PRESS ROOM STORY
MOBBERLEY - UK (JUNE 20, 2005)
20th June 2005
Heralding the return of pure black-and-white processing, both for the darkroom and for the prolab, ILFORD Photo announces the reintroduction of two of its most famous film developers.
Black and white and ready
Users of pure black-and-white film processes will be delighted to learn that ILFORD Photo has resumed shipment of its world-famous ID-11 and Microphen powder monochrome film