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07-12-2022, 08:05 AM   #31
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I did some Cibachrome stuff back in the day too. I was in high school at the time, so I only could afford to do a few prints - the results were great and it was a fun thing to do - both the colours and the blacks were awesomely reproduced.


Back then I was shooting mostly Ilford (with some Kodak) BW film and printing to Ilford paper, so excursions into colour were a real commitment, both in eating up the camera time, then having to pay up for chemicals and then eating up darkroom time from the "real" (BW) stuff.

07-12-2022, 08:34 AM   #32
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I used to print a lot on Cibachrome/Ilfochrome from the 80´s well into this century. The vibrant colours and the supeb gloss of the glossy paper are hard to match still today! The harsh contrast - combined with the characteristics of slide films - was the biggest drawback of the material.
I still have several 40cm x 60 cm prints hanging on the walls looking as good as new.
07-12-2022, 08:48 AM - 1 Like   #33
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Good stuff

I also used the Discovery kit in school some 40 years ago. Took about five of the 20 sheets to get it right. Beautiful stuff. It was split four people to a kit so I had two clean prints out of my run.

I purchased this kit about ten years ago out of nostalgia. I don’t know if it would still be viable if used today.
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07-12-2022, 09:26 AM   #34
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OMG! A blast from my past. Ciba sold "kits" in the mid-1970s which enabled one to make prints from slides. The kit had around 20 4x5 unexposed sheets and the chemicals required to print onto those 20 sheets. Come to think of this, the kit could have been 10 sheets. Anyway, the prints were almost indestructible. I still have the prints I made 45+ years ago and they are as fresh and vibrant and gorgeous as they were back then. I had an inexpensive enlarger and with some careful black construction paper for windows and tape I would do my printing in our one bathroom. So much fun and satisfaction. So superior to how we print at home today (Epson 3880 and 900). Parenthetically I was shooting first with a Vivitar SLR and later I stepped up to a Pentax MX with 50mm f1.7 (I could not afford the 50mm f1.4 flavor).
Thanks for this trip down memory lane!

07-12-2022, 11:14 AM - 1 Like   #35
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I printed Cibachrome, mostly 8x10" but also 11x14" in our laundry room. Making the room light tight was a problem that took some ingenuity to overcome - window on the outside door and door to a hallway. Velcro and some black fabric-backed vinyl did the trick on the door. I used Patterson roller tanks on a Uniroller for development, after conditioning the chemicals in a water bath to meet the temperature tolerance. I used the Cibachrome color filters in my 23CII enlarger along with an exposure meter and test strips to get myself close to proper color and exposure.

The results on the glossy Cibachrome paper were stunning. Much better than anything I was able to get commercially. However the downsides of significant time to set up and clean up, room availability only on some days of the week, price of the materials, and the chemicals that went down the drain meant that I didn't create as many prints as I would have liked.

Due to the family's desire for more prints to view, rather than the occasional slide show, I transitioned to negative film, added the Beseler color head and analyzer and that was pretty much the end of my Cibachrome experience. Nothing I did with negatives, though, came close to my results with Cibachrome - several prints of which I still hang from time to time.


I still have most of the equipment, taking up space in the laundry room and basement, but I haven't used it in years - since my transition to digital. I will eventually get around to selling it all, but that task is not high on my priority list.

Last edited by lsimpkins; 07-12-2022 at 11:17 AM. Reason: clarity/spelling
07-12-2022, 11:50 AM   #36
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I used Cibachrome back in my darkroom days. The colors were quite vibrant and accurate. I still have some 8x10 prints I made from slides and the final results are still great; no fading or color changes.
07-12-2022, 01:12 PM   #37
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Inkjet printing is easily better than Ciba ever was. Everything Ciba could do can be done better and more easily with Canon inkjet. Ciba wasn't more archival than inkjet is today...that was a myth. I printed Ciba "back in the day" and I also had excellent Ektacolor prints made by superb labs back in the day..

Notice the miserable skin tones in the Ciba "discovery kit" shown a few posts above.


Last edited by janosh; 07-12-2022 at 01:14 PM. Reason: added small thought
07-12-2022, 06:07 PM   #38
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QuoteOriginally posted by garyabq Quote
OMG! A blast from my past. Ciba sold "kits" in the mid-1970s which enabled one to make prints from slides. The kit had around 20 4x5 unexposed sheets and the chemicals required to print onto those 20 sheets. Come to think of this, the kit could have been 10 sheets. Anyway, the prints were almost indestructible. I still have the prints I made 45+ years ago and they are as fresh and vibrant and gorgeous as they were back then. I had an inexpensive enlarger and with some careful black construction paper for windows and tape I would do my printing in our one bathroom. So much fun and satisfaction. So superior to how we print at home today (Epson 3880 and 900). Parenthetically I was shooting first with a Vivitar SLR and later I stepped up to a Pentax MX with 50mm f1.7 (I could not afford the 50mm f1.4 flavor).
Thanks for this trip down memory lane!
The MX was my dream camera back in the day, I never did end up being able to afford one. Saving my pennies for a K-1ii next …
07-13-2022, 09:00 PM   #39
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QuoteOriginally posted by janosh Quote
Everything Ciba could do can be done better and more easily with Canon inkjet.
Or Epson...
07-14-2022, 12:04 AM - 1 Like   #40
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QuoteOriginally posted by janosh Quote
Notice the miserable skin tones in the Ciba "discovery kit" shown a few posts above.
This was not printed with Cibachrome but offset...
07-14-2022, 03:28 AM - 1 Like   #41
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QuoteOriginally posted by janosh Quote
Inkjet printing is easily better than Ciba ever was. Everything Ciba could do can be done better and more easily with Canon inkjet.
I disagree. Inkjet printing is DIFFERENT. Better in some ways, sure, but inferior in others.

As I wrote in a previous reply, the closest one can get to Ciba in terms of digital printing is by using Lambda (laser) printers and (chemical) Fujiflex "paper". The results have a very similar "wet-looking" sheen as Ciba used to have. No Inkjet print comes close to that effect.
07-14-2022, 10:14 AM   #42
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Inker print wasn't really around when cibachrome was being used. My digital camera around the year 2000 was a Canon Pro90IS that I paid $1000 for and it only has 2.6mp images... an ink jet 8x10 was barely acceptable at that time...not like today. In the 1990s how would you even print an E-6 image on an inkjet printer? Slide scanners in the 1990s weren't what they are today. Its different era technology. Obviously as digital technology improved it was good enough to kill film and film processes.

07-14-2022, 08:29 PM   #43
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QuoteOriginally posted by marco_gea Quote
The results have a very similar "wet-looking" sheen as Ciba used to have. No Inkjet print comes close to that effect.
Have you tried any of the high gloss metallic papers?

Like I said earlier, I bought the first ever Epson inkjet Photo printer (in 1997) and the results printing from scanned film were good enough for me to stop doing Ciba/Ilfochrome...
07-15-2022, 02:34 AM   #44
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QuoteOriginally posted by rpjallan Quote
Have you tried any of the high gloss metallic papers?

Like I said earlier, I bought the first ever Epson inkjet Photo printer (in 1997) and the results printing from scanned film were good enough for me to stop doing Ciba/Ilfochrome...
Yes, the high gloss "metallic" papers for Inkjet printers are nice. But to me, the Lambda printer + Fujiflex "paper" still comes out on top. Have you tried that? ;-)
07-16-2022, 01:58 AM   #45
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I haven't probably had a commercial print done for over 20 years...
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