Author Topic: Kodalith ortho film (Read 17318 times)

salvo · « **on:** December 09, 2013, 05:51:14 PM »

Hi all, i've been given 1 and 1/2 reels of old-ish (ca.2004) Kodalith Ortho Film 2556, Estar base, 35mm.
Never used it before and never seen any work done on it so no idea what to expect and how to use it.
Of course done bit of searching on the 'net, so found of bit of stuff and info and maybe a bit too many bits and details.
The Massive Dev chart gives D-76 stock dilution at ASA 32, minutes 13

trusting this bunch here at FWers, wondering if any of you ever used it or still use and could give me some suggestions and wise words of advise re the use and development. If you have any examples it'd be great too.
Many thanks

SLVR · « **Reply #1 on:** December 09, 2013, 06:54:41 PM »

Im using it right now actually. Hungry Mike gave me 3 rolls of it about a month and a half ago. I'm about halfway through my roll as Im exposing it at iso 6-12ish (I'm not 100% on the iso since Im using an older meter that isnt 100% to begin with).

He should be able to shed some light on the film

Francois · « **Reply #2 on:** December 09, 2013, 10:10:11 PM »

It's actually a pretty fantastic film. It produced absolutely no grayscale. Very stark graphical lines are almost mandatory if you don't want a mishmash of stuff.

Here is the info sheet on the film.

Since it can be processed under a red safelight, I would be tempted to just process it in Dektol by inspection using just a tray and the see-saw method.

Hungry Mike · « **Reply #3 on:** December 10, 2013, 12:03:32 AM »

The Kodalith I gave Tintin is Ortho film 6556 type 3, exp. 12/1998. Kept frozen.

I've done 3 rounds of tests on short rolls of the stuff (shot on a Trip @25ISO, an XA2@25 and a Minolta AFZ@100). The first roll I did was 1:1 Xtol with some pretty vigorous agitation every 30 seconds, second roll at every minute or so. I haven't done the third roll yet. The results of the first two rolls told me I really need to take photos in brighter light as there were few or no midtones. Humans don't look so good but buildings and landscape are interesting. Still experimenting to get a image I'm happy with so we'll see.

gsgary · « **Reply #4 on:** December 10, 2013, 07:55:29 AM »

I have 100 feet of 2556 cost me £0.50, ive been shooting it between iso 8 and iso25 and developing in Rodinal but i gave a friend a roll and developed it in Ilfosol3 and it came out very nice

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salvo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 10, 2013, 08:42:32 AM »

Many thanks all for the replies
looks like there'll be a fair amount of experimentation going with it

Quote from: gsgary on December 10, 2013, 07:55:29 AM

I have 100 feet of 2556 cost me £0.50, ive been shooting it between iso 8 and iso25 and developing in Rodinal but i gave a friend a roll and developed it in Ilfosol3 and it came out very nice

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gsgary, what rodinal dilution did you use, stand development or did you agitate?

gsgary · « **Reply #6 on:** December 10, 2013, 10:27:40 AM »

Quote from: salvo on December 10, 2013, 08:42:32 AM

Many thanks all for the replies
looks like there'll be a fair amount of experimentation going with it

Quote from: gsgary on December 10, 2013, 07:55:29 AM
I have 100 feet of 2556 cost me £0.50, ive been shooting it between iso 8 and iso25 and developing in Rodinal but i gave a friend a roll and developed it in Ilfosol3 and it came out very nice

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

gsgary, what rodinal dilution did you use, stand development or did you agitate?

I used stand 1+100 and also 1+50 but not sure of the times, if you serch Ken Davis on flickr he has some shots that i developed in Ilfosol3 that look great, i think there is another thread on here where i posted some examples of my Kodalith shots
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SLVR · « **Reply #7 on:** December 10, 2013, 02:19:39 PM »

Do you know the times and dilution for ilfosol 3?

