Creative Monochrome

[Dave Miller]

Thought that I should give AREM a plug on account of exemplary service received. I ordered a batch of printing paper from them via their web site AREM on Saturday evening the 3rd Dec, and it was delivered this morning, Tuesday 6th Dec. That’s good service by any standards, and very competitive prices to boot.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thought that I should give AREM a plug on account of exemplary service received. I ordered a batch of printing paper from them via their web site AREM on Saturday the 3rd Dec, and it was delivered this morning, Monday 5th Dec. That’s good service by any standards, and very competitive prices to boot.

Dave. Always interested in good suppliers so tried your underlined AREM and got an access forbidden page from BT Broadband. Then tried to search for AREM in Yahoo and what was there seemed to bear little ressemblance to a photographic supplier.

Any advice?

Thanks

Pentaxuser

 

[Dave Miller]

Dave. Always interested in good suppliers so tried your underlined AREM and got an access forbidden page from BT Broadband. Then tried to search for AREM in Yahoo and what was there seemed to bear little ressemblance to a photographic supplier.

Any advice?

Thanks

Pentaxuser

Typical of BT; their server seems to be down right now so the link dosn't work at the moment.

The company is AREM Publishing who most will know as Creative Monochrome. They publish Mono magazine, and the annual Best of Friends book, now at issue 12. They also mail order a lot of goodies useful in the darkroom. They also do digital crud, but I won't mention that here. :rolleyes:

 

[mikeg]

Hi Dave,

What's Mono and the Best of Friends book like? Are they mainly traditional B&W?

Cheers

Mike

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks. Link is still down but at least I know I've got the right one. When I saw the forbidden page and it was a photographic site I thought that the wife had restricted my access by the parental control filter!

Pentaxuser

 

[Dave Miller]

Hi Dave,

What's Mono and the Best of Friends book like? Are they mainly traditional B&W?

Cheers

Mike

Well Mike, B & W image in a book is digital these days, but I guess you mean the originals. I guess I should quote the editors notes:
72% of the images originate from film.
41% were then processed traditionally to the print stage.

I think the standard is very high with some very good images displayed. They are now accepting submissions for issue 13, so why not give it a go and improve that trad' ratio.

Mono is an A4 bi-monthly of about 40 pages, a sample is viewable on their website - when its working. I enjoy it although as with all magazines there is too much digital in it.

 

[mikeg]

Thanks Dave, I might give them a try for a year.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Dave Miller]

Thanks Dave, I might give them a try for a year.

Cheers

Mike

Well worth it.

 

[roy]

They have also been responsible for the publication of some very good books of photographers' work, including one of Kathy Harcom's pictures, a member of the APUG "family".

 

[Dave Miller]

The links working again.

 

[Dave Miller]

Why don't those of you who don't subscribe consider entering a few pictures for next years edition of Best of Friends. I think that there is a small charge for non-subscribers, but it isn't much.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thought that I should give AREM a plug on account of exemplary service received. I ordered a batch of printing paper from them via their web site AREM on Saturday evening the 3rd Dec, and it was delivered this morning, Tuesday 6th Dec. That’s good service by any standards, and very competitive prices to boot.

Dave. Just seen your latest post. Was then able to check the site. Looks pretty good. I've added it to my favourites. Thanks

P.S. I have just got a secondhand Ilford safelight 902 today. I notice that you mentioned having this in a thread on safelights. Found it pretty good. I noted that the notice on the back mentioned a 25W bulb but inside there's a sticker saying 15W max. Not sure this is an Ilford sticker. It looks like the standard silvered coloured oval you seen on all table lamps.The bulb is in fact 15W. You might say if 15W is Ok then why risk 25W. On the other hand I am all for max illumination permissible. What do you use? The filter looks which is substantial and thick looks as if it could take a 25W and still wouldn't wear out unlike the Durst Tricolor lamp filter which I have. This was giving me the very minimum safe limit when tested.

