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From: kanner@tymix.UUCP (Herb Kanner)
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Ektachrome 22 reversal paper
Message-ID: <426@tymix.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-May-85 15:37:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: tymix.426
Posted: Tue May 21 15:37:43 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 25-May-85 07:15:04 EDT
Organization: Tymnet Inc., Cupertino CA
Lines: 56


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.