I have the paper, now P-30 Chemicals ? cibachrome.

[lhalcong]

I am lucky enough to have found the possibility to purchase Cibachrome paper still in its fresh state by a Professional Printer holding enough stock in freezers and willing to sell me a few sheets if I find the Chemicals. I am no expert on this, (I have only done B&W and RA-4 printing) but I understand this paper will need P-30 chemicals. I would need to find all of them; Developer, bleach , fixer and anything else needed.

Would anybody think there is a remote chance to find and buy enough (even if already prepared and mixed) quantity for a few prints . 2,3, 4 prints at the most. (or even prepare myself) or perhaps someone that has them be willing to sell me somewhat like a kit made by themselves with all the chems., just for this purpose.


Thank you in advance. I know this may be a wish only.

 

[Kimberly Anderson]

I have chemistry, but it is old and there is NO guarantee what condition it's in. If you're interested I can take some pics of the boxes I've got and send them. I also have some paper.

 

[lhalcong]

Definitely. Its about the only choices I have. Please go ahead . I will PM my email if you prefer to email them directly to me.

 

[wildbill]

Read up on it here on apug, not all chemicals needed are specific "cibachrome" chemicals. The deveoper is specific though.

 

[Rudeofus]

Read up on it here on apug, not all chemicals needed are specific "cibachrome" chemicals. The deveoper is specific though.

Nope, the developer is a generic B&W print developer with 2 g/l KSCN added to it, there is nothing special about it. It's the bleach which is unique to this process and which requires very special compounds that are not trivially available to amateurs. Check out my Ilfochrome article for some details.

 

[wildbill]

shit, yeah I knew it was something like that!

 

[DREW WILEY]

What on earth do you expect to achieve with a few sheets of paper, and outdated paper at that? There is a learning curve to this product!

 

[gone]

Drew has a valid point. Still, you could cut up a few sheets into little ones, and make quite a few trial prints before tackling the big one(s).

 

[EdSawyer]

I have ciba paper I would part with, 8x10, 11x14, frozen since purchase.

 

[lhalcong]

Drew has a valid point. Still, you could cut up a few sheets into little ones, and make quite a few trial prints before tackling the big one(s).

That's a great idea. By a few sheets I'm Talking less than a whole box. Perhaps 10 , 20 , whatever I can get my hands on. I already have a guy that will give me the paper. I just need the chemicals. I will not expect to achieve greatness. If I get to have a fairly good print of one of my good slides. Fantastic. I did it. If not well then just be it.

 

[ras351]

I have some old p30 kits bought around 2006 but they're no good as at a year ago. The developer had gone brown and i tried the bleach but it gave muddy prints. The p3 bleach i have, bought only slightly later, is still okay so the p3 chemicals might be a better option.

 

[Rudeofus]

The developer had gone brown and i tried the bleach but it gave muddy prints.

Did you try the old bleach with fresh developer, too?

 

[ras351]

Did you try the old bleach with fresh developer, too?

Yes, i mixed my own fresh developer from bulk chemicals as it gives me a little control over contrast.

 

[Rudeofus]

Have you tried using longer dye bleach times, or using a higher concentration?

 

[ras351]

I tray processed a scrap in room light for twice the normal bleach time and it still didn't clear. I wasn't fussed as i still had the p3 bleach which worked.

 

[Rudeofus]

I tray processed a scrap in room light for twice the normal bleach time and it still didn't clear. I wasn't fussed as i still had the p3 bleach which worked.

Is there a chance you could add a few g/l Potassium Iodide to your bleach and redo that test?

 

[Wayne]

Yes, i mixed my own fresh developer from bulk chemicals as it gives me a little control over contrast.

No it doesn't. Old (and I mean OLD) Cibachrome contrast could be controlled somewhat by developer, but that Cibachrome is long expired even if it was frozen.

Did you put hypo in the developer?

 

[ras351]

No it doesn't.

My experience was that i could get around half a paper grade in b&w terms which was enough for some images without having to create a contrast reducing mask. Exposure and filter pack were quite different. This was a side by side comparison but if your experience differs then each to their own. Yes i added hypo.

 

[ras351]

Is there a chance you could add a few g/l Potassium Iodide to your bleach and redo that test?

I still have an old kit so i'll give it a try when next i get a chance.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Homebrew developers tend to work poorly with Ciba, though people did experiment with things like Selectol soft. The original Cibachrome was more malleable in this respect than the "self-masking" Ilfochrome version which came afterwards. It's kinda academic at this point anyway. Masking skills were essential for fine-tuning just about anything, not only with reference to contrast control, but to correct certain inherent color issues. But certain people fooled around with these idiosyncrasies too. The fixer was just ordinary non-hardening Ilford fixer. This is a product line I miss; but towards the bitter end it was getting unrealistically expensive, and the US distributor at that point in time had an exceptional talent for damaging the boxes and ruining the paper. I've since moved on to Fuji Supergloss and RA4.

 

[Wayne]

My experience was that i could get around half a paper grade in b&w terms which was enough for some images without having to create a contrast reducing mask. Exposure and filter pack were quite different. This was a side by side comparison but if your experience differs then each to their own. Yes i added hypo.

Were you working with older paper? Even people who used to be able to control contrast found they couldn't anymore in the last 10 years or so it was around. I never used the older paper, having started in about 1998 myself. I experimented with countless formulas (having read many times how people used to be able to control the contrast) and never got enough contrast control to make it worthwhile. Frustrated, I finally emailed one of those people who used to do it but hadn't printed Cibas in a while and he tried it with new paper. He found he couldn't really reduce the contrast with developer anymore. I thought I could see some minor softening, but I'm not sure it was 1/2 grade. It certainly wasn't enough to make it worthwhile. I had only just begun to learn masking when it became so expensive I just quit.

 

[Roger Cole]

I have some old p30 kits bought around 2006 but they're no good as at a year ago. The developer had gone brown and i tried the bleach but it gave muddy prints. The p3 bleach i have, bought only slightly later, is still okay so the p3 chemicals might be a better option.

P3 was always a better option even when both were available fresh, as long as you were willing to handle it safely.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Some of the older chrome films would "pull" process decently for a lower contrast original, though there was always risk of bit of highlight
crossover. The souped-up newer chromes generally wouldn't pull very well. Then you could choose slightly lower contrast chromes to begin
with, like Astia. And there was a slightly lower contrast version of Ilfochrome, which was still relatively high contrast. But overall, the only
way to tame the beast was to learn masking. Someone could learn the basics of Ciba exposure and processing in a single day. But fine tuning this through masking could take years to perfect, depending on just how much control you needed. I could generally do it with a single mask, but once had to use eight masks to get my ideal rendition of a particular subject. But the end result was a lot more seamless and detailed than what folks get nowadays via scanning and PS corrections, that is, when starting with an 8x10 chrome to begin with.