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Thread: Arista Ortho Litho Help

  1. #11

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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    to add to what Drew said, paper developers, of which Dektol is one, are inherently more active than film developers. I agree with Drew that you should switch to a film developer for your tests if you want nice printable negatives.

  2. #12

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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    I would love to use this but not available in the UK. Did note a while ago work done by Jordan Earls who posts on Photrio. You may interested in this from his Blog site.
    https://grainy.vision/blog/ortho-litho-reference

  3. #13

    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    I haven't tried the very latest version of Arista Otho Litho, but the immediately previous style was around ASA 6 to 12 for me. Frankly, I don't even use it in camera, but for lab purposes, where I do in fact have light sources capable of blue-green output. This film seems about 3 times as sensitive to blue as to green, and by design, not to red at all. But just keep inching your way upwards in terms of increasing exposure and development. It all depends on what you are after. Many of the practitioners of combined Ortho Litho and Dektol seem to be after a deliberately unpredictable funky look, and that is what they get, at least after a lot of effort. But if you want something predictable and cleaner, I would really consider an actual film developer option instead. I mentioned HC-110, and someone else mentioned Rodinal, but there are no doubt others potential developers too. It was really developed for high-strength, very high contrast A&B lith developers, and anything other than that, in a normal contrast category, is basically bending the rules, with varying levels of success. Dektol not only inherently stains this film, but tends to be quite uneven.
    Alright, and from what I had read the Dektol was somewhat unpredictable. I went with that primarily because it was the one I could find the most info on. I am not really after the whacky results, I just am very short on cash, yet want to shoot my truly immense SLR. The ISO doesnt really bug me too much so long as I can shoot this camera on my budget. With HC-110, what was your process? You mentioned it being used in a lab setting as opposed to normal photography, but I figure it wouldn't make much a difference when it comes to processing it. I also fabricated temporary part for the tensioner mechanism of my camera, so I should be able to shoot some regular pictures this afternoon. I will post those when I get them developed.

  4. #14

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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    Quote Originally Posted by Pritcher View Post
    I just am very short on cash, yet want to shoot my truly immense SLR. The ISO doesnt really bug me too much so long as I can shoot this camera on my budget.
    Then I would suggest green sensitive x-ray film as a better choice than the ortho litho film. Better choice still would be a box Arista EDU Ultra, 25 sheets for $32 from Freestyle. It's rebranded Foma film and good quality for the price. I've shot many sheets of Foma 100 and it's solid.

  5. #15

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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    I have a box of Ortho Litho as well, and I did a bunch of tests, and never got any kind of consistency or reliability of outcomes. I know 25 cents a sheet sounds great, but you're trying to make a film not designed for pictorial images, take pictorial images. That why there are no standardized dev formulas and lots of vague, "i did this and it worked" kind of info out there. At a dollar a sheet Arista or Foma 100 looks more expensive, but you can get great output on your first sheet by just shooting at 100 and developing according to the data sheet. Nothing wrong with experimenting, and if thats your thing, go for it, but if you want to get a quicker path to usable images, Foma, Arista, Catlabs all have normal pictorial films that are easy to use.

  6. #16
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    I found everything Foma itself not exactly a bargain because I can't count on either the quality control or versatility I routinely get with seemingly more expensive Kodak and Ilford sheet films. If I have the insure a shot by doubling it, then I'm right back up to the same price in any practical sense, and might not have bagged it at all, at least in a fashion up to my expectations. Wasting film with excess shooting is never a good idea, whether there is a mandatory or an optional reason for that habit. It might in fact habit for sake of keeping up the incentive of manufacturers to produce it; but in terms of increasing pack weight with multiple holders in inverse proportion to diminishing wallet weight, I can't personally justify being a machine-gunner with sheet film.

  7. #17

    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    I did not get out to shoot today, rains came in unfortunately, but hey, maybe tomorrow. As for the other films, might anyone have a link to where they can be purchased? I didn't realize there were even 5x7 pictorial film that wasn't 80$+ for 25 sheets. Even if I can get the Ortho Litho working, it might be nice to have some iso 100 film lying around for the less than optimal light conditions.

  8. #18

    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    Are you after normal pictorial contrast?
    If yes then maybe you should try 3 ASA, yes that low and develope for 3 minutes.
    How much of that Dektol do you have? As our friends have said it is not ideal.

    The nearest stuff I used to that Arista film is some stuff re-sold by Hans Mahn of Germany (Maco).
    Rodinal 1:50 5 min at 20 C with agitation for 30 seconds of every minute, 1st minute being continuous agitation. Stronger agitation is to reduce incidence of bubble holes (with 'Yankee' type tank). Meter reading 3ASA.
    The attachment is what you are aiming for with this film.This is the colour sensitivity you will have. The building in the left foreground has orange roof tiles, but the chimney stack is red brick.
    At least Rodinal is a very economical developer for your experiments.

    BTW: How much of the Arista film do you have?
    At least try a more conventional developer like Rodinal before you buy a more conventional film.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 19 04 07 Houses in Robin Hoods Bay town.jpg  

  9. #19

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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    Pre-exposing this Ortho Lith film with white light helps a lot in crafting manageable "pictorial" negatives.
    I made the following image on Arista Ortho Lith by pre-exposing the film to white light (using my enlarger, estimating the duration of exposure by test strip) and developing it for 4 minutes in D-23 diluted 1:2 I chose D-23 for its ability to produce fairly low contrast, soft-toned negatives. Film rated at 3ASA, using a Voigtlander Petzval lens, wide open.


  10. #20
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Arista Ortho Litho Help

    This film, just like earlier ortho-litho films, was produced with all-or-none extreme contrast development in mind. Everyone understands that, and likewise recognizes how attempting to tame it for sake of general photography applications imposes certain issues. But one of those issues, not generally recognized, is that outcomes are nowhere near as predictable as with films having normal contrast in mind to begin with. I've run very well monitored tests on Arista Otho Litho which involved both precise lab step tablet exposures and very precise development afterwards, using actual film developers, and found out that getting analytically predictable density results sheet to sheet, even with the same batch, was a bit of a crap shoot. Some people might classify that unpredictability as part of this film's fun factor; but the same propensity might constitute another person's frustration factor.

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