Any lith printers here?

Have a look at this link :-
http://worldoflithprinting.com/

I've stuck with the Maco/Rollei developer from Freestyle. I haven't messed around with different developers....but I sure have a ton of paper I've used. It is definitely a ton of fun......

I had excellent results from my first try onward, with some commercial grade Lith A&B concentrate I got from a graphics arts shop going out of business. The 5 gallon boxes I got say "Photo Warehouse, Oxnard, CA" and it looks like this is the same company as "ultrafineonline.com" So, I can highly recommend their lith developer.

http://www.ultrafineonline.com/abdeco.html

I bought chemicals to try lith printing 2 or 3 years back after I read one of the lith-printing books, but haven't tried it yet. I want to, but have been a bit intimidated. Don't know why. But I'm watching this thread! In fact, I've been reading the book again recently. Maybe I'll get the guts to step in and just try it! I'm surely inspired by some of the stuff I see posted here.

Janet

Here is the most recent one I've printed.
This is from a wedding I shot this past summer...
It is a bit heavy handed, but the bride liked it.

Janet -- Just do it! I was in the same situation as you, waiting, waiting, waiting... you know what? It's not any more difficult or easier than regular black and white printing and developing. Just different. And fun! There's no right or wrong -- different dilutions, different exposures, different development times -- they all give different, and equally valid, results. I find it keeps me on my toes...and my eyes focused on the print, rather than the clock (generally speaking). It also made me think differently (in a good way) about the regular B&W printing I was doing in the darkroom.

I use the Arista powdered A and B stuff, because it is so cheap. However, in the future, I may just buy their pre-mixed variety instead as a convenience. I mix up 50mL of A stock, 50mL of B stock, and 900mL of water, and it works well. This is a ratio of 1:1:18, while for printing for high contrast on litho film, I would use a ratio of 1:1:6.

I have all the books and the want to do lith but it is overwhelming...more so making the jump into paper/developer purchases. And each of you all use different stuff but I'll figure it out.

I use the SE5 from Wolfgang Moersch with ADOX Fineprint Classic (I think this is a paper produced by efke), Kentmere Kentona and Fomatone MG. With the forst two papers lith printing can be a bit of an adventure but the Foma paper liths very well in nearly every setup and dilution of SE5.
Whenever I print with Kentona or an other paper, at the end of the session it is time to try at least one sheet of Fomatone, just out of curiosity.

Before I started with lith printing I was also a bit reserved, two bottles of developer and two additives, find out the right amount of light for the dilution and then again find out the right dilution for the contrast on your negative - so easy to make something wrong. But it is as often in life. You just have to jump into the cold water and then you get warm while swimming.

Cheers
-- Ruediger

Message being, for us lithers, is there is only one paper available at this time that appears rich in cadmium, and that is the Foma. Thus the pink/orange/brown/green splits possible even without toning. The question is, how much longer can a product be kept on the international market that is considered both toxic and disposable. EU restrictions will soon be the demise of this paper. If you lith, this is a deep-freeze item.

I recently had a chance to play with several UK and european papers, all lithable, and they were all basically different flavors of the same punch. Same with developers. The Foma MG is a different cat.