of papers had changed and no longer lith well.

What currently available papers lith well? I am not interested in purchasing out of date paper on eBay. I'd like to find a currently available paper that liths well, and lay in a stock for the future.

[agregov]

Some of the Foma papers lith well. I've successfully used Foma 132 and Foma 532 warmtone matt. Though, according to Tim, the 132/532 are more like semi-lith papers. That said, they both lith well and in a reasonable amount of time (2-4 min). Personally I prefer the 132 to the 532 (offers more contrast and a bit more semi-gloss look). They are both available at Freestyle and have 25 paper packs, good for testing.

[ajsikel]

Im using foma papers since the heck of the time.
Their Fomabrom 123 was lovely in lith, but was discontinued last year, some stock is available in EU.
The Fomatone 133 warmtone semi matt is just great, gives a range of oranges, pinks and browns,
The 542/532 are quite similar, palette of pinks, oranges , salmons that tone great in gold.
The RC versions of Fomatone also lith great.
Fomaspeed 310/312 also is quite lithable and gives a palette of greys with pinkish shallow lights up to browns , depending on technique.
Before emulsion changes, 112 Fomabrom was great, now it is infested often with so called snowball effect.
Their New paper, Fomabrom N 113 semi matt, substitute for Fomabrom 123 so far hasnt yielded any effect, no image at all.
I am still trying to trigger some action using different dillutions, will see.
The NEW Fomabrom 115 , so called raster finish also was quite poor in lith. Yet, another approach might be necessary to break this paper down and spur some action.
time will reveal.

[bob carnie]

Has any one tried the Bergger Papers for Lith.?

[Greg]

Started Lith printing under Owen Butler (RIT) way back around 1970 using single weight Kodak Kodalith paper. When Kodak discontinued making Kodalith paper switched to MPP matte Projection paper. Then the paper's formula was changed (I think they omitted Cadmium) in the 1980s which made it unusable for Lith use. Stopped printing Lith then. A few years ago got some paper and chemistry from Freestyle Photo and attempted to Lith print once again... just not the same. Current Lith prints when viewed side by side with my original Kodalith prints... no match so have sadly and reluctantly been printing "Lith prints" via Photoshop and an Epson 4900 printer. Good place to start at:
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/l...ital-way-13331
After every now and then go back and keep fine tuning my procedure and results slowly approaching my original Kodalith prints but not there yet. If I could used a paper approaching my Lith prints back in the 1970s, would without hesitation get back into my darkroom.

[ajsikel]

Has any one tried the Bergger Papers for Lith.?

yes, I have.

Bergger Portrait matt 300g liths beautifully and very fast.
the supermatt heavy texture is wonderfull. In Moresch EasyLith it gives a range of browns.

Bergger NB Art is quite grainy, takes quite a time to lith but works as well.
Bergger Portrait Matt
Bergger portrait Matt

[Greg]

yes, I have.

Bergger Portrait matt 300g liths beautifully and very fast.
the supermatt heavy texture is wonderfull. In Moresch EasyLith it gives a range of browns.

Bergger NB Art is quite grainy, takes quite a time to lith but works as well.
Bergger Portrait Matt
Bergger portrait Matt

At $80.00 for 25 sheets of 11x14 not exactly cheap. I remember with the original Kodak Kodalith paper, nothing would happen for a minute or two but then the image would appear within seconds. You had to get the paper out of the developer in a second (actually seemed like more of a fraction of a second) before it developed to much... paper waste was on the highish side because of this. When processing for Lith prints, does Bergger also do this?

I still have cubes of Kodak's Kodalith A & B liquid developer after all these years that still work! Possibly Moresch EasyLith developer is more controllable. Back in the 70s and 80s, Kodak wouldn't even sanction using their materials for Lith printing!!! According to them, photographers using their materials for Lith printing were misusing their materials... of course look at where Kodak is now compared to back then.

[ajsikel]

EasyLith is convenient and well designed developer specifically for lith printing, it comes with clear instructions but surely, with time, you modified it yourself.
With Bergger, the image appears with accordance to the dilutions of the dev and amount of light exposure, so all depends on the procedure you undertake.
But you know that for sure.

[ajsikel]

I am out of my supply of Fomatone paper for lith printing. I consulted Tim Rudman's blog (last updated 2013) which said emulsions on lots of papers had changed and no longer lith well.

What currently available papers lith well? I am not interested in purchasing out of date paper on eBay. I'd like to find a currently available paper that liths well, and lay in a stock for the future.

with the reference to your concerns about emulsion changes:
a note from Foma:

``The reason of our changed quality was in 2010 year when we were forced to change gelatine formula due to change of raw material. Therefore the conditions for usage our Fomatone papers on baryta base for lith print were changed. We have informed our distributors about the same.
During the last year we have returned back to the original formula to satisfy our customer demands for this special kind of paper processing.
We declared these news on Photokina exhibition in September 2014 in Cologne and started to offer the material again.

It means we have started this ´old´ production of Fomatone MG Classic 131, 132 and 532 II papers from batch number 0680 during the second half of the last year.

At the beginning we had to solve some problems and differences against the standard old quality, but now we can sa we have again the good paper recommended for lith print.

I am very sorry for all inconveniences and problems you have with our papers.

I hope we can offer you now the better material through our distributors in Europe. So the important identification is the number of the batch 0680 and more. From that time we already produced also further batches No. 0685 and 0690.``

regards

[faberryman]

Wow. 100 sheets 8x10 of 131 is $170 at Freestyle and BH.