Ilfochrome - sales drive

Stephen Frizza · Jan 23, 2011

Owen Boyd said:
I offer a Cibachrome (aka Ilfochrome) service from Kent in the UK. All prints are made by hand with conventional enlargers - no scanning etc. One of my clients is currently showing four prints in the AOP "A celebration of Kodachrome" exhibition in London. They are the only direct prints in this show, the others all being scan to C-type, Giclee, inkjet etc. There is, in my opinion, no comparison! I print for clients across the world, including USA, Australia, far East etc, using post or courier services. www.owenboyd.com

you sir are an Awesome man! Its nice to see the owner of another ilfochrome lab online!

Perry Way · Jan 30, 2011

I just obtained a bunch of Ilfochrome paper from an old man giving it up. I can't seem to find where I can buy chemicals so... Is there an alternative use for this paper? Like, could I use it to make lumen prints? What about using standard developer/fixer? I have a lot of this paper, it seems silly to throw it out.

Photo Engineer · Jan 30, 2011

It is totally BLACK and will give you nothing but BLACK unless you use the correct dye bleach process.

PE

Renato Tonelli · Jan 30, 2011

Perry Way said:
I just obtained a bunch of Ilfochrome paper from an old man giving it up. I can't seem to find where I can buy chemicals so... Is there an alternative use for this paper? Like, could I use it to make lumen prints? What about using standard developer/fixer? I have a lot of this paper, it seems silly to throw it out.

Call Freestyle - they will special order it for you.

I have been printing for the last two weeks with paper and chemistry purchased through Freestyle.

Wayne · Jan 30, 2011

Perry Way said:
I just obtained a bunch of Ilfochrome paper from an old man giving it up. I can't seem to find where I can buy chemicals so... Is there an alternative use for this paper? Like, could I use it to make lumen prints? What about using standard developer/fixer? I have a lot of this paper, it seems silly to throw it out.

Whats the date on the paper? If its old it may not be worth the price of chemicals. Otherwise the developer is nothing special, it just needs some hypo in there. Rapid fix works fine. But the bleach is the important-and expensive-one.

John Meyer · Feb 15, 2011

Frank Green of Ciba Lab was on Inside Analog Radio talking about Illfochrome.
I think it was on (9/4/10.. Just listened to it
I learned some stuff about masking...
John

sage · Feb 15, 2011

Do you have a link for that?

nickrapak · Feb 16, 2011

sage said:
Do you have a link for that?

Dead Link Removed

frank green · Mar 18, 2011

Matt, I have a Ciba lab in Los Angeles (The Lab-Ciba) and you are quite right. The Swiss do keep to themselves, it has been this way for the past twenty years. The paper and chemistry are excellant it is just that there is NO awareness of the process!
Frank Green

michaelbsc · Mar 18, 2011

frank green said:
Matt, I have a Ciba lab in Los Angeles (The Lab-Ciba) and you are quite right. The Swiss do keep to themselves, it has been this way for the past twenty years. The paper and chemistry are excellant it is just that there is NO awareness of the process!
Frank Green

They do keep to themselves.

I wirked with some pretty expensive equipment years ago. We tried to fax a tech support question after hours one day (before email) we learned that the support group turned off the fax machine when they left at night.

sandholm · Mar 19, 2011

michaelbsc said:
They do keep to themselves.

I wirked with some pretty expensive equipment years ago. We tried to fax a tech support question after hours one day (before email) we learned that the support group turned off the fax machine when they left at night.

Welcome to Switzerland

There is also another thing, Ciba come from a pharmaceutical company and they are tight. There has been improvement to the process, easier to print and also less toxic, but as with a drug they do not publish it widly or change the "name/number" of the material.

I just got some lambda prints back, and they are really nice. I scanned 4x5, digital edited them and send them of. If you havent tried it do, its pretty amazing process/material (still i love to print it analog in the darkroom

cheers

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 22, 2011

Sandholm, is that the diversified chem outfit Ciba-Geigy that sold off Ciba to... whoever, and it was reincarnated as Ilfochrome??

michaelbsc · Mar 22, 2011

Poisson Du Jour said:
Sandholm, is that the diversified chem outfit Ciba-Geigy that sold off Ciba to... whoever, and it was reincarnated as Ilfochrome??

That's the one. The money comes from pharmaceuticals.

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 22, 2011

!!
Ah, so! And the profits? Who gets what, and who influences them?
Knowing the power of pharma heavies, I am beginning to taste something that is unpalatable...

michaelbsc · Mar 22, 2011

Poisson Du Jour said:
!!
Ah, so! And the profits? Who gets what, and who influences them?
Knowing the power of pharma heavies, I am beginning to taste something that is unpalatable...

Frankly I think since Ciba sold it there's no pharma interest at all these days. Ciba didn't see photography as a lucrative enough market to waste their time. The old Ilford bought it.

It is now owned by Ilford Imaging, which is *NOT* the same company as Harman which produces the Ilford line of B&W products. Ilford Imaging is a freestanding company that ended up with the color products.

http://www.ilford.com/en/products/ilfochrome/index.asp

Unlike the reorganized Agfa, Ilford Imaging is still hanging on, and for all I know they might be very profitable. I know that in the suppliers web sites we see the ink jet paper next to the photo paper as if it's all one Ilford, but it isn't true.

But it is confusing that IlfordPhoto.com is owned by Harman who has all the B&W products, but Ilford.com is owned by Ilford Imaging who has all the color products.

nickrapak · Mar 22, 2011

michaelbsc said:
...It is now owned by Ilford Imaging, which is *NOT* the same company as Harman which produces the Ilford line of B&W products. Ilford Imaging is a freestanding company that ended up with the color products...

Just FYI, Ilford Imaging Switzerland is not an independent company. It is a division of Oji Paper, one of the largest paper conglomerates in the world.

While browsing through their site, I also noticed this page that has a list of labs that use Ilford materials in their work, including Ilfochrome. From what I can see, all of the USA data is up to date, if not complete. I would encourage all of the existing Ilfochrome labs to contact Ilford and let them know you use their product. Maybe this way we can get a complete, official list straight from the company.

Poisson Du Jour · Mar 22, 2011

nickrapak said:
Just FYI, Ilford Imaging Switzerland is not an independent company. It is a division of Oji Paper, one of the largest paper conglomerates in the world.

While browsing through their site, I also noticed this page that has a list of labs that use Ilford materials in their work, including Ilfochrome. From what I can see, all of the USA data is up to date, if not complete. I would encourage all of the existing Ilfochrome labs to contact Ilford and let them know you use their product. Maybe this way we can get a complete, official list straight from the company.

Australia is not on the list.

nickrapak · Mar 22, 2011

Poisson Du Jour said:
Australia is not on the list.

Like I said, it's incomplete. Labs in Australia (and other unlisted countries) can contact Ilford and let them know they print Ilfochrome.

Perry Way · Mar 22, 2011

nickrapak said:
....While browsing through their site, I also noticed this page that has a list of labs that use Ilford materials in their work, including Ilfochrome.

I don't know how I missed that before. Thanks to you pointing this out I think I found me a lab to go to in Burbank, California (closest to me). http://lab-ciba.com/index.html

Ilfochrome - sales drive

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