Plus-x 35mm will be discontinued.

[Roger Cole]

That was the paper business.

As I've said before, I think the problem is that Kodak is too big to care about any one thing except the stockholders bidding. That's where Ilford has the edge over Kodak and Fuji- scale and ownership.

But no one cared because their (black and white) papers sucked, by and large. The only one I miss is Panalure and that's only because no one else makes a panchromatic B&W paper for printing B&W from color negs, not that no one can.

Yes, Ilford WAS doing badly and I never said otherwise. But after right-sizing they apparently aren't doing badly now.

[semi-ambivalent]

I always wanted to like Plus-X, but I always preferred FP4+. I've always preferred Tri-X to HP5+, though, so go figure.

I guess the general consensus is that if/when Tri-X goes, we're all done for? :P.

-jbl

I'm laying in a pretty big (for me) stock of Tri-X but I don't intend to panic; there's a lot of Ilford savvy people here from whom to learn if the time comes. I heard the call on Kodachrome and, in spite of always wanting some images of the family on it, I sat on my duff and missed the deadline. Now I have twenty-some boxes in the freezer, but I've managed to move on from my mistake. I'd hate to have to do it for Tri-X (between D-76 and Rodinal it gives me the looks I want) but I certainly could. I would still feel a deep loss though. It might provide some artistic catharsis.

s-a

[cmacd123]

Interesting enough there seems to be even more afoot. I looked at Freestyle's best buy page and their are several other Kodak stocks in the Clearout bin beside PX. Now one of the 120 stocks seems to be more a switch to 5 packs from individual rolls. But they show PX-135-24. PX-135-36, TMax100 401, TMY120 (single rolls), TX120, TXpro 8X10, as well as the arista Premium 100 24. Now both the 120 Tmax films are shown on the main page as in 5 packs.

Now I have a soft spot for Plus X, when I got my first 35mm camera back in 1965 or so, It had a 125 top shutter speed, so I did not dare to use Tri-x, and so spent much of my allowance on 50 ft rolls (all I could afford at one time) of Plus-x, (or sometimes it was 17 meter rolls of FP3 or Agfa ISS) It was only when I used Birthday Gift money to get a Practika that I could shoot Tri-X

[Roger Cole]

Interesting enough there seems to be even more afoot. I looked at Freestyle's best buy page and their are several other Kodak stocks in the Clearout bin beside PX. Now one of the 120 stocks seems to be more a switch to 5 packs from individual rolls. But they show PX-135-24. PX-135-36, TMax100 401, TMY120 (single rolls), TX120, TXpro 8X10, as well as the arista Premium 100 24. Now both the 120 Tmax films are shown on the main page as in 5 packs.

Now I have a soft spot for Plus X, when I got my first 35mm camera back in 1965 or so, It had a 125 top shutter speed, so I did not dare to use Tri-x, and so spent much of my allowance on 50 ft rolls (all I could afford at one time) of Plus-x, (or sometimes it was 17 meter rolls of FP3 or Agfa ISS) It was only when I used Birthday Gift money to get a Practika that I could shoot Tri-X

I noticed the same thing.

I will scream if TX120 is discontinued. Then I'll move on, but I'll scream first.

[Mackinaw]

Well, Kodak proudly proclaims that Tri-X is the "best-selling B&W film in the world." Don't know if that means anything when film sales are a fraction of what they were decades back, but still, argues that it may outlast every other Kodak B&W film.

Jim B.

[Thomas Bertilsson]

But no one cared because their (black and white) papers sucked, by and large.

Are you kidding? What was it about their papers that sucked?

Kodak Ektalure, Velox, Azo, and Polymax Fine Art are some of the finest papers I've ever tried.
Ektalure as enlarging paper for its beautiful mid-tones and rich velvet blacks, Velox and Azo for their amazing contact printing abilities for negatives of extremely long scale, and Polymax Fine Art was one hell of a VC paper in the same league as Agfa Multicontrast 111.

[Mark Layne]

Are you kidding? What was it about their papers that sucked?

Kodak Ektalure, Velox, Azo, and Polymax Fine Art are some of the finest papers I've ever tried.
Ektalure as enlarging paper for its beautiful mid-tones and rich velvet blacks, Velox and Azo for their amazing contact printing abilities for negatives of extremely long scale, and Polymax Fine Art was one hell of a VC paper in the same league as Agfa Multicontrast 111.

I have to agree with you but don't forget Elite. Some of the older warm tone papers were- and still are -superb if you find them (Medalist)

[Thomas Bertilsson]

I have to agree with you but don't forget Elite. Some of the older warm tone papers were- and still are -superb if you find them (Medalist)

I have some Medalist in my stash too, Mark, and it is sadly way too fogged for regular print developers, but works a treat for lith printing.

[Roger Cole]

Are you kidding? What was it about their papers that sucked?

Kodak Ektalure, Velox, Azo, and Polymax Fine Art are some of the finest papers I've ever tried.
Ektalure as enlarging paper for its beautiful mid-tones and rich velvet blacks, Velox and Azo for their amazing contact printing abilities for negatives of extremely long scale, and Polymax Fine Art was one hell of a VC paper in the same league as Agfa Multicontrast 111.

I was talking about the papers that were still made when they stopped production, not every paper they ever made. Azo, granted, was a great contact paper. I never used contact speed paper so I forgot about that. Ektalure I'm sure was great too, but wasn't it gone by that time? I know Velox was ancient history (never used it, was gone by the time I got into photography - again, I didn't mean everything they ever made was bad.) Polymax Fine Art, well, I'll take your word for it. They came out with it after enough people had moved away from their fiber papers, in an attempt to get folks back. I was gone from the Kodak stable by that time.

But I'll withdraw the statement and just say there are enough great papers now that I don't really miss them (ok, with the possible exception of Ektalure - I've gone on a bit of a warm tone portrait paper binge and would love to have that option.)

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Roger,

I agree that Kodak went a little bananas with the RC papers. I didn't really think they were any worse than Ilford, though. It's sad that the papers that excite me the most are gone. I loved Forte Polygrade, Fortezzo, and Polywarmton, Agfa Multicontrast (which we have a clone of in ADOX MCC, thankfully, but on a much brighter base), Kodak Fine Art, Agfa Portriga and especially Brovira...

What I would really want is another Brovira... Without cadmium, I'm not sure it's possible.

But it's getting off topic here. It's supposed to be about Plus-X... I liked the film a lot, especially for its poor reciprocity performance, which made it great for pinhole photography. Other than that FP4+ is, to me, the same as Plus-X basically, so there is a great alternative out there.

- Thomas