Down Under
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The title of this thread, "nail in the coffin", is somewhat extreme as an analogy. Better to reserve it for the real crisis in the world today, Covid.
I've had very little to do with lith printing during my long lifetime in photography, but it does seem to me that when old products pass away and are buried, they have to be forgotten (so ask again about me and Kodak Panatomic-X film, ha!) and our focus should go on those new products that are available.
Even here in Australia, my sometimes visits to Vanbar Photographics in Melbourne, where I've bought most of my photo supplies since the 1980s, are a revelation. So many new products on the shelves are still available, sure, the prices are up, but thee seems to be a quite adequate substitute for anything we've used in the past that is no longer available. It's really up to us to adapt to these changes, which to me are part of the adventure in my photography.
We were using products in the 1960s and 1970s that now no longer suit - an example being the film and paper developers I used then, Kodak DK60a and Dektol. The former has long ago vanished, the latter is still available (if in limited supplies in Australia, and sometimes out of stock), and i've made the move over to other brands and other developers. My discovery of Phenidone, for example, rates to me very much like Edison and the light bulb - it opened up entirely new dimensions in my photography, and certainly improved my darkroom efficiency. So change is good and we have to move on. It's the only sensible way to do so many things in life.
Notwithstanding its fearful title, this thread is a fine example of this - all sorts of new ideas being offered for lith, an area that (as I've already said) I know little about, but have been interested in for a long time. So I'll now do some more reading and see what I come up with that I could maybe use in my home darkroom.
Mind you, it has taken me a long time to come to all these conclusions - maybe I've recently decided to change my mind about my past endeavors in photography and move on to new products and challenges, out of the general despair (and my growing annoyance and, well, yes, I'll say it, desperation) at the way the world is going to the pack (another "inflammatory" analogy, I know) since 2020.
I've had very little to do with lith printing during my long lifetime in photography, but it does seem to me that when old products pass away and are buried, they have to be forgotten (so ask again about me and Kodak Panatomic-X film, ha!) and our focus should go on those new products that are available.
Even here in Australia, my sometimes visits to Vanbar Photographics in Melbourne, where I've bought most of my photo supplies since the 1980s, are a revelation. So many new products on the shelves are still available, sure, the prices are up, but thee seems to be a quite adequate substitute for anything we've used in the past that is no longer available. It's really up to us to adapt to these changes, which to me are part of the adventure in my photography.
We were using products in the 1960s and 1970s that now no longer suit - an example being the film and paper developers I used then, Kodak DK60a and Dektol. The former has long ago vanished, the latter is still available (if in limited supplies in Australia, and sometimes out of stock), and i've made the move over to other brands and other developers. My discovery of Phenidone, for example, rates to me very much like Edison and the light bulb - it opened up entirely new dimensions in my photography, and certainly improved my darkroom efficiency. So change is good and we have to move on. It's the only sensible way to do so many things in life.
Notwithstanding its fearful title, this thread is a fine example of this - all sorts of new ideas being offered for lith, an area that (as I've already said) I know little about, but have been interested in for a long time. So I'll now do some more reading and see what I come up with that I could maybe use in my home darkroom.
Mind you, it has taken me a long time to come to all these conclusions - maybe I've recently decided to change my mind about my past endeavors in photography and move on to new products and challenges, out of the general despair (and my growing annoyance and, well, yes, I'll say it, desperation) at the way the world is going to the pack (another "inflammatory" analogy, I know) since 2020.