Monday, November 3, 2014

Testing Kodalith in Dektol

I always wanted to try the extreme, absolute contrast; so here finally comes (ta-daMM!!) a Kodalith.
Kodak Kodalith is a very high contrast film made for copy work, lithography and alike.
It use to come in many formats but had been discontinued a while ago, along with its special contrast developer bearing the same name.
I recently found a few hundred feet of it in 35mm format (6556), circa 2003.
This film is low sensitivity material and has to hold well, so I tested it on my morning walk with Sir Charles Darwin Zhewalsky:







To get the contrast, I developed the film in Dektol, which is a paper developer, but was created (and used in the past) as a film developer.
In 1+1 dilution it usually yields a very high contrast, and it did!
So, the film was exposed at ISO 12 and developed in Dektol 1+1 for 2 minuted at 68F/20C with violent agitation for 30sec out of each minute.
I've got what I've been after: the black and the white and almost no gray.

PS
Original Kodak's >>PDF
Few points to remember:
  • Speed: ISO 12 or 25, depending on development.
  • Spectral sensitivity: orthochromatic, i.e. unexposed, it can be handled under red darkroom light (#1A or Kodak's "light red")
  • Triacetate base is extremely transparent.
  • There is no grain. Well, it must be there but I can't see it. Great resolution.
  • I know that this film can be processed to yield a full range of tonal gradations, it is just not what I wanted in this test.

Dixi.

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