MAJOR NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: SILVERGRAIN

[Digitaltruth]

Digitaltruth Photo announces the release of the Silvergrain range of photo chemicals, formulated by Ryuji Suzuki.

This is a truly exciting announcement because Silvergrain products are the first to make use of the latest research in modern photo chemistry and represent a major advance over other products currently on the market. Quite simply, Silvergrain is the best photo chemistry that has ever been produced.

Silvergrain b/w chemicals are formulated with the following aims:

*to reduce toxicity beyond levels currently available
*to maximize shelf-life and longevity of all solutions
*to produce the finest results possible
*to provide unsurpassed archival quality

[COLOR=Red]SPECIAL PRE-LAUNCH OFFER[/COLOR]

All products will be available for shipping on May 30th, but we are offering special pre-launch pricing THIS WEEK ONLY. For more information please visit:

http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/silvergrain.html

The first phase of products includes:

Tektol Standard - is a liquid concentrate print developer designed to maximize the paper's natural image property with rich blacks and natural whites. Tektol Standard is the ideal choice for printers who stock a warmtone paper, a neutral paper, and a coldtone paper and select the paper to meet the desired image quality, and is further optimized to produce the maximum effect when used in conjunction with print toners.

Tektol Neutral - a liquid concentrate print developer designed to provide neutral black tones with most papers. Some popular papers tend to provide slightly warm blacks or olive blacks when processed in a standard print developer, but this developer will minimize this bias while maintaining rich blacks and bright whites. Tektol Neutral is the ideal choice for printers who prefer a neutral black tone out of their favorite papers.

Clearfix Alkaline - a standard archival rapid fixer, ideal for both films and prints. This rapid fixer is designed to expedite fixing as well as the washing speed, without any adverse effect to the image quality or permanence. Most films and RC papers can be washed to the archival level in a matter of minutes. If you are still using an acid rapid fixer, this is the product you have been waiting for to speed up washing and achieve archival standards.

Clearwash - a wash aid supplied in convenient, highly concentrated liquid stock. Clearwash works very similarly to Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent without the mess of powder chemicals. Unlike many other wash aid products being offered in liquid concentrate form, this product is designed to optimize the shelf life as well as the tray life of the solution and improves archival quality.

More products, including film developers, will be added to the Silvergrain range in 2006-7. Silvergrain products are available exclusively from Digitaltruth Photo.

[srs5694]

Are these products equivalent to Suzuki's published formulas (DS-14, DS-15, etc.), and if so, what are the equivalences? I use some of these in home-made form and having them ready-made could be handy in some cases, but I'd like to know whether what I'd be buying is equivalent to what I'm already using. Thanks.

[roteague]

Jon,

Are you an APUG sponsor? Posts in this forum are supposed to be for sponsors only. Your profile only says you are a member.

[Digitaltruth]

Jon,

Are you an APUG sponsor? Posts in this forum are supposed to be for sponsors only. Your profile only says you are a member.

Yes, I am a sponsor. I don't know why this isn't indicated correctly, but you can see our logo on the sponsors page. I'm sure Sean will fix it.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yes, Digitaltruth is a sponsor.

[Dave Parker]

Yep, DT has been a sponsor for quite a while now.

R.

[Digitaltruth]

Are these products equivalent to Suzuki's published formulas (DS-14, DS-15, etc.), and if so, what are the equivalences? I use some of these in home-made form and having them ready-made could be handy in some cases, but I'd like to know whether what I'd be buying is equivalent to what I'm already using. Thanks.

The Silvergrain products are based on Ryuji Suzuki's published formulae, but they are not the same. Silvergrain ready-made chemistry is superior to the published formulas and includes proprietary enhancements. The formulas for DS-14 and DS-15 were produced during the initial stages of research into the use of these compounds, but the formulas have been considerably advanced since that time. What you will find is that characteristics of the products are similar, but that the Silvergrain range we are manufacturing has a host of other improved attributes.

[Peter De Smidt]

This is exciting stuff. Jon, do you have any idea when you'll have the film developers out?

[Ryuji]

Are these products equivalent to Suzuki's published formulas (DS-14, DS-15, etc.), and if so, what are the equivalences? I use some of these in home-made form and having them ready-made could be handy in some cases, but I'd like to know whether what I'd be buying is equivalent to what I'm already using. Thanks.

Tektol Standard (1+9) is an improved version of, and the closest to DS-14. Tektol Neutral is Tektol Standard's cooler brother. It's recommended if you feel DS-14 or Tektol Standard is a bit too warm with your paper. Neutral version is also recommended to remove greenish bias from papers that tend to produce it. What if Tektol Standard is too warm (or greenish) but Neutral is too cool? Mix 'em. They can be mixed at any proportion and you get an intermediate result accordingly. With the dilution range from 1+9 to 1+14, and blending between Standard and Neutral, you can customize your print developer, without handling powders, to match the subject matter, your favorite paper, and your taste. (I keep two small jugs of Tektol Standard 1+9 and Tektol Neutral 1+9 when I work in my darkroom, and mix them in a tray on the fly. I personally think it's very convenient. It took me some time to convince Jon with this idea but I hope creative photographers will see the merit.)

Clearfix is an alkaline rapid fixer concentrate. Unlike the formula I have somewhere on the formula section of APUG, Clearfix is pH BUFFERED, meaning that the fixer resists from acidification when used together with acid stop bath.

Clearwash is a sulfite-based washing aid but also has some fine tuning so that the working solution keeps better. It's also pH buffered and works nicely together with Clearfix. I don't know if I posted any washing aid formula on APUG, but I put a mix-it-yourself version on the Clearwash description (which you can click on the digitaltruth storefront page). Yup, I know I'm crazy to do this, but again, the production formula is given a few improvements to extend keeping property of the concentrate as well as the working solution. There's no good way to test if washing aid is still good or not, and this is an unwanted risk, so I decided to make sure that the working solution keeps significantly longer than the plain sulfite/metabisulfite solution.

[Ryuji]

This is exciting stuff. Jon, do you have any idea when you'll have the film developers out?

I wanna know that, too!