Arista II Ortho-Litho

I have been playing with this as a pictorial film using Jim Galli's developer recipe. It is very thin and is not notched. Be prepared to sacrifice a sheet to determine which side is the emulsion. Going by feel doesn't work;-) By the way, if you want to expose it through the anti-halation layer you'll need to add about 4 stops of exposure! My 5x7 packet had the emulsion facing up (away from the label) and the 8x10 packet had it facing down (towards the label). It's very cheap - check it first. Exposing it at a speed of 3 seems to be about right. It might be just the film for those old Petzvals if you want to shoot wide open in bright light.

The emulsion side is a lighter color. After processing it can be hard to tell, so I some times use a paper punch to notch the upper right corner before exposure.

Yes, it is easy to tell in the light. The emulsion is gray and the anti-halation side is brown. And, it is hard to tell which side is which after processing (except, of course, that the image is reversed looking through the back.) Clipping a corner would do it, except that I usually clip too much and get into the image. Maybe I'll modify a punch to make half a hole at the edge.

By light you mean safelight, yes?

Yes, it can be handled under a red safelight, and you should be able to tell the difference between the base and emulsion sides.

I shoot a fair bit of it. I shoot it at iso 5 and soup it in Rodinal 1+150. You can use a deep red safelight and watch it develop in the trays. About 7-10 min I seem to remember. The image in my gallery called "roadside lake" is shot using this film. Bad scan.

I have noticed that not all 5x7 and 8x10 film holders will accept it. It is just a very little bit wider than film. Also, because of its thinness and limpness, it is easier to load the holder by bowing the middle (lengthwise) of the film up and inserting it in under the rail on one side then the other at close to its final position instead of trying to slide it in down the full length of the rails. I did just modify a punch by gluing a piece of mat board in it so that the film is stopped with just half the punch on the edge of the film.