Luminos to discontinue traditional photo products

[Daniel Lawton]

http://www.luminos.com/ Not sure how many here use their products but they made some nice stuff. Fotospeed, which is part of the Luminos corp. will also get the axe. Bummer I was getting use to Fotospeed's Blue toner.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Did Luminos make anything? The papers were rebadged Kentmere. Not sure about the other products.

 

[Daniel Lawton]

I'm not sure of the origin of all their products but they had alot of niche stuff like liquid emulsion and Lith developer as well as a lot of products for alternative processes. At any rate I hate to see traditional companies ( especially the non mega-corporations) go under with their traditional photo stuff.

 

[Travis Nunn]

Luminos made some nice papers (Charcoal R, Tapestry X) and they announced they were discontinuing the papers line a few months ago. I wasn't aware that Fotospeed products were going to be discontinued. The Lith developer is still available everywhere I've looked.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Charcoal R and Tapestry X were Kentmere distributed in the US by Luminos. They were discontinued because the paper stock was discontinued, so Kentmere replaced them with new products.

Indeed it is unfortunate that Luminos is no longer going to be importing these products to the US, but my point is that it doesn't mean the products are disappearing. Kentmere USA is the new Kentmere distributor in the US, and they're an APUG sponsor.

 

[Travis Nunn]

Yes, David, you are correct. In fact, I learned of Kentmere because I used to use Luminos paper a lot and I was saddened to see their paper be discontinued, but I have tried several different Kentmere papers and I like them alot. Even more, I wouldn't know about APUG if it weren't for Luminos because this site is where I found that Luminos was repackaged Kentmere. The proverbial silver lining.

 

[Bob F.]

Fotospeed is also a completely separate company. I assume Luminos were simply the US importer. If so, presumably someone else will take up the mantle. In any case, Fotospeed certainly ship direct to Europe from the UK, so they may do so to the US too if they are without a distributor there at the moment (http://www.fotospeed.com).

Cheers, Bob.

 

[ann]

i use a lot of their tones in class and especially the gold. they will be missed.
back to mixing from scratch.

 

[Aggie]

Luminos was the US distributor for fotospeed. The one who will know for use is Les McLean.

 

[Les McLean]

Fotospeed products can now be purchased from Freestyle who are now the US distributor. I'll check with Fotospeed to find out whether Freestyle will distribute Fotospeed products to other retail outlets throughout the US in the same way that Luminos did and post the answer.

Luminos sold out to Hahnemuhle some time ago so I guess that it was only a matter of time before their traditional photographic materials bit the dust. I'm saddened to see another source of traditional materials dry up, particularly a company that I had a personal connection with for I did demonstrate toning for them at Photo East in New York for several years. I hope Steve and Ellen White enjoy a well earned retirement.

 

[df cardwell]

In the old days, the day of the local camera shop with expert help, a convival owner, and necessary high prices to pay for the processing bills that kept all afloat - Luminos was distributed by the small companies that sold filters, batteries, and all the other things a shop needed. It was effective.

Today, the shop ( if it still exists ) is surrounded by minilabs, grocery stores, hypemegasuperstores, sells lottery tickets, Red Bull, toy trains .... and digital cameras. And Luminos ink jet paper. And the little distrubutor sells filters, batteries and storage media.

So, Kentmere is in a perfect position for us. Now. Great paper ( and unique ), and accessible through mail order, web order, and that, as they, is a good thing.

Attached is an inspirational advert from Kentmere, as found in the 1923 BJP almanac

 

[ajuk]

I would of thought CYANOTYPE and ARGYROTYPE was niche years before digital, So I don't get it, that shouldn't be affected by digital should it?



Edit: Oh I read on I saw that Fotospeed are a seperate company, Was going to say it was od.