kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner) (05/21/85)
This is to report exceptionally fine results obtained with the combination of Ektachrome 22 paper and a Unicolor processing kit. This is a reversal paper, used for direct printing from slides. The slides were Kodachrome 64. I cannot comment on how it would do with other materials, but I have read some glowing reports on its behavior with Ektachrome slides. The paper is manufactured in France by Kodak-Pathe, and is a successor to Ektachrome 14. It, however, requires a different set of processing chemicals than that used with Ektachrome 14. The advantage, in addition to price, of the Unicolor kit over the Kodak one is that Unicolor apparently found some magic way of lowering the temperature coefficients of the three baths. At a working temperature of 100 F, the total time is about 9 minutes (this includes the final wash), and at 70 F the total time is 13 minutes. Contrast this with Kodak chemicals, where the time at 70 F is reported to be 37 minutes. Thus, working at room temperature becomes really practical with this kit. I started doing reversal printing using the domestically made Kodak 2203 paper, and a Beseler "Three-step" kit for processing. The way the temperature problem was licked there was by using the "drift-through" method. Keep the chemicals at approximately 75 F, but preheat the drum with 120 F water, and rinse with 120 F water between baths. This led to the development of interesting skills, such as: if this here graduated cylinder is filled with 123 F water, it will be at 120 F by the time I am ready to use it :-). Another disadvantage of the Beseler kit was that one of the ingredients was in solid form, necessitating the preparation of a liter of solution at a time. (The Unicolor kit is all fluid, so one can make up as little working solution as is desired.) A couple of years ago, Kodak permitted the importing of Ektachrome 14, which has been available in Europe since about 1975. It was chemically compatible with 2203, so the same Beseler kit worked. The colors seemed a bit better, and there was much less color shift between a wet and dry print. Also, the emulsion was thinner, so it dried faster. Lo and behold, one day Ektachrome 14 disappeared from the shelves, Ektachrome 22 made its appearance, and (typical of Kodak) no one had a clue as to how to process it. In disgust, I switched to Cibachrome, and spent most of the year fighting its excessive contrast and color saturation. In particular, I had one problem slide, which I felt I had to hang on the wall as a print for sentimental reasons, as the subject, an abyssinian cat, died shortly after it was taken. I made the idiot error of putting a brown cat on a blue blanket and firing a flash in its general direction. The result was a greenish tinge on the fur, almost imperceptible on the slide but bloody awful on the print. If I compensated the green out, her chest turned magenta. Well, I easily got an acceptable print on Ektachrome 22. The only remaining drawback is that I cannot use the neat little Ciba drum for processing Ektachrome 22 with this kit because of the large volumes of water recommended. The pre-soak requires 16 oz and the intermediate rinses require 12 oz. -- Herb Kanner Tymnet, Inc.
howard@sfmag.UUCP (H.M.Moskovitz) (05/24/85)
> > This is to report exceptionally fine results obtained with the > combination of Ektachrome 22 paper and a Unicolor processing kit. > This is a reversal paper, used for direct printing from slides. The slides > were Kodachrome 64. I cannot comment on how it would do with other > materials, but I have read some glowing reports on its behavior with > Ektachrome slides. > > I started doing reversal printing using the domestically made Kodak 2203 > paper, and a Beseler "Three-step" kit for processing. The way the > temperature problem was licked there was by using the "drift-through" > method. Keep the chemicals at approximately 75 F, but preheat the drum > with 120 F water, and rinse with 120 F water between baths. This led to > the development of interesting skills, such as: if this here graduated > cylinder is filled with 123 F water, it will be at 120 F by the time I am > ready to use it :-). Another disadvantage of the Beseler kit was that one > of the ingredients was in solid form, necessitating the preparation of a > liter of solution at a time. (The Unicolor kit is all fluid, so one can > make up as little working solution as is desired.) > > The only remaining drawback is that I cannot use the neat little Ciba drum > for processing Ektachrome 22 with this kit because of the large volumes of > water recommended. The pre-soak requires 16 oz and the intermediate rinses > require 12 oz. I use Ektachrome 22 paper as my standard, and to date find only the Cibachrome glossy paper to be any better in contrast, sharpness, or color saturation. I use the paper with the Besseler 3-step and Ciba drums and get marvelous results. First, I found that I can get away with using only 6-8 oz. of pre-soak and rinse water (at 120F). This allows use of the Ciba drum which has a smallish chemical cup. Second, I found that if I fill a LARGE (>1/2 Gal.) container with water at about 122 F and fill my graduate from there 10-20 sec. before the rinse cycle it works out just right. By the way, if your water temp is off by 1-2 degrees don't sweat it since the purpose of the rinse is to keep the paper/drum temp up to prevent cool-down of the chemistry when it's introduced into the drum. The ambient differences in room temp from day to day makes just as much difference (i.e., negligible). E22 certainly is one of the most economical ways to go for color printing and can even be exposed for short (<3 sec) periods to a Jobo Minilux safelight! H A P P Y P R I N T I N G Howard Moskovitz AT&T Info. Systems (& Phantasm Studios) attunix!howard
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (05/27/85)
>The only remaining drawback is that I cannot use the neat little Ciba drum >for processing Ektachrome 22 with this kit because of the large volumes of >water recommended. The pre-soak requires 16 oz and the intermediate rinses >require 12 oz. Kodak recomments more or less equivalent amounts of water for the pre-soak step in developing with Ektaprint 2 (500ml). I solve this problem with my Cibachrome drum by stuffing it down into the tub of water that I use to keep my chemicals warm in until it gets about half full of water, then rolling it around like a log in the water until it gets wet. The main reason they recommend so much water, I think, is to get the paper wet so it will stick to the sides of the drum, in case it is raised up away from the drum surface at first. I'm glad to see someone else who is not of the high-color-saturation school of photography. There seems to be this competitive trend among the film/paper manufacturers to increase color saturation all the time, and the one with the most saturated colors wins the customers. An advantage of the Kodak "professional" negative films which Kodak doesn't tell you about (I don't know if this is true of the slide films or not, but it may be) is that the VPS films have a lower, more natural, level of colors. Kodak's amazingly unscientific document "E-6", which purports to compare the professional and consumer films, neglects to ever mention this, but it is readily apparent in the pictures of the standard negatives in the book "Printing Color Negatives" (E-66), and also in practice. (If you WANT more color saturation, VCS has 15% more.) In the new Ektacolor papers, this is also true; the "Professional" Ektacolor is supposed to be more or less equivalent to the old 74 paper, while the "Plus" paper is more or less equivalent to the old 78 paper. (Though I'll confess, I use the "Plus" paper a good bit.) -- Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642 "Nyy gur jbeyq'f n INK; naq nyy pbzchgre cebtenzzref, zreryl Erchoyvpnaf."