Forte Polywarmtone

[AgX]

Mirko you say in that blog:

In order to proceed we had to make actual samples of finished emulsions (and not just greyscales).

What do you mean by that?
I mean, how can you make greyscales without a finished (well coated) emulsion?
(Maybe it's obvious for anyone but me and I'm making a fool out of me...)

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

I mean, how can you make greyscales without a finished (well coated) emulsion?

Further on down the blog we show our small laboratory coating machine (Eichhörnchen).
Eichhörnchen (squirrel) can coat two little stripes of 1,5 cm width and about 10 cm length with a gap in the middle.
On these stripes we can place a dedicated stepwedge and expose/develop them.
This was fine for recreating speed, contrast and gradation but is too small to make a real image.

As we are now aproaching questions like image tone, lithability, toning behaviour, overall impression, detail contrast etc. we need larger samples to make actual images.

Also the small machine is not set up to apply a supercoating.

Kind regards,

Mirko

 

[AgX]

Thank you for the clarification.

"Eichhörnchen"... funny. But quite fit for a company located outside the town.

 

[Ulrich Drolshagen]

I can't see any entry older then 3/11/2012 (just the entry page). There aren't any links to older pages. I tried with firefox, epiphany, chromium and konqueror in English and German. May be all use webkit as a rendering engine, I don't know. But it's certainly not working as intended.

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

"Eichhörnchen"... funny. But quite fit for a company located outside the town.

"Eichhörnchen" is a genuine Leverkusen Expression given to the machines by the staff of Agfa ;-)
We obviously had no reason to change it....

 

[swittmann]

Lithability - you are my hero, Mirko

I can already see myself buying a truckload full of PW

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

Lithability..

We are checking on this and have good faith that we´ll get the paper back to it´s old lith- behaviour.
This involved investments in securing certain ingredients on our side. We have done this for about 5-8 years of production.
Within this timeframe we need to source alternatives.

 

[Klainmeister]

"Eichhörnchen" is a genuine Leverkusen Expression given to the machines by the staff of Agfa ;-)
We obviously had no reason to change it....

Funny, I found that, out of all German words, one of the most difficult to pronounce. I would avoid it all costs when hiking in the forest as to not embarrass myself among my German friends.

The lithability of the paper, to me, is of utmost interest seeing as though Foma papers have changed. We have become very limited. This paper could potentially become the 1 stop shop paper for all my printing needs!

 

[sepiareverb]

We're getting closer! Thank you Mirko!

 

[mrtoml]

The lithability of the paper, to me, is of utmost interest seeing as though Foma papers have changed. We have become very limited. This paper could potentially become the 1 stop shop paper for all my printing needs!

+1

Being lithable would be great. I used to use Foma as my default lith papers, but now not so sure.

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

I can't see any entry older then 3/11/2012 (just the entry page). There aren't any links to older pages. I tried with firefox, epiphany, chromium and konqueror in English and German. May be all use webkit as a rendering engine, I don't know. But it's certainly not working as intended.

Thanks! Fixed!

 

[Roger Cole]

Foma doesn't lith anymore? What is still available that does? I've not tried lith printing but thought I might some day.

 

[Klainmeister]

Foma doesn't lith anymore? What is still available that does? I've not tried lith printing but thought I might some day.

According to Rudman's newsletter. It doesn't quite lith the same, which I don't know what that means, but reports seem to indicate that the emulsion changed. Unfortunate, especially considering I was about to buy roughly $500 worth of it for a project. DOH!

 

[Tom Kershaw]

I read Tim Rudman's latest newsletter but perhaps didn't take in all the information. Does this mean it is not possible to work with conventional lith techniques with any current papers?

Tom

 

[mrtoml]

I read Tim Rudman's latest newsletter but perhaps didn't take in all the information. Does this mean it is not possible to work with conventional lith techniques with any current papers?

Tom

Slavich papers are what I am going to try next. Tim Rudman suggests that unibrom is lithable. There is also a new lith paper being developed by a French? Company.

I think it doesn't mean we can't lith, just that many papers now don't show true infectious development.

 

[kb3lms]

Check out the latest polywarmtone information posted just yesterday.

+1 for you guys at Adox!

http://www.polywarmtone.com/Blog/English_files/b73a522b46c1cc6fe6df31c0c982af21-12.html

 

[Barry S]

This seems like a great effort, but is there an estimate for when the paper is going into production?

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

This seems like a great effort, but is there an estimate for when the paper is going into production?

It´s to early to give any estimates. Forte had a team of 14 engineers (4 of them with a doctors degree) and technicians and it took them about 4 years to create Polywarmtone. Due to the production stop and the disappearance of many ingredients we have to completely re-engineer the paper.
Our financial resources are limited to the current market situation. Thus we can work on this project with limited capacity only.
Given the conditions we work under we are actually pretty fast but it´s everything but easy to manufacture a film or paper and costs involved are much higher than most users think.

In the blog entrys I have outlined what will be the next steps and I will keep everyone posted.


Mirko

 

[Barry S]

Mirko-- Thanks for the update. I look forward to the day when the paper is available and appreciate the efforts of your team.

It´s to early to give any estimates. Forte had a team of 14 engineers (4 of them with a doctors degree) and technicians and it took them about 4 years to create Polywarmtone. Due to the production stop and the disappearance of many ingredients we have to completely re-engineer the paper.
Our financial resources are limited to the current market situation. Thus we can work on this project with limited capacity only.
Given the conditions we work under we are actually pretty fast but it´s everything but easy to manufacture a film or paper and costs involved are much higher than most users think.

In the blog entrys I have outlined what will be the next steps and I will keep everyone posted.


Mirko

 

[AndreasT]

Well I am prepared to offer myself as cheap worker, at least I could make the coffee for the guys making the emusion.

 

[AgX]

Well I am prepared to offer myself as cheap worker, at least I could make the coffee for the guys making the emusion.

...or care for that cardboard machine.

"Es wird höflich ersucht die Maschine sehr rein zu halten und stets gut zu ölen.

 

[Dan Henderson]

I read Tim Rudman's latest newsletter but perhaps didn't take in all the information. Does this mean it is not possible to work with conventional lith techniques with any current papers?

Tom

I made some lith prints today on Fomatone having an emulsion number of 063248. In Tim's latest update he states: "the gelatine change started from Fomatone (MG Classic 131 + 132) emulsion number 060848. So if I am interpreting his statement correctly, the paper I used is coated with the "new" gelatin. I can report that I am happy with the prints. I got the nice pinky highlights that I prefer, along with good shadow tones. The print may have developed in a more linear fashion as Tim suggested in his update; that is, the last minute of development may not have been as rapid as it was with earlier paper. That may not be an altogether bad thing if one is trying to make several matching prints from the same negative. Using the same developer, dilution, and old brown amount as in the past, development time was about the same. About the only difference that I could perceive was a lack of grittiness in the shadows.

If I am in fact using the new gelatin, Fomatone will continue to produce lith prints that satisfy me.

 

[ADOX Fotoimpex]

We have posted the latest news in the Polywarmtone blog.

http://polywarmtone.com/Blog/English.html

Mirko

 

[Barry S]

Looks like good progress, would love to buy a lot of PW in 2014.

 

[zsas]

Great to hear Mirko!!! Nothing better to hear than a new analog product getting close to release! Hope the last few miles are flawless!