Chloride Papers

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Chloride papers are lower in sensitivity than are bromide papers, but they are faster to develop. Silver chloride papers usually are fully developed in 60-75 seconds, while typical bromide enlarging papers develop to the same level in 120-140 seconds.

Chloride papers are ‘contact’ speed. They are used under a bright light, not an enlarger, with a negative in contact with the paper. The final image size is the size of the negative, which, probably, means you are working with a large format film.

Current chloride papers are the revived Azo styled “Lodima” and the newly introduced Adox “Lupex.”

current chloride papersAdox announced Lupex with a very considerate offer of free shipping, so I bought a sample pack, and then a box of 8×10. I like the paper. The shipping from Germany to Texas takes 10 days — be patient. Lodima shipment takes only 4 days.

I have seen posts (apug) that Lupex is slower (not much) and warmer than Lodima. That isn’t what I see.

Lupex. Lodima Scan

Lupex v Lodima
Lupex & Lodima: 25 seconds exposure

both papers exposed to same light, for same time. Both papers were developed in the same developer at the same time. To compare color of emulsion, I’ve scanned the papers against a Kodak grey card.

Lupex Fomabrom Scan

Lupex compared to Fomabrom & Fomatone paper

Foma makes 2 papers which provide distinct differences between warm and neutral images. Lupex is closer to the Fomabrom 111.

Exposure Setup

contact light
Soft LED white light in darkroom

Exposure is set using a Gossen lightmeter in diffusion mode. The ASA is set to 320. The lamp is raised to a point where the EV is 10. With the lamp at that height, exposure is 25 seconds for the Stouffer TP 4×5 wedge.

Developer

I use different developers, depending upon the image requirement. Many current users follow the Amidol road (spell lodima).. my preferred formula is in my ‘formulary’ section; also Lupex responds well to variable contrast developers, even more so using the 2 tray method.

More recently, I’ve souped both in Lith developers — they each offer brilliant color ranges in both Fotospeed and Moersch developers. I will probably use Lupex and Moersch later for more than just verification and idea generation.

Notes: See Easy Amidol for developer notes

Resources for making emulsions:

https://www.processreversal.org/public/workshops/handmade_baltimore/HandmadeEmulsionResources.pdf

Kodak Publication AJ-12, “Making a Photographic Emulsion.” https://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Emulsion/emulsion.html

EJ WAll

The Light Farm: http://thelightfarm.com/Map/ContactPaperDev/ContactPaperPart3.htm

1996, Kodak: Process for making high chloride tabular grain emulsion using multiple stream addition of iodide. Patent

Estimating Needs

your eyes point forward for a reason

How much emulsion should you store? How much film should you stock? Paper?
When I began, this was one of those business questions- economic order quantity. Now, it is a question about ending product lines. In 1970, we could impulse pickup film, or buy in bulk. Sheet film came in 50 or 500 sheet boxes, in addition to small 10 sheet sizes. Kodalith, Reprolith, etc came in 40 inch wide rolls. Dupont, Itek, Agfa made custom runs for some labs.
Currently, I shoot less film than just 5 years ago. And there are fewer choices, and rasons to use film. My method of determining film buys is to emphasize film from Ilford over Kodak. This is for black & white. 3 years ago I bought Kodak and stored it. I am working that down, and have no plan to buy anymore Kodak film.

The Answer I Had

How much film did you shoot last year? The year before? Are you increasing your shooting?
If yes, then buy at least as much as those 2 years added together
If no, then buy only the lower amount of those 2 years.

How much film could a film shop shoot if a film shop shot film

Old School Ordering

PranksterNotes 7661

Note line 5 (delivery delay), this is the uncertainty in this day. Film is now subject to great fluctuations in supply, with increasing risk of persistent supply.

Kodak Goes Special Order

The large format folks can’t even gather a consistent $15,000 per year group purchase. The first special order took 15 months to be put together. I used to spend more than that as my yearly purchases. I spent $5k on my last Kodak order — only 120 and 220 rolls.

if a film you use is being discontinued, and its loss ends your shooting, sell the car, hock the silver; otherwise, save the box and move on.

Operational Advice

order what you can store, and assume it is the last film you will use