On duping...two step duping is used for preservation. Those are the people who will be the real use for sheet films in the future, because polyester based sheet films and microfilm are THE standard for long term records reformatting. Look at the policies of most state & fed reformatting projects...they're all film based. Two step duping gives you the control over the interpositive to filter out stains and manipulate contrast. That becomes the master & is filed away forever safely. The dupe negs become the working negs to be handled. A reversal film is likely not going to be able to hold the extreme range of a glass plate or an old nitrate neg meant for printing on Velox or Azo, or POP. That was the problem with SO-132. If enough fine arts printers and general public had been using it, it would probably still be in production. They gave it another year after that PT article came out...it got a stay of execution.....which was more than these other films. I believe Kodak 100% when they said digital scanning in commercial labs had done away for the demand for this film....because the institutions I work with, and the ones I talked to about it? They had quit using it back in the 70's. We don't collect negs & prints where I work...we do 3D objects & use modern films to document them. We do a heck of alot of copywork though, in support of artifacts and provenance. The neg duping I was doing was for my own "archive" of family negs.....This two step method I was describing is what you'd read if you were a vendor bidding on a gov't job on the federal level. It's all specified, just like the HABS work....(posted 8223 days ago)
Okay, let's take a look at the films Kodak will be offering in the next year according to their current product statement:
http://www.kodak.com/cgi-bin/webCatalog.pl?category=Professional+Black -And-White+Films
From what I gather here, the films are: 35mm IR, Portra 400, TMX, TMY, TMZ, T400CN, Pro TX 320, Pro TX400, Tech Pan, and Rapid Process Copy.
From memory, Ilford has something like (please correct me if I'm wrong): Pan F+, FP4+, HP5+, Delta 100, Delta 400, Delta 3200, SFX, Ortho Plus.
Bergger has BPF200, and two ortho based copy films should you require these....
Agfa, Forte, Efke, Fuji etc. all have their b&w lines...
SO, my question again....how many of you used these films Charlie originally posted about? I used Ektapan, but not enough to say I'll miss it...I will miss VP though, but not enough to take out a dozen mortgages on my house to keep it in production, I used SO-132 enough to miss it, but then again, I have moved on to a better way of duping in it's passing....if I had known more about 2 step duping, I probably never would have used it in the first place. I have used Pro Copy, and will miss it because it was unique, but then I did almost all my copywork (and still do) on Ortho Plus and TMX. So I wasn't keeping it in production. I used Commercial Film, but then used Ortho Plus too.... I haven't used these other films....
The way I see it, Kodak has had a huge product line for years, and they still do. Perhaps you all don't use lab gear, don't purchase supplies on contracts, haven't benefitted from scholarships and donations to educational facilities....haven't gotten professional support from these companies....maybe you don't realize how involved Kodak has been over the years..... We use alot of Kodak supplies for both our wet labs--print processor, deeptank line, and E6 processor. They give us a heck of a deal on gov't contracts, and we don't have to rely on gray market, out of date goods shipped from the corners of the globe....the customer service is top-notch as well.
But if you haven't been using these films that are now discontinued, ever?? What are you going to miss? And how has it hurt you?
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