Ilfochrome Assistance

[ras351]

Which Ilfochrome "paper" were you using, Roger? When you say you used a Metol developer I presume you mean Metol-HQ, because in my experience the HQ is necessary.

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

The papers I used were CPM1M and CLM1K (with a preference towards the former which hasn't been available here for a couple of years). I used the Beers formulas (plus sodium thiosulphate) which for the lowest contrast is a metol only developer.

Roger.

 

[Wayne]

Just so everyone knows, Ciba is back in the USA pipeline!
I just got 4 P3.5 kits from Rainer Photographic, and CPS1K paper from B&H. Stock up, and lets keep Ciba alive!
DT

I just priced the chemical kits. Ouch. 50% increase per unit volume over the last kit I bought 6-7 years ago.

Worse than that, nobody carries it and apparently the distribution system has really broken down since Ilford's reorganization. My local shop says they cant even order directly from Ilford anymore. I called 3 shops in 3 different cities, none of whom even list it in their catalog, but all are checking into whether they can get it. Maybe one of them will get back to me with good news.

Calumet wouldnt ship even the relatively benign P3.5 without an exhorbitant hazmat fee. I called my local custom lab which used to do Ilfochrome to see if I might get P3x from them and they said "Ilfo-what"? Ciba-who?

B&H wont ship the chems at all. Yes, stock up by all means-if you can get it!

Wayne

 

[Lopaka]

Rainer will ship - and the shipping from Washington to Michigan is still reasonable (ground only - 5 days). Wynit is the new North American distributor. If your local shop sells Ilford B&W stuff then they are a registered dealer with Wynit, and 2 kits should more than cover their minimum order. (If one kit is under $100 dealer cost, it would only add $5 to price). You have to place orders with rainer by phone - 1-800-255-3456.

Bob

 

[Wayne]

I finally found a local shop that can get it. The problem IS Wynit, I think. They apparently arent letting shops know that its available. None of the ones I called showed it on their list of Ilford products. I presume thats Wynits responsibilty anyway, as distributor.

But its still very pricey. Thats OK for now because I have several old P30 kits laying around that I can at least test. Hopefully the bleach at least is good. But the price of new kits has me thinking about using P3 bleach for the long term and mixing my own fix and developer. I havent crunched the numbers to know if I'll save anything that way or not. I crunched them once 7 years ago and it wasnt a huge savings, but the equation may have changed now.

My main concern with it is that I'd like to use my ICP processor, and the P3 process requires (or strongly recommends) a rinse between both DE-BL and BL-FX, and the processor doesnt have that many tanks. I know that some people have used P3 in these, presumably without rinses, but it must shorten the chemical life which would bring the price back up again...


Wayne

 

[ras351]

My main concern with it is that I'd like to use my ICP processor, and the P3 process requires (or strongly recommends) a rinse between both DE-BL and BL-FX, and the processor doesnt have that many tanks. I know that some people have used P3 in these, presumably without rinses, but it must shorten the chemical life which would bring the price back up again...

Wayne

Hi Wayne,

I suspect you'll get a rather obnoxious pong without the rinse. The bleach step goes to completion (once it's bleached where the silver is it can't go any further) so it's not particularly time critical. Could you stick a rinse in your final tank and then do the fix afterwards? Provided you don't change the processsing temperature abruptly the process is pretty forgiving.

Roger.

 

[Wayne]

I have the dryer unit too, which has 2 tanks. I thought about using the 2 tanks there for wash then fix. Then I'd have DE-wash-BL-wash-Fix. I'd have to pull the print manually before it dribbled fix all over the dryer. I'll have to test it to see if thats feasible or not. I could run that unit without the lid on it I think, since the print isnt light sensitive after the bleach.

I dont know if it would be good to have that bleachy print going between units though, there could be some parts that would be at risk from the acidic P3. I'll have to look at that too. I dont currently have a guide plate that guides prints between the washer-dryer units.

Your idea could work too. I dont know what pong is, but it cant be good.
I recall from discussions with Ilford years ago that they wouldnt guarantee P3 to work below 75 degrees so I'd probably have to heat the fix tray, but thats easy enough.


Wayne