Ortho-Lith film for Continous Tone

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Can anyone recommend a high contrast ortho-lith film for use with continuous tone? I see
Arista APHS, as well as Ultratone or High Contrast from Photowarehouse. I was thinking about using Soemarko LC-1 developer or possibly dilute dektol...

[mehmet kismet]

Jason,

I believe that the film from BERGGER, the BPFB-18 will do the job perfectly.

I use it either for unsharp masking, or enlarged negatives for Pt/Pd printing.
The film is blue sensitive and thick, very resistant to physical abuse, and according to the developer, has a great contrast range.

The sizes go up to 20"x24" as I know. You could find more informations on their web site.

Best

[Joe Smigiel]

Jason,

I've used the Arista with relatively good results for making enlarged contone negatives to be used in the gum bichromate process. I've used diluted Dektol (1+15 to 1+20 plus I throw in some potassium bromide) as well as a direct reversal process many years ago. Dave Soemarko's original formula was published in the same issue of Post-Factory Photography as that reversal process (by Liam Lawless I think). You may get better results with pyro than Dektol (check the Bostick and Sullivan website for information).

The litho film will work but I prefer using Ilford Ortho Plus for making interpositives and enlarged negatives for other processes like cyanotype. It is more expensive but not prone to pinholes and other defects that the litho films exhibit in certain developers. AFAIK it is only available up to 8x10.