Kodalith type 3 development

[MMfoto]

I was just given some expired 'Kodalith type 3." I'm looking for suggestions about starting EI and development times. I have XTOL and Rodinal at hand. The film expired in '96... I'd like to shoot some portraits with it. Suggestions?

 

[glennfromwy]

Not exactly portrait film. It's a graphic arts film made for extreme contrast. ISO 6 to 8. That means black and white, literally, with very little or no gray tones. It's possible to squeeze some mid tones out of it, using very dilute developer.
I have used Dektol and D-76 at around 1:9. Also Technidol. The film is actually best suited for it's intended purpose, but makes for some interesting experiments. It's also fun to experiment with solarization on this stuff. The only way you're gong to find out what you can get out of it is try it for yourself. Portraits? Hmmm - Perhaps portraits of Zebras.

 

[ricksplace]

I have used lots of lith film in 4X5 and 2-1/4 X 3-1/4. I soup it in Rodinal at 1:150 with the safe lights on. You can watch the development which is fascinating -so different than watching paper develop. I get good tonal ranges with it, but remember the lattitude is very short. I find that Dektol and D76 gives way too much contrast regardless of the dilutions I use. Rodinal is the only developer I have tried that gives me acceptable contrast. I also use a water stop instead of acid stop. In rodinal it gives excellent acutance and virtually no grain. I shoot it at iso 5.

The shot in my gallery called "roadside lake" was shot on lith film in my century graphic. The old scanner I used caused the strange sky shading on the image.

 

[Mike Wilde]

low contrast developers -

I shoot Lith as unsharp mask material under the enlarger, and develop it in a formula from the darkroom cookbook, called T/O -xdr4, or something like that. Very dilute with barely any developing agent in 1l of solution. , as using v dilute Rodinal would also do. I recall calculating the EI at arouind 8.

There is also a Kodak B&W High Contrast slide film, now obsolete, that was Kodlith cut and would on a 35mm cassette. There is a data shet on it on the Kodak site, but the development instructions are geared at getting no grey scale. Development in low strength solutions will yield a grey scale neg, subject to the limitations of the film already mentioned.

 

[kb244]

Hrm, I use this box of 4x5 kodalith ortho 2556 Type 3 film in my Crown Graphic 4x5. I've shot the following with it...

I'm basically using Dektol 1+3 at about room temperature (which can vary between 65F to 72F) and develop by inspection under a safe light until both the front and back side of the negative appears to be desirably dense. I also tend to rate my shooting of kodalith at ISO 12.

I shoot similar type of stuff on 35mm with Kodak UltraTec, which I shoot as ISO 6 (it hates being shot at 12), and develop in HC-110 around 1:120 dilution for about 3 or so minutes @ 68F/20C, which yeilded this shot.

Simply put, I am not shooting/developing the litho films anywhere near the way they were intended. But I really love the contrast of the stuff, and they both seem sharp as hell. It also gives me a much slower exposure time without the use of a higher aperture or ND filters.

 

[kb244]

I've yet to try it with people, but I intend to in the upcoming weeks.

 

[ricksplace]

Karl -Nice stuff. Sure can't beat the sharpness!