Hungry Mike · « **Reply #8 on:** December 10, 2013, 02:35:27 PM »

Those Ilfosol3 pictures look great. That might be the way to go.

gsgary · « **Reply #9 on:** December 10, 2013, 05:32:09 PM »

Here's a link to some that i developed for my friend film expired 1985, i can't remember the times but it would be dilution 1+4 i think i wrote times on neg holder, i will try and find out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdphotos/8696818468/#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdphotos/8695697127/#

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdphotos/8696817530/#

salvo · « **Reply #10 on:** December 11, 2013, 04:41:39 PM »

many thanks gsgary

gsgary · « **Reply #11 on:** December 11, 2013, 05:16:46 PM »

Quote from: salvo on December 11, 2013, 04:41:39 PM

many thanks gsgary

Thankyou here's one of mine in Ilfosol 3 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaz_clarke/8927102084/#

this is a stand developed in rodinal http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaz_clarke/8871676047/#

here's one in Ilfosol3 1+9 6.5 mins after this i developed the first example for just over 7 mins
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaz_clarke/8628984678/#

here's one in rodinal 1+200 http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaz_clarke/8511531932/#

Hungry Mike · « **Reply #12 on:** December 12, 2013, 04:59:28 PM »

Ok a couple tests from a recent Kodalith roll. Shot in a Minolta AFZ which defaults to 100 ISO. Developed in Xtol (stock) for 5 minutes.

Not the best scans but I think you get the idea. Shot at around noon on a cloudy day.

Francois · « **Reply #13 on:** December 12, 2013, 08:58:14 PM »

You can actually re-code the cassettes using aluminum tape as the ground base and small sticky paper square as insulators. I have the DX code listing in the articles room.

gsgary · « **Reply #14 on:** December 12, 2013, 10:16:59 PM »

I would have thought it wanted long developement i was developing for 7 monutes @iso16

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Hungry Mike · « **Reply #15 on:** December 13, 2013, 12:06:42 AM »

Oh can you code on blank cassettes? I guess that makes sense and I might try that sometime. I tend to use the Point and Shoots to provide a bit of a baseline for experimentation. Once those shots are made and examined I usually deviate from that baseline - different cameras & developing combinations, etc.

With the shots presented above I was experimenting with the idea that Kodalith works well with overexposing and underdeveloping (I read that somewhere). I think I might try it at 50 ISO next.

gsgary · « **Reply #16 on:** December 13, 2013, 07:29:02 AM »

Quote from: Hungry Mike on December 13, 2013, 12:06:42 AM

Oh can you code on blank cassettes? I guess that makes sense and I might try that sometime. I tend to use the Point and Shoots to provide a bit of a baseline for experimentation. Once those shots are made and examined I usually deviate from that baseline - different cameras & developing combinations, etc.

With the shots presented above I was experimenting with the idea that Kodalith works well with overexposing and underdeveloping (I read that somewhere). I think I might try it at 50 ISO next.

Higher iso than box speed is underexpose to over expose you need to go to about iso6

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Hungry Mike · « **Reply #17 on:** December 13, 2013, 03:16:45 PM »

Oop of coursGsGary you are correct. I always make that mistake.

Francois · « **Reply #18 on:** December 13, 2013, 04:29:26 PM »

Here's how the canister's code works
http://www.filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=1100.msg9456#msg9456

mcduff · « **Reply #19 on:** December 14, 2013, 03:22:10 AM »

After adopting Fluminian's Rapid camera, I had been reading all I could find on that system, so your stuff dx was further interesting reading. Dx used to drive me nuts - especially those cameras that is not let you override it, but it is pretty cool nonetheless. I did not know about the Latitude stuff. That could have been useful if cameras had used that as you hopped from slide to negs or what have you.

Francois · « **Reply #20 on:** December 14, 2013, 02:59:11 PM »

I'm thinking about something (call it a brain wave).
It's possible to add manual coding to cameras that don't have it!
Though I must admit it would make the camera rather ugly...
You connect wires to the DX sensor strips in the camera (you have to take it apart for this to work) and you put two sets of dip switches on the outside. Just reproduce the code on them to set the camera and use tape on the can's DX pads to prevent the camera from reading them

gsgary · « **Reply #21 on:** December 14, 2013, 06:00:53 PM »

I wont be taking my Leica's apart

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Hungry Mike · « **Reply #22 on:** December 14, 2013, 06:44:33 PM »

Ha! I'd gladly donate one of my P&S to go under the knife to whoever has the skill set for Francois proposed project.

gsgary · « **Reply #23 on:** December 14, 2013, 07:18:30 PM »

Here's a couple of my slow shutter speed arty Kodaliths in the woods

SLVR · « **Reply #24 on:** December 21, 2013, 07:03:27 PM »

bumping this up. I posted a couple kodalith shots in the weekend thread.

