Originally Posted by
Drew Wiley
I don't think he'd be the one. He's getting old, no doubt is having difficulty with bigger cameras like 8x10, and either unable or unwilling to transfer from Ciba once his remaining inventories of that inevitably either soon run out or are outright outdated in terms of reliability. And Velvia is NOT a very friendly film for Ciba at all, due to its already excessively high contrast, though I have certainly printed my own share of Velvia onto Ciba - sometimes requiring a whopping .90 max density contrast mask! Velvia really had to be beaten into submission, and that required an especially powerful colorhead too. I suspect CB learned way back that other chrome films are a lot more cooperative, though I never personally met him. His specific set of masking protocols is quite a bit different than mine anyway, and now Ciba is a moot point anyway; it's almost totally extinct.
The biggest problem with any kind of color sheet film when masks are involved is keeping them in register, which ideally needs a polyester-based film and not triacetate, which is miserable in that respect, being dimensionally unstable. Fortunately for me, Kodak's color sheet films are now finally on superior Estar base, including Ektar, which along with Fujiflex Supergloss, is the "new Ciba" for me, and even distinctly easier to print.
But I wonder if that stash of film is all actually for personal use. Seems doubtful. There are way more sheets in that pile than I've ever shot in my entire life. 8x10 cameras don't come with illegal long clips and bump-stocks, ala Al Capone Tommy gun shooting style.
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