Pentaxuser

 

[Dave Miller]

My Ilford safe light is the model that has a glass back and front, the larger glass being 12" x 10". The unit is designed to be hung from the ceiling, although mine sitts on a shelf. I give the size because I think Ilford marketed a range of sizes, and the"902" refers to the filter type. I use a 15w lamp in mine, because I have a small room. It is certainly marked as able to take a 25w lamp. The important point with any safe light is to do a fogging test with your paper, Ilford publish a useful information sheet on the web that covers this. During testing mine showed no signs of fogging after 15 minutes, which is plenty long enough for me since I do all my processing in a drum. I should mention that the light is connected via my enlarger timer so that it goes off during exposure, if it didn't I would not be able to see the image on the baseboard. Hope that helps. Les Mclean uses two of the same fittings in his workshop, and I think he said he uses 25w lamps in his; it is certaily very bright, and good for a similar time to mine. Anyway it is the testing that is the most important thing - safe lights are not safe for long, no matter which one you use.

 

[Dave Miller]

I've just checked the Ilford site and see the the model ref of my safelight is: DL20.
Safelight

Details of testing are on that page.

 

[pyrometol]

Yes, Arem are great. For those who don't know it, Roger Maile the founder started up Creative Monochrome as a bastion of Wet bench monochrome. Because of the market he, perforce had to 'go digital' as well. Roger produces a bi-monthly magazine called 'Mono' as well a as booke, mostly devoted to monochrome images. Another very good supplier is Focal Point in Exeter. Chas, the owner always has trad stuff in stock and will always get anything for you pretty quickly. Focal Point's tel no. is 01392 495445 e-mail address:focalpoint@eclipse.co.uk and web page is: www.focalpointphotographic.co.uk All the best, pyrometol

 

[pentaxuser]

Yes, Arem are great. For those who don't know it, Roger Maile the founder started up Creative Monochrome as a bastion of Wet bench monochrome. Because of the market he, perforce had to 'go digital' as well. Roger produces a bi-monthly magazine called 'Mono' as well a as booke, mostly devoted to monochrome images. Another very good supplier is Focal Point in Exeter. Chas, the owner always has trad stuff in stock and will always get anything for you pretty quickly. Focal Point's tel no. is 01392 495445 e-mail address:focalpoint@eclipse.co.uk and web page is: www.focalpointphotographic.co.uk All the best, pyrometol

Thanks. It's always useful to be able to bookmark another trad retailer. One thing I found curious is that he is selling a box of Kentmere VC Select 10 x 8 100 sheets for £18.07 and a roll of 20 inch x 33ft for £19.46. If my maths are correct this amounts to 50 strips of 8 inch wide paper which are 20 inches long. Cut into two strips each of 10 inches this is 100 sheets of 8 x 10 at £19.46. So an uncut roll is £1.39 more expensive than a box. I'd have expected it to be the other way round. Usually rolls are cheaper.

As you seem to know the proprietor, I just wondered if you knew of the reason for this.

pentaxuser

 

[Dave Miller]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Anything under £25 is very good value for 100 sheets of 10x8 R/C.

 

[pentaxuser]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Anything under £25 is very good value for 100 sheets of 10x8 R/C.

Dave. Yes, quite true but just curious as to the economic rationale why roll is more expensive. Both prices have got Nova beat at £20 but only just and of course I may be comparing apples and pears as Nova's price is for Ilford Multigrade IV.

Anyone care to comment on what differences I am likely to see if I were to try a box of VC Select compared to Ilford which I am very happy with.

pentaxuser

 

[Dave Miller]

Dave. Yes, quite true but just curious as to the economic rationale why roll is more expensive. Both prices have got Nova beat at £20 but only just and of course I may be comparing apples and pears as Nova's price is for Ilford Multigrade IV.

Anyone care to comment on what differences I am likely to see if I were to try a box of VC Select compared to Ilford which I am very happy with.

pentaxuser

Two points; I notice that they are quoting VAT free pricess for some reason, which is misleading, and they don't give postage cost; so not quite as cheap as at first sight. As for Kentmere VC against Ilford R/C there is little difference with the gloss, Kentmere is about half a stop faster, but in appearance I doubt if you will notice the difference. Other types and finishes do vary quite a bit however, and are worth trying.

 

[Bob F.]

Boxes of 100 sheets of 8x10 are normally sold at a discount over other sizes and smaller quantities, hence they may well be cheaper per square foot than rolls. Other size sheets will generally cost more per square foot when bought ready cut and packed.

Cheers, Bob.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

AREM is no longer in buisness.

HOWEVER: A very good magazine for monochrome photographers is, appropriately "Black and White Photography":

http://www.thegmcgroup.com/item--Black-and-White-Photography--1003BW.html

Great magazine. Worth subscribing to and supporting. There aren't many left.