Just posting them here for reference. Scratches are from me muscling out the half exposed roll from my leica in the dark bag.

Untitled by nownownownow, on Flickr

gsgary · « **Reply #25 on:** December 22, 2013, 10:20:20 AM »

Tin Tin those shots look great, were they developed in Rodinal ?

SLVR · « **Reply #26 on:** December 22, 2013, 02:15:56 PM »

Yes,

i shot at 6 iso, though im pretty sure these were shot closer to 12. Stand developed 1h in rodinal 1:200

Adam Doe · « **Reply #27 on:** December 22, 2013, 05:40:22 PM »

Love the results you got Tintin. Great shots. I may have to try developing the Ortho_litho sheet film I have in Rodinal.

Francois · « **Reply #28 on:** December 22, 2013, 09:19:00 PM »

If you have a darkroom, get a red safelight bulb and process it by inspection using a glass plate or pyrex brownies pan. That way, you'll be able to get the very best results possible.

SLVR · « **Reply #29 on:** August 25, 2014, 03:18:37 AM »

bumping this from the dead. I got out this weekend and decided to take my hand at shooting this film and getting more consistent images.

I shot a roll at 6iso with my M5 with 50mm F1.1. Souped in rodinal 1:100 for 22min semi stand with a flip at 11min mark. 2 inversions off the top. Results as follows.

gsgary · « **Reply #30 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:57:29 AM »

Those look great, I loaded some in one of my cameras yesterday but it wasn't bright enough

Indofunk · « **Reply #31 on:** August 25, 2014, 02:06:05 PM »

Damn, those look good TinTin

Francois · « **Reply #32 on:** August 25, 2014, 03:10:53 PM »

And surprisingly, there are some gray tones!

gsgary · « **Reply #33 on:** August 25, 2014, 03:23:08 PM »

This is one of my last Kodalith shots, just set on some mounting board with avaliable light through the kitchen window

Indofunk · « **Reply #34 on:** August 25, 2014, 03:36:17 PM »

Quote from: Francois on August 25, 2014, 03:10:53 PM

And surprisingly, there are some gray tones!

pshhht, who needs grey? There's no grey in BLACK & WHITE!!

SLVR · « **Reply #35 on:** August 25, 2014, 04:22:08 PM »

Thanks all,

I think that maybe the reason we saw some grey is because the 50F1.1 wide open is already low in contrast. Im sure that had something to do with keeping everything nicely toned. I'm pretty happy with the results. I hope that whoever tries Kodalith gets the same results as I did. Keeping in mind that the emulsion is very fragile and scratches very easily.

Adam Doe · « **Reply #36 on:** August 25, 2014, 07:29:47 PM »

I'd love to get my hands on a few rolls of Kodalith, if anyone is willing to trade for some other film.

Francois · « **Reply #37 on:** August 25, 2014, 10:09:47 PM »

I'm wondering if anyone has the guts to develop it in Dektol?

You might be very surprised by the results!

Peter84 · « **Reply #38 on:** August 26, 2014, 12:07:52 AM »

Quote from: Adam Doe on August 25, 2014, 07:29:47 PM

I'd love to get my hands on a few rolls of Kodalith, if anyone is willing to trade for some other film.

you could get it here

http://www.labeauratoire.com/film/kodalith/kodalith.html

I developed it in cafenol and it looked like this

jharr · « **Reply #39 on:** August 26, 2014, 03:38:39 AM »

Expired Kodalith in Caffenol-CL stand
High Contrast:

Branchy Fractal by James Harr's Photos, on Flickr

Lower Contrast:

Trilby by James Harr's Photos, on Flickr