Any do their own Cibachromes?

[snaggs]

Given I've just commited to 34 rolls of Kodachrome, and the fact that it doesn't scan well.. Looks like my first foray into colour enlarging will be Cibachromes.. Anyone done this themselves? Hard work?

Daniel.

 

[oftheherd]

As I understand, they are now called Ilfobrome, as you no doubt know. I also understand there may be problems of disposal of the chemicals, as they are apparently quite toxic. I don't know about that myself.

I only dabbled in Cibachrome for a short time about 25 years ago. I loved it. I still have some Cibachrome prints that don't show a day of age. That includes one that went through a house fire. I don't remember it being that difficult. They used to sell a kit with chemicals for the amount of 8x10's in the kit. I seem to remember there was a 4x5 drum, and either an 8x10 drum or I bought one. I did some 4x5's and 8x10's. I believe I used both the Ektachrome of the day, and Kodachrome, probably ASA 25. I really liked the results from the Kodachrome, but as I recall the Ektachrome wasn't bad either.

I don't remember that it was too difficult, nor too sensitive to temperature changes. I of course tried to keep the chemicals the same temperature, and even tried to keep them the proper temperature, but that is always a little more difficult, depending on where you are doing your processing.

Others may be able to add more recent information. Based on my experience those many years ago, if I were doing traditional dark room work again, I would want to use that process again. The kit I had used gell cc filters, but it worked well without too much experimentation. Unless you have a color analyzer, you will spend a little more time, paper and chemical on getting the color right.

Good luck with it if you try it. I think you will like it.

 

[pshinkaw]

I bought a Cibachrome starter kit with the 4X5 mini-drum 20 years ago. The technology was very easy to use, not much more complicated than B&W. But, I am really awful at visual color balancing. Was never very successful at it even after training on a commercial Ektacolor system. I couldn't do negative or transparency printing well.

I added an 8X10 drum to the set, and used it for B&W for awhile.

Here is a good explanation of the process:

http://www.lightroom.com/lr_pages/ilfo_info.html

It is now known as Ilfochrome Classic (assuming that Ilford still supports it). Ilfobrome was Ilford's fiber based / silver emulsion B&W paper.

It is used for museum/gallery quality displays and has outstanding results. I wish I could handle it better.

-Paul

 

[Mackinaw]

I was a big Cibachrome user twenty odd years ago but haven't touched it since I bought a good scanner and a good printer several years back. While a fairly easy process, it does require some fiddling, and several test prints, before finally getting a print that has the color cast you're happy with. The biggest complaint I had was that it is very contrasty, so much so that I finally gave up using it with K64. If memory serves, Ilford did bring out a low contrast version which was easier to deal with. I never used it so have no comment whether it worked or not. I may try Cibachrome again someday because, as you suggest, some transparency film just doesn't scan very well.

Jim Bielecki

 

[oftheherd]

...

It is now known as Ilfochrome Classic (assuming that Ilford still supports it). Ilfobrome was Ilford's fiber based / silver emulsion B&W paper.

...
-Paul

Oops. Another case of my fingers being able to go faster than my brain.

 

[snaggs]

Thanks all! Sounds like the process for me, and I like the idea of a "kit" where I dont have to worry about what materials to use. The enlarger I have on layby includes the Leica Color Analyser, so hopefully that will make things a bit easier.

I'd just read on the net a few posts about people not liking all the "masks" they had to do with Ciba's or something. I never understood what they were talking about and thought the process might be complicated.

Daniel.

 

[snaggs]

Paul that link you provided had an excellent explanation of masking.. its very clever!

http://www.lightroom.com/lr_pages/masking.html

 

[julianphotoart]

I certainly do Cibachrome/Ilfochrome. I love it. Very easy. Using the high-gloss polyester-based paper, the results are stunning. My medium-format transparencies are amazingly vivid; almost three-dimensional. It requires the use of a diffusion head on the enlarger because the process is high-contrast at the best of times. Colour-balancing is simple mathematics after you waste the first 10 sheets figuring out the calibration of your specific enlarger's colour head. You will then have a calibration factor compared to the calibration numbers on each box of paper and it will always be the same factor for each new box of paper in the future. If you have a well-exposed transparency, you will be thrilled with the magical results. As far as toxicity of chemicals, they are toxic individually but if they are all disposed of together they balance out and become quite benign. So when you drain from your processing drum, drain into one disposal bucket and they all mix together and everything's fine. I could go on and on about this process. I have written to various photo magazines pleading with them to enlighten people about the viability and simplicity of this process. The paper is expensive but, as stated above, once your calibration is done you will waste very little. When I started doing Cibachrome, I got a few used books from e-bay auctions that explained the process from 20+ years ago. They were easy to understand. Good luck.

