High Contrast Film

[P. Victor]

Greeting, forists. I´m new in this discussion forum and here´s the question: Is Kodalith (ISO 5) still manufactered? I´ve been looking for it and i can´t find it!

Thanks

[Roger Scott]

Hi,

Recently I was looking for the same film but was unable to find it (at least in Australia) so it wouldn't surprise me if Kodak no longer make it. I ended up purchasing some Maco genius Lith film (claimed ISO 25) but haven't yet had a chance to try it. It's not very expensive and may be worth a test to see if it'll do what you want. It's available in 4x5 and 8x10.

Regards, Roger.

[John Cook]

It is still listed on B&H's website:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=By0239QJXd!381143522?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=Kodalith

[Bob._3483]

From the Siverprint.co.uk web site:

"MACO GENIUS FILM If you're going to give a film a name, go for the top. What the name does not disclose though, is that this is a lith type sheet film, and a good replacement for Kodalith Ortho, which is now discontinued."

Silverprint have it listed in sizes up to 16x20 inches. Looks like Roger's suggestion is the way to go these days...

Alternately, if it is slow speed Ortho that you are interested in rather than Lith, there are a couple of ortho films from Ilford & Bergger.

Cheers,

[P. Victor]

Thanks, folks. As a matter fact, Bob, the low speed is what I am interested at. I´ll take a look at Ilford´s Catalog.

See ya.

[Jim Galli]

I use Freestyle's (http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=&pid=1214) APHS Ortho Litho for this. ASA 3.

[Roger Scott]

Hi again,

One quick note about the Ilford Ortho Plus is that its claimed ISO rating is 80 in daylight (40 for tungsten). I've used it for unsharp masking (pictorial contrast) with excellent results. With these films the difference between pictorial and high contrast is mostly due to the developer. One way to slow down things down is by using coloured filters between the film and the light source. The Arista APHS mentioned above sounds like it's worth a test.

Regards,

[P. Victor]

Thanks you all for the replies. I think I´ll try Arista, Jim, because at B&H they only sell the 100 sheet box. It is too expensive. I´m only 19 and my father is a photographer. He owns a tradicional laboratory, where I can make experiments about developing and ampliation. I´ll post, then, another 3 questions: What is the best way to increase contrast onto slow films during its developing? Is it possible to apply the Kodalith Developer to a fast film (like TRI-X 400) or to the Arista ISO 3?

Regards,

[Roger Scott]

Just realised I made a grammatical typo with my reply - whoops. Anyway without knowing exactly what process you're using or what result you're trying to achieve perhaps the following will help. You can increase contrast by leaving the film in the developer for longer with the downside being an increase in base fog and grain. Lith type developers give the highest contrast followed by print developers followed by film developers (see the Ilford Ortho Plus datasheet for example graphs of characteristic curves using these three types of developers). You can process any film with any developer but you'll need to experiment with both exposure and developing times and results vary. Conventional Panchromatic films tend not to work as well as the Lith or copy type films as the former are optimised to compress the tonal range of bright sunlight and dark shadows onto a negative (ie they're designed to reduce contrast). Orthochromatic films offer the advantage of being able to work under a dark red safelight so you can see what's happening. Having said all that if you already have some Tri-X and Kodalith developer give it a shot - from a knowledge perspective it can only be a success.

Regards,