Kodalith 2556 and C41 neg

philldresser · Jul 18, 2005

I have a couple of boxes of Kodalith 2556, type 3 that I got in a job lot free when I purchased my enlarger.

I would like to give this a try and eventually make a negative that I can use for contacting (8x10) silver prints. I have an image in mind which is from a colour neg (c41) but I reckon I am going to run into sensitivity issues due to the colour base of the colour film. Am I correct or can I compensate by extending exposure time?

Another question is that the film is 15 years out of date and I have no idea how it has been stored. Should it be useable? I will try it anyway but wonder if anyone has used this stuff so far out of date?

Phill

Claire Senft · Jul 18, 2005

I very much doubt that you will make a good negative on a Ortho film from a color original. If you can get some 8x10 Tech Pan or any other 8x10 film you should be way further ahead and save yourself much aggrivation.

philldresser · Jul 18, 2005

Thanks Claire for the quick response.

Trouble is if I buy 8x10 film I will want a camera to go with it

Phill

bobfowler · Jul 18, 2005

philldresser said:
Thanks Claire for the quick response.

Trouble is if I buy 8x10 film I will want a camera to go with it

Phill

And what's wron with wanting an 8X10 camera?

hehehehe

FWIW - I have some VPS-III that expired in November 1988 (frozen since new). It works just fine, but YMMV.

philldresser · Jul 18, 2005

bobfowler said:
And what's wron with wanting an 8X10 camera?

hehehehe

FWIW - I have some VPS-III that expired in November 1988 (frozen since new). It works just fine, but YMMV.

Bob

Hey I WANT one but have you ever seen my wife when she's mad?
I'll stick to the 5x4 and my keep my testicles thanks

Phill

glennfromwy · Jul 18, 2005

Kodalith, unless subjected to high temperature and humidity, will last a very long time. I have made negatives from 35mm color slides on it but one must remember that Kodalith is an extreme contrast film, not intended for pictorial use. Little or no gray tones. It is possible to get a continuous tone negative out of it using highly dilute D-76 (1:9) or Technidol. Chances are it will still be rather high contrast, though. Kodalith is fun stuff to experiment with. Expose it at ISO 6 or, under the enlarger, at paper speed. Try it. Play with it and have some fun.

Donald Miller · Jul 18, 2005

philldresser said:
I have a couple of boxes of Kodalith 2556, type 3 that I got in a job lot free when I purchased my enlarger.

I would like to give this a try and eventually make a negative that I can use for contacting (8x10) silver prints. I have an image in mind which is from a colour neg (c41) but I reckon I am going to run into sensitivity issues due to the colour base of the colour film. Am I correct or can I compensate by extending exposure time?

Another question is that the film is 15 years out of date and I have no idea how it has been stored. Should it be useable? I will try it anyway but wonder if anyone has used this stuff so far out of date?

Phill

I doubt that you can come up with a useable negative from an ortho film. I would think that it would require some fairly extensive filtering plus a developer that would be capable of providing a continuous tone negative from a high contrast material.

What came to mind, for me, is that if you could come up with a copy of Kodak's Creative Darkroom Techniques, in it there are a variety of very creative uses of Kodalith. Some involve color separations to arrive at posterizations among other types of prints. Very original...very unique.

The first thing that I would determine is how high the FB+fog is on this fifteen year old film.

Kodalith 2556 and C41 neg

philldresser

Claire Senft

philldresser

bobfowler

philldresser

glennfromwy

Donald Miller

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