 

[canonetc]

Hi Julian, are any of your Ciba's in your RFF Gallery? Or could you post some if you have time? I'd love to see some examples. Or if you know a good website or book....

cheers,
chris
canonetc

 

[John Robertson]

I looked at my Ciba/Ilfochromes I made about 6-7 years ago, after seeing this thread. Inkjet prints now look very sad in comparison, glad I kept the Durst enlarger and processing drum. I'm going to try it again as a good Cibachrome on the glossy paper knocks the socks off an Epson print!!

 

[Trius]

I too did Cibas (Ilforchromes) ~25 years ago and experienced the same things. K25 on this stuf was absolutely stunning. I honestly can't say that K64 or E6s (I used to shoot a bunch of Agfachrome RSX 50) were any worse, as the memory is ... what's the word??? going, oh yeah, that's it. ;-)

Anyway, the only problem I encountered (other than calibration, which I didn't master as well as Julian,) was streaking from the drum rotation. I took to tray processing, even though it was a PITA, but it worked better for me.

Damn, now I'm wanting to dive back in....

Trius

 

[snaggs]

The man who runs the local minilab (who also orders my ilford chemicals in for me), gave me his drum, a Ilford rolling machine (rolls the drum at a consistent rate for you) and also a Ilford Cibachrome contact board strip which enables you to do a contact sheet of 36 slides on a single 8x10!

I really wish the magazines published some information on these products. If it wasnt for the web I would have never found out!

Daniel.

 

[julianphotoart]

Hi Julian, are any of your Ciba's in your RFF Gallery? Or could you post some if you have time? I'd love to see some examples. Or if you know a good website or book....

cheers,
chris
canonetc

No Cibachrome images in Gallery because none of those images taken with a rangefinder -- except, now that I think of it, an enlargement I did from a 6x9 transparency made with a pre-war 6x9 Super Ikonta. I guess that's a rangefinder. I'll have to dig it out. This is another good argument for this process -- it makes transparencies from a 65-70 year old camera look beautiful!!!
Meanwhile, just to continue on with convincing EVERYONE to use this process: (1) it's a direct positive-positive enlargement process because the dyes are IN THE PAPER (which sounds pretty weird) and thus there's only one level of degradation between transparency and print; (2) if you have a drum processor that has temperature control for both the drum and chemicals and spins with a motor, you can't go wrong; (3) good rinsing with pure water before starting the development process, between each step, AND after developing has ended, decrease the chance of streaking; (4) with a drum processor it's easier than B&W printing; (5) there is nothing more amazing than opening the drum and pulling out one of these prints (though they're red-tinged until dry); (6) the quality makes the high price of paper well worth it--these colour prints are totally unlike all others.

 

[jamesdak]

I was surprised to stumble across a thread about Cibacromes. I used to have all my best shots printed with this process but over that past several years it get's harder and harder to find someone who does it. I've yet to see anything match it in image quality. Be nice to see a revival of the process.

 

[StuartR]

I would love to do it, but I don't think my enlarger can do it. I have an incredible enlarger head, but I don't believe it is capable of doing color. I bought a used Omega D5XL with an Ilford Multigrade 500 head for peanuts (compared to what it used to cost new...thousands). The problem is that it only does black and white. At least I think it does...it has 5 automatic contrast grades and the light goes from yellowish to violet -- no pure white, so I doubt you could do color printing. It is such a pleasure to use for B&W though!

 

[julianphotoart]

Your Ilford 500 head won't do colour. But, with your Omega D5XL, I think you can fit it with a Super Chromega D Dichroic II colour head. It has a diffusion light source, which you ought to have for Cibachromes. On eBay right now, there's a Chromega D Dichroic II head on sale at a whopping $15!! A colour head also makes VC B&W work easy as pie. There are published tables that show for different colour head manufacturers how their numbering systems relate to Ilford's and Kodak's filtration systems.

 

[RichardS]

Given I've just commited to 34 rolls of Kodachrome, and the fact that it doesn't scan well.. Looks like my first foray into colour enlarging will be Cibachromes.. Anyone done this themselves? Hard work?

Daniel.

I did it for a while back when it was still called Cibachrome. I stopped because I decided it was too expensive. I have no idea what the cost is now. I don't recall it being particularly hard but it didn't allow much variance in temperatures if I remember correctly and you got good but very glossy prints with it.

Dick

 

[sblair]

If you are interested in Cibachrome printing, here is most likely the best photograhper doing Cibachrome today http://www.christopherburkett.com/

Check it out.

 

[julianphotoart]

Hi Julian, are any of your Ciba's in your RFF Gallery? Or could you post some if you have time? I'd love to see some examples. Or if you know a good website or book....

cheers,
chris
canonetc

Okay, here's a sad computer rendition of what is in reality an 11x14 Cibachrome print on the polyester-based paper. I've never attached a photo to a post before so here goes.