Kodalith film alternatives

[DPelekos]

I really want to give high contrast printing and line drawing a shot. Unfortunatelly, kodak kodalith film is not with us anymore. What are some films I can find fresh in sheet film size (probably 4X5 will suffice) that have similar properties? I want just pure black and white with no middle gray.

I have been thinking about ordering Svema FN-32 directly from Astrum as in the (rather limited) datasheet it mentions having extremely high contrast (attached bellow). For development I'm thinking of mixing my own litho film developer along with a reducer and an intensifier.

Have any of you had experience with these techniques with recent materials? Any advice is appreciated.
(I am in Greece btw so most North American products may not be available here)

 

[Don_ih]

Arista Ortho Litho (seen here) is possibly what you want. Fuji made sheets of similar stuff. Not sure if they still do or where you could buy it.

 

[koraks]

Weclome aboard @DPelekos!

I think you should reach out to @MCB18 - he offers e.g. this: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/hi-con-ir-film.219426 I think it might be suitable for your purpose. Since you're in Greece, shipping costs may/will be an issue, but imagesetter film can also be purchased in mainland Europe. Until recently, Agfa made it, but they divested that business to a Chinese party. Some online searching should yield results and you should be able to find a distribution channel that way.

 

[DPelekos]

Arista Ortho Litho (seen here) is possibly what you want. Fuji made sheets of similar stuff. Not sure if they still do or where you could buy it.

Thanks a lot! Will definitely have that in mind although I don't know how easy it is to find in Europe.

 

[DPelekos]

Weclome aboard @DPelekos!

I think you should reach out to @MCB18 - he offers e.g. this: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/hi-con-ir-film.219426 I think it might be suitable for your purpose. Since you're in Greece, shipping costs may/will be an issue, but imagesetter film can also be purchased in mainland Europe. Until recently, Agfa made it, but they divested that business to a Chinese party. Some online searching should yield results and you should be able to find a distribution channel that way.

Greatly appreciated! PCB lityhography may be my best bet since it still has a big market that will probably warrant lower prices

 

[koraks]

Yes, there's certainly a potential there, although I can imagine that industry has also been moving in the direction of direct laser exposure. Still, there are bound to be materials still in the market for this. Btw, when I make PCB's at home, I inkjet print the designs onto generic transparency sheets. Works OK, but probably not really relevant to you.

 

[MCB18]

I really want to give high contrast printing and line drawing a shot. Unfortunatelly, kodak kodalith film is not with us anymore. What are some films I can find fresh in sheet film size (probably 4X5 will suffice) that have similar properties? I want just pure black and white with no middle gray.

I have been thinking about ordering Svema FN-32 directly from Astrum as in the (rather limited) datasheet it mentions having extremely high contrast (attached bellow). For development I'm thinking of mixing my own litho film developer along with a reducer and an intensifier.

Have any of you had experience with these techniques with recent materials? Any advice is appreciated.
(I am in Greece btw so most North American products may not be available here)

Oh hey, I’ve actually used that film before! I believe that it is ORWO TF 12d, which I also believe is what Washi S was. It can be a very nice film if you meter it carefully, and yes, it is very contrasty. It works great as a normal photo film in H&W control at EI 80!

As far as other films that might interest you, someone already mentioned freestyles ortho/litho, he might also want to take a look at ultrafine online offerings of film, that is where I am getting the IR imagesetting film, although they have multiple options not just IR.

 

[DPelekos]

Oh hey, I’ve actually used that film before! I believe that it is ORWO TF 12d, which I also believe is what Washi S was. It can be a very nice film if you meter it carefully, and yes, it is very contrasty. It works great as a normal photo film in H&W control at EI 80!

As far as other films that might interest you, someone already mentioned freestyles ortho/litho, he might also want to take a look at ultrafine online offerings of film, that is where I am getting the IR imagesetting film, although they have multiple options not just IR.

Do you think that it is contrasty enough to be able to produce just black and white in lith developer? I can probably try pushing it as well to boost contrast. I unfortunatelly, don't have a 4x5 camera so ordering a bunch of sheets that I won't be able to use will be pretty disapointing.

I would also love to try all of the recomendations you gave me but shipping costs from the US will probably be equal to the price of the Svema film

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've got boxes of this stuff, mainly in 4x5 and some in 8x10, that I rescued when school went from analogue to digital yearbook production, years ago. Pretty fogged but a bit of benzo helps.

 

[Augustus Caesar]

Ilford and DuPont made litho films too.