Anitec N2C graphic arts film?

graflexboy · Mar 16, 2015

Hi folks! I have come across some graphic arts film that's about 8 years old: Anitec News 2000 (N2C) film. My boss is letting me use a couple 17x24" sheets for testing.

I've cut some down to 4x5" pieces for testing in my Graflex, and intend to post the results here. Might take me a couple weeks or more--very busy!

Where I work, at a small town newspaper in Northwest North Carolina, we used this film up until about 8 years ago on the huge process camera for shooting pages for later burning press plates (positives). Now we have a Mako laser plate burner (CTP, or Computer To Plate technology) and no longer use film.

I wondered if anyone knows what ISO it might have? The film box gave little information. I am attaching a photo of the box here.

Any tips or information will be appreciated. I know this is very, very contrasty stuff, meant only to render black or white, no mid tones, so my expectations are low for pictorial use. I'm thinking diluted Dektol or maybe Diafine (not diluted) for developing.

Micah in NC

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Mick Fagan · Mar 17, 2015

In another life using process cameras, lith film seemed to have something around 3 ASA, if my memory serves me right.

Dont know about rapid access, but 25-35 years ago our lith film was developed in 45 seconds, fixed in 45 seconds dried in 90 seconds then thrown onto the light table to assess half tones for shadow and highlight dot size, plus line work reproduction.

How fast is rapid access processing?

Lemmee see, 8,000W of lamps B&W line art, f22 for 15-20 seconds, give or take on how the bath was going.

Sometimes we did fool around with a couple of monorail 10x8 cameras out the back laneway, using cut down lith film, 3 or 6 ASA really seems to ring a bell, but you are going to have to test it anyway.

I still have some lith film myself, only my stuff is tabloid size, not your near broadsheet size.

Mick.

graflexboy · Mar 17, 2015

APUGuser19 said:
If it's 8 years old, it's mostly rapid access film and not lith film, which means it is kinder for pressing into continuous tone use. In fact, it is a hard film to use for lith purposes, even though it is sold for that purpose. Typically in lith use, it was difficult to find that perfect sweet spot between pinholes that required extensive spotting, and high contrast without eating up fine print. Kind of halfway between continuous tone and lith. I hated rapid access. But in your photography camera, it might act well. I would use pyro, Buetler's, or Acu-1. You might try high dilution Rodinal, except that would be very slow development. Try Buetlers at double dilution, or pyro. A good ballpark to start finding film speed would be ASA 40. Although film speed could be all over the place before you found your 10 needed zones. BTW, for continuous tone, don't use 1A sfelight. You'll need something darker and deeper. It was originally mean for printshop darkrooms equipped with NuArc safelights, typically. It's probably not a whole lot different for this purpose than X-Ray film.
As an aside, Anitec was originally Ansco, if you follow the corporate acquisitions.
Please report back with some results.

APUGuser19,

Thanks for the info! Out of all those developers, the only one I have is Rodinal.

I will report back, might just take several days.

Micah in NC

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graflexboy · Mar 17, 2015

Mick Fagan said:
In another life using process cameras, lith film seemed to have something around 3 ASA, if my memory serves me right.

Dont know about rapid access, but 25-35 years ago our lith film was developed in 45 seconds, fixed in 45 seconds dried in 90 seconds then thrown onto the light table to assess half tones for shadow and highlight dot size, plus line work reproduction.

How fast is rapid access processing?

Lemmee see, 8,000W of lamps B&W line art, f22 for 15-20 seconds, give or take on how the bath was going.

Sometimes we did fool around with a couple of monorail 10x8 cameras out the back laneway, using cut down lith film, 3 or 6 ASA really seems to ring a bell, but you are going to have to test it anyway.

I still have some lith film myself, only my stuff is tabloid size, not your near broadsheet size.

Mick.

Mick,

I was going to say ASA 3 or so, but that is, of course, just a guess.

I might try one piece at ASA 40 and one at 3 for starters.

We used four 1,000 watt lamps, I think. Probably around similar times. We had a Glunz & Jensen film processor for developing this stuff. I remember our problems with some pinholes also.

And, yes, our general use of this film was for broadsheet sizes. When I started in 2001 at the paper, we used a 27.5" web, I think, (13 .75" width on single page). Then we dropped down to 25" web (12.5" width single), now we're at 22" web (11" width) and only using 10" W by 21.5" H for image area. So small nowadays!

Thanks for letting me ramble!

Micah in NC

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Mick Fagan · Mar 18, 2015

Yep, broadsheet and tabloid. But that really was another life in another century for myself.

Our sizes in Australia are/were interesting, although things have changed as places have gone electronic, and, as like you, computer to burning the plates whilst on the press, great for colour seps.

Our normal tabloid size was 38cm deep by 64 ems wide, with our broadsheets being 56cm deep by about 90 ems wide, although the memory is starting to go a bit dodgy on actual sizes. We had one camera that could do a broadsheet double page spread with a full gutter bleed, I think the film was 1 metre wide, not sure.

We usually used Dupont processors, they were the ducks guts. Ran all day and night, year in year out. The racks ran pretty good for a year and a bit before they needed a service, unless of course an apprentice caused a monumental jam and bent something.

I would think it will be closer to 3 or 6 ASA than 40, I really would be interested in what speed you find your film to be.

Mick.

graflexboy · Apr 25, 2015

This is a quick and dirty scan on an Epson V700 I borrowed of the Anitec N2C / News 2000 film speed attempt at ASA3--seems MUCH better than my other guess of ASA 50. I'm guessing 6 is about right.

I developed in old Dektol 1:9 (mixed nearly 6 years ago!!!!!), so my test is very unscientific. I developed by inspection under a red safelight, but pulled it out after 1 minute 10 seconds. It was my first time ever developing any film by inspection.

I didn't bother to scan the ASA50 sheet. Even after 4:30 in the Dektol, there was barely any image.

EDIT: the photo was taken at Rocky Face Mountain Recreational Area, Alexander County, North Carolina, USA. Pre-Anniversary Graflex Speed Graphic, Ektar 127mm.

Micah in NC

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graflexboy · Apr 25, 2015

Nope, no filter used. There is enough of a pictorial contrast that I would take a chance using some more of this film.

Also, there is some mottling in the upper right corner, which I attribute to my poor handling.

Micah in NC

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Anitec N2C graphic arts film?

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