etu ? what's Ortho Litho film ?

[raytoei@gmail.com]

From Freestyle email recently,

"One of the most popular products Freestyle has ever carried was a regular supply of Ortho Litho film. After a 2 year absence we have found a new reliable and ongoing supplier for this product. Available in all of the previous sizes we traditionally offered, this film is a bit higher in contrast than previous versions so we highly recommend using a soft working developer such as LegacyPro Select Soft Powder paper developer for continuous-tone work. This new film is also fully compatible with any A&B Lith Film Developer and will not rapidly exhaust or foul your developer like other products on the market."

What's Ortho Litho film ? Is this a 135 or 120 format film ?
thanks

raytoei

[loquax ludens]

Are you talking about the Arista ortho-litho film from Freestyle? It looks like it is only available in sheets.

I suspect it's a fine-grained high contrast document or technical film. The "ortho" likely means orthochromatic, not red-sensitive. Most graphic arts films used for half-tone lithography are not red-sensitive, and can be exposed or developed by inspection under a red safelight.

I have not used this film, but I've used Kodak 8x10 Kodalith film to enlarge a small negative onto, then reversal processed it to make an 8x10 enlarged negative for contact printing. It was really hard to control contrast with the Kodalith. I wonder if this one would be easier.

I would guess most folks are using this in their LF cameras, and then processing in a low contrast developer to make a continuous tone negative.

[Chris101]

I used to use Kodalith in a camera - it rocked! The film produced an image that looked like a pen and ink drawing, with some pointillistic shading. AFIK, Kodalith and all other lith films are orthochromatic. So you can develop them by examination under red or orange lights.

[loquax ludens]

I've still got around 50 sheets of 8x10 Kodalith type 2556 somewhere. I should try it in camera. I bet it would make great high-contrast silhouettes if processed in a lith developer.

[raytoei@gmail.com]

thanks for the info!

[ath]

sounds like a paper emulsion coated on film. Soft paper developer for nice greys, lith deveopler for high contrast (black & white).