I have been printing Cibachromes traditionally and digitally for clients since the early 80's, I got rid of the process three years ago. I have prints hanging on my wall that include ciba beside the dreaded Fujiflex, and ink jets.
Reading this thread amuses me as the basic reason there are so few willing to produce this product is lack of demand.
But by reading this thread I would think there is a thriving business and lots of clients with pocketbooks ready to open .
In North America , there were a few main labs , Lamount Imaging, and Hance Partners in SW USA still offering cibachromes after 2002 Elevator was one and today I think you would find Hance being one of the few left.
Having used a Lambda and Enlarger for Cibachromes, my personal opinion is though the enlarger route is good , the digital print with its ability to manage contrast, colour enhancement totally blows away the traditional method.
Sorry to throw water on the ones saying the enlarger print is king. But unless you can tell me how you make your highlight protection contrast reducing masks for the transparancies going into the enlarger.I do not think I can support the enlarger route over digital print for Cibachrome statement.
** these masks in the real days of Ciba being king were very expensive , time consuming and required a skilled technician able to make them.. ** I made these masks in the 80's on a regular basis for Ciba clients for around $200 per mask , In the 90's with the advent of RA4 process by Lambda and Lightjet , very few if any would pay to have a mask. By 2004 Inkjet labs basically drove the cost to a point that though the Cibas I would make IMO were better than the other output, problems with the product line forced the price to be crazy high and clients would opt for the lesser cost print.
If a current lab is offering the masks as part of the print service , then I tip my hat to them as then I will support the enlarger method. But I think there are very few if any doing multiple colour and contrast masks on enlarged prints these days. Love to be proven wrong.
** I am not talking about one shot wonders here, I am talking about a printer who each time she/he goes into a darkroom with a transparancey to print will make adjustment masks for enlarged prints.**
Austrailia has always supported Cibachrome , why I know this comes from years of being in the game, for whatever reason , maybe there were some fantastic E6 labs and then some great printers, every photographer I met from Austrailia was hooked on Ciba.** I have seen some of their work and the light in Austrailia must be beautiful.**
Sadly they must have gone back home to roost. Because the market for selling Cibachromes was extremely sporadic. I threw out a perfectly fine Colenta Ciba Chrome Processor because the space it was taking up per month was more than the profit.** those in the know will appreciate the cost of this machine and what it must have felt like watching this process die in front of ones eyes**
It was my first really big investment in equipment and rental space, and believe me I was upset to see it go.
I sold Cibachromes for years, and I too was preaching the amazing stability claims. In dark storage they are reported to be stable and for that they are a deserving product to admire.
I put them on a wall outside my lab beside RA4 prints in open shade, kind of like a accellerated aging test of my own.. Horrors of Horrors, they faded as fast as the ink and RA4 prints.
I have printed them side by side various ouput processes, traditionally and digitally, To me I enjoyed the Cibas more than the others , but I was biased since I spent the better part of my income over 10 years being able to see them printed by my own hands.
A ciba has a certain weight that most of the other processes exhibit,
It is almost like you see definative edges between tones that give it a impression of depth.
The paper feels thicker and with more substance and tips into a matt quite nicely and holds its shape better than most products.
As far as colour gamut they are no better than flex, or Harmon AR inkjet.
Lots of papers have high gloss and wicked colour subleties. I do not think this is what set Ciba apart from the other.
IMHO - wonderful product, poorly marketed, over priced , inconsistant to poor distribution, total lack of support from manufacture, once the Austrailian labs stop producing doomed to extinction, A product that requires a good machine to process that can be kept in control and clean with client work.
I wish Stephan F and the other labs operating this process much success , but for those who want to see the process keep running, send some work to them to print.
mad
