Ciba is not dead?

[adamlugi]

Hi,

I've heard from a large dealer in Germany that the U.S.company that negotiates with Ilford further deliveries of Cibachrome. Maybe some of you heard anything about this?

Regards

 

[Roger Cole]

Deliveries, maybe - maybe they got some remaining stock that wasn't sold elsewhere, perhaps another deal fell through. That doesn't mean they'll make more of it, though.

When they announce resumption of production along with a price decrease of about 50% from the last prices before it was discontinued I'll really get interested.

 

[adamlugi]

Maybe's set up a protest against the killing of Ciba, as it is done against the financier

 

[bluejeh]

Ilfochrome

The U.S. distrubutor, Wynit in New York, will not sell to an end-user like youa nd me. Ilfochrome paper and chemicals are still listed on the B&H web site. Give B&H a call if you are interested, they are very helpful.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Ilfochrome media was officially discontinued globally last year, preceded by an announcement by the manufacturer. Sure, a few choice roll cuts (at exhorbitant up-front cost) would be made available, after such time it is exhausted that's the end of it. If they are considering bringing it back for the masses for whom it was the gold standard ("do you really think we'd go through all the sh*t again!?", is but one incredulous response I've had over the past 2 years), then the manufacturer would need to drastically lift its game and quality standard (that is to say, a lot of the extremely costly raw media I inspected was faulty!). In Australia, the professional lab I had a long relationship with printing my images was "heartily sick and tired of them!" (pers. comms., 15th March, 2009), beginning the last batch of printing soon after without an order that was promised and promised again but yet failed to arrive from Switzerland. The Adelaide company ceased trading after being crippled by inactivity, diminishing/inconsistent quality of raw material, complaints from photographers expected to pay more and more for evidently less, that went all the way to Switzerland...(the collated and potentially damaging email exchange of claim, counterclaim, chapter and verse would shoot more holes in the Swiss than the famous cheese it produces). Great memories of the skilled printers here who made do with botched material and fought tirelessly until breaking point against the incompetence in Europe. So Ilfochrome is history now and, frankly my dears, I don't give a damn.

 

[DREW WILEY]

The exit of Ciba leaves a huge hole in printing chromes. It had an idiosyncratic pallete, but once you
mastered it, there was nothing like it. Sure makes today's inkjet work look blaaaah. Hope the Ciba left in my freezer is still good. Meanwhile I've moved onto Fuji Supergloss for an analogous high
sharpness look, and am wiggling my toes in dye transfer printing for a more amibitious challenge.
Even if Ciba were still in production, I probably couldn't afford it at today's prices, esp in 30 inch
roll widths.