Hello,
I've tried to do lith printing and have some success, but dev times are frustrating. Home brew D85 (two solutions) at 1+4 dilution gives around 25 min@22C dev times? What can be wrong? Could you suggest lith developer with long shelf life and dev times around 5-10 min ?
Thanks in advance.
Wuw, that´s looong, but I got news for you. But first, is it Fomatone MG or MG Classics, i.e Resin Coated or Fiber? The Rc variant is a slowie and the benefit in time saving you get in post processing Fomatone resin paper is "pre-lost" already during exposure and development. Go for fibre and your life will be happier in any respect.
Well, Fomatone MG Classics Fb is a rather quick paper, in regards of exposure times, even though ISO is around 80-90. But, the development times are to die for. It is dead quick and I insist it is by far the quickest around when lith printing. Please let me know if there are other competitiors.
Since I honestly cannot understand the greats of LD20, I mainly use Moersch Easy Lith and SE5. As a start, use 1:15 dilution and approx 20 degrees Celcius (don´t know Fahrenheit, sorry!) developer temperature. You should easliy get a print in 3-5 minutes. Already at 20 degrees C!
If diluting developer to 1:30-1:40 somewhere, for better lith effect, and simultaneously increase temperature to approx 40 degrees C, you´d get development times in the same area, i.e approx 5 minutes +/-. This is a REAL benefit using the Fomatone MG Classics Fb. The same neg exposed on Adox Nuance Warmtone Fb, for instance, will double the development time at same settings. An exposure on Foma Fomabrom Fb would almost double again. Kentmere Fineprint Warmtone Finegrain Fb is even more time consuming...but really cool characteristics once you withstand the wait.
So, go get the fibre Fomatone paper and a kit of Moersch lith developer!
Finally, my best recommendation that I understand is more or less unknown despite my previous attempts to spread the news. Try post process your Fomatone lith prints in Kodak Rapid Selenium Toner for a looong time. Dilute 1:9-1:14 and let it stay in for, say, 15 minutes or more and you will make copies to die for. Forget about the "increasing DMax" arguments. Fomatone will change drastically using longer times in a completely other dimension than the lame results achieved in the typical 2-6 minutes selenium toning.
Good luck!
/P
