The Fate of Ilfochrome

[richard1500]

Hello everyone, I need to get in McAllen Texas Ilford P-30 chemicals for me to be able to print like 80 Ilfochromes. I don?t want to do it from scannes negatives, they don?t have the liveness that ilfochrome gives me. Please let me know where or how can I get them, B&H only sells them to me directly from the store, They do not ship it!!! I would be so happy if someone gets me the info about this. Richard Groenewold

[lxdude]

So I am taking this pretty seriously mate, so if the fact that this so called conjecture from a source i HIGHLY respect rubs you the wrong way, I suggest you scale a 5th class lead route up Federation Peak naked....

In winter, right?

[bluejeh]

[QUOTE=Please let me know where or how can I get them, B&H only sells them to me directly from the store, They do not ship it!!! I would be so happy if someone gets me the info about this. Richard Groenewold[/QUOTE]

Hi Richard
Take a look at B&H Home/Photography/Darkroom/Photographic Chemistry/Color Paper Chemistry and select Ilford
You can get the P3 bleach (now called bleach starter) (in 3 parts) 1x2 liters for $132.40; fixer/fixer replenisher in two 5 litre packages for $98.95; P3 Developer - part A 1x5 litres $53.95; part B 1x2 litres $38.50; part C 1x2 litres $29.95; I'm just mentioning prices so that you can see which items I'm specifically referring to.
Then go to Home/Photography/Darkroom/PhotographicEnlarging Paper and select Ilford.
The items I've mentioned are NOT listed as "This item is only available for purchase in our superstore". Thanks. Judy

[Renato Tonelli]

Hello everyone, I need to get in McAllen Texas Ilford P-30 chemicals for me to be able to print like 80 Ilfochromes. I don?t want to do it from scannes negatives, they don?t have the liveness that ilfochrome gives me. Please let me know where or how can I get them, B&H only sells them to me directly from the store, They do not ship it!!! I would be so happy if someone gets me the info about this. Richard Groenewold

Freestyle will do a special order and the materiale will be dropped shipped to you.

[richard1500]

Great, because I was trying to buy P-30 chemicals, please let me know, can I use a 3 bath processor as the durst for this ones? as I could with the P-30. And if so, do I need to buy all the replenishers as well as the regular ones?

[richard1500]

Look, I was reading the technical data about the P-3 process, and it says I need the first wash in the second tank, and the fourth wash in the fifth tank, that means I can only use the P-30 process in my little darkroom:-( As my durst processor only have three tanks!!!

[Renato Tonelli]

Richard - I use the Durst Printo (and for 16x20's a CAP40) with no rinses in between steps. The Printo squeegees the print extremely well as it travels from one tank to the next that there is no carry-over contamination and no need for a rinse bath until the end. I seem to recall that with a Jobo drum you would need to rinse in between steps.

[Wayne]

This is, if confirmed, indeed a royal bummer, it's not like Ilford Switzerland cordially supported Ilfochrome anyways during the last few years. Here's what I plan on doing:

• Paper can be stored in the freezer for many years according to what I have found in relevant forum postings. So I will stock what I plan on using over the next few years so I can continue to print my favorite slides.
• Chemistry is more short lived according to these same postings but should last for 1-2 years, at least after heavy color corrections.
• Chemistry will be either available after that or I will look into home brewing. There are a few threads here on APUG which describe recipes and refer to further info: here and here.

It's really time for us slide shooters to put our freezers to use and to boost our knowledge in organic chemistry. I've already stocked up on Fuji Astia 100F and, just in case, Kodak E100VS. This should buy me 5 more years before I either convert to C41 and B&W or just give up photography altogether. It was fun while it lasted.

Not to discourage you but I haven't had luck storing Ilfochrome "many years". I pulled some out of the freezer that was less than 10 years old and it was far beyond help.

[Wayne]

So the day has come, maybe, probably, almost certainly. I pretty much quit a few years ago when it became hard as hell to even find the chemicals anymore and the expense was outrageous. There was nowhere left for it to go but away.

Where there's a will, there's a way. I started planning for the demise of Ciba almost a decade ago.
Color neg materials still weren't up to par, but now things have gotten pretty damn good, though
that's no guarantee Kodak won't pull their end of the rug out from under us. Fuji CA papers and RA4 work perfectly well in home dkrm drums etc. To get the best results with Ciba you had to learn
masking; same for color neg printing, though with different tweaks. But the sum cost is far less than
Ciba was, and significantly less than a high-quality scan and Lightjet etc output (at least for serious
large format work). If some of the positive energy was redirected and concentrated on some of these newer products, it might equate to a mini revival of actual home darkroom color enthusiasts.
If everyone just wants to sit on their ass, then they've got their inkjet printers already.

That's something to think about. I've never printed negatives but soon I may have no choice. What better time to start! ;-)

[Rudeofus]

Not to discourage you but I haven't had luck storing Ilfochrome "many years". I pulled some out of the freezer that was less than 10 years old and it was far beyond help.

Thanks for your warning, and no I didn't plan on using my frozen stash for that long.

There is a famous folk tale from Mullah Nasrudin about how important/useless it is to plan for what happens in that many years. Look for the tale in this link. Seriously, nobody knows what's going to happen in eight years, and if I have to make colored gum prints in ten years at least my kids will be old enough that I have the necessary time for this. Or we'll enjoy remote controlled model aeroplanes by then ....