Kodak and Ilford HELP!

[Scuffy]

I'm at a loss as to what to do here. After discovering this site last night I found in the forums that not only was Kodak's Tech Pan discontinued- which I'd heard rumors of before, but also the Ilford SFX200. My question is this. Does anyone happen to know of anybody that still carries the stuff in 35mm,120, or bulk rolls? That and my next question: Does anyone know of any films that are comparable to these two (in any of the the three sizes/lengths above)?? Unfortunately the Kodak HIE is also discontinued. Any help would be wonderful!

As a side note I found that the Ilford SFX200 has also been released under the name/designation SP816T, which was the film used in traffic and speed trap camera. The only listing I can find for this is at European sites in which there are very few. Bulk rolls did exist at one time but as to it's availability now I don't know. I can't find any listing for it here Stateside. If it is still available elsewhere in the world, what would shipping run on it? Would it be worth paying for??

Thank you again!

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Check out the SPUR ImageLink film at www.jandcphoto.com
Link: http://www.jandcphoto.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=208
It's supposed to be a great substitute for the TechPan film.

As for SFX - I don't know, it was/is a unique film indeed. Both Kodak and Konica films are different from the SFX. Perhaps one of the Maco IR films would be of use?

- Thom

 

[Fotohuis]

For TP you can use in a lot of cases Agfa Copex microfilm and the SPUR Nanospeed developer. Delivered as high resolution kit.

SFX: Try Rollei R3 which goes to 730 nm and for the HIE, the (also) Maco I.R. 820C.

In the USA JandC should provide you with these films, I think.

Best regards,

Robert (the Netherlands)

 

[kaiyen]

HIE has been discontinued?

allan

 

[colrehogan]

I know it (HIE) has been discontinued in the 4x5 & 8x10 sizes, but 35 mm and AFAIK, 70 mm are still being produced.

 

[kaiyen]

Oh, okay. that's what I thought. Phew.

allan

 

[Scuffy]

Wow, thanks guys! I didn't expect a response that quickly! I'll look those up. Thanks again!

 

[BradS]

With respect to SFX-200, it seems its discontinuance is slightly exagerated. It did disappear from local retailers for a time but, last time I was up to K&S in Palo Alto, I noticed they had an ample supply in the film fridge. The price has gone up significantly however.

 

[Paddy]

North of the 49th, prices for all Ilford products have/are going up at least 50 percent!!!! I was told by a local pro-lab owner that this is due to Ilford's restructuring of their product distribution. Apparently, all of their N. American distributing is now being handled by an American firm, with a resultant heavy increase in retail end-costs.

As far as I know, Kodak stopped producing Tech-Pan a few years ago. What's on the shelves today, is simply the remaining N.O.S. (new old stock)

Up here, at least, Ilford's products, i.e. SFX, are still readily available. Like all of the other Goliaths, Ilford has also been scrambling through the restructuring/digital shakedown process to try to stay alive. For the moment, they're still kicking.

 

[rogueish]

Apparently, all of their N. American distributing is now being handled by an American firm

This happened some time ago. It's been distributed from the US for a couple years now (at least).

 

[BradS]

North of the 49th, prices for all Ilford products have/are going up at least 50 percent!!!! I was told by a local pro-lab owner that this is due to Ilford's restructuring of their product distribution. Apparently, all of their N. American distributing is now being handled by an American firm, with a resultant heavy increase in retail end-costs.

I think that's about the size of the increase we've seen down here too -- at least for the film products. Hopefully, this allows Ilford to sustain the business over the long term.

 

[mfobrien]

AFAIK, Techpan is still available. Buy a couple of 150 ft rolls, and you should be good for a while. I have about 400' in my fridge + 20 rolls 120!

 

[Scuffy]

Okay, I've got another question for the group. I've heard mention that Ilford's Pan F+ has been a film that Tech Pan users are falling back to. How close are these films? And what of Ilford's Ortho film? Has anyone ever used this aside from copy work? The reason I ask is because I have started to use the Tech Pan in senior portraiture and the results are stunning, high contrast shots. I'm looking to have a very sharp contrasty film to fall back on once Tech Pan is no longer available, anywhere. I do shoot back and forth between 120 and 35mm. If either the Pan F+ or the Ortho would be of similar descent I'd buy some. Hmmmm... then again I might just have to buy some to experiment with! That would be fairly easy I guess. Sometimes the easiest answers are overlooked! lol But either way, if anyone has any experience in these I'd love to hear about it! Thank you!

 

[David H. Bebbington]

And what of Ilford's Ortho film? Has anyone ever used this aside from copy work?

I have used Ilford Ortho for general photography, mainly for experiments to get an "antique" look. In the past, some films used to be described as "highly orthochromatic", which meant effectively they had extensive green sensitivity, while Ilford Ortho is sensitive to about 2/3 of the green spectrum. Essentially it is like FP4 but without red sensitivity, which means you can handle it under deep red safelight and develop it by inspection. There is a quite good data sheet on the Ilford website
www.ilford.com
The only thing it doesn't tell you (the leaflet packed with the film does) is a development time for G bar [average gradient] 0.55, which is what you will probably need for pictorial work. This time is 6 mins. @ 20°C in stock ID-11, from which of course you can derive times for any other preferred developer.
Ilford claim a speed of ISO 80 in daylight for this film, you might prefer an exposure index of 20 or so, if you use a filter (only yellow or yellow/green are really possible) which has a factor of 2x with panchromatic film, the factor with Ortho will be 4x, so you could end up with an effective film speed of EI 5.
I have quite a lot of this film in the freezer and plan to do a project with it using some 100-year-old "Rapid Rectilinear" lenses. Ortho can be a fun material to play with!

Regards,

David

PS: Ortho will deliver quite high contrast in the right developer. Ilford recommend Phenisol for G bar 1.2 to 1.8. As I recall, Phenisol is/was primarily an X-ray developer, I presume Kodak D-19 would be similar (never tried it).

 

[GeorgesGiralt]

Hi !
I've read on a Zeiss pamphlet that Fuji Acros is finer than was Tech pan. (the report was measuring various films including the German Maco/SPUr combos.)
Unfortunatelly, I was unable to keep it being a prof. photographer's copy, and had no time to Xerox it.
Maybe it's avail. on Zeiss web site. ?

 

[titrisol]

Efke 25 seems to fall close to TechPan, except for the red sensitivity

SFX-200 nothing like it

 

[fhovie]

Okay, I've got another question for the group. I've heard mention that Ilford's Pan F+ has been a film that Tech Pan users are falling back to. How close are these films? And what of Ilford's Ortho film? Has anyone ever used this aside from copy work? The reason I ask is because I have started to use the Tech Pan in senior portraiture and the results are stunning, high contrast shots. I'm looking to have a very sharp contrasty film to fall back on once Tech Pan is no longer available, anywhere. I do shoot back and forth between 120 and 35mm. If either the Pan F+ or the Ortho would be of similar descent I'd buy some. Hmmmm... then again I might just have to buy some to experiment with! That would be fairly easy I guess. Sometimes the easiest answers are overlooked! lol But either way, if anyone has any experience in these I'd love to hear about it! Thank you!

Pan F and Techpan are not at all alike. They respond very differently to Reds and there is a huge difference in contrast and development technique. Pan F can be developed by most types of normal film developer and produce acceptable results - Techpan requires special developers for pictoral application. - I use Ortho for unsharp masking and enlarging negatives for alt process contact printing. Although not as easy as digital methods - it produces more pleasing results. It also takes a bit of practice to make Ortho film do what you want as well - It develops like paper and also like film - using a safelight and has no red sensetivity. I think for creating negatives that have unusual color response, it usually makes more sense to use a film that is common and easy to work with and use filters.

 

[jmailand]

PhotoWarehouse in CA. has SFX 35mm for 1.95 36 exp. bulk roll or 21.95 for 100ft. I just got some shipped to me last week, so they still have it in stock.

www.ultrafineonline.com

 

[aldevo]

With respect to SFX-200, it seems its discontinuance is slightly exagerated. It did disappear from local retailers for a time but, last time I was up to K&S in Palo Alto, I noticed they had an ample supply in the film fridge. The price has gone up significantly however.

Shutterbug is reporting that SFX is, indeed, discontinued.

However, apart from a very small number of niche paper products, all else will survive.

 

[Brac]

And what of Ilford's Ortho film? Has anyone ever used this aside from copy work?

It might be worth mentioning that the Ilford Ortho is only made in sheet film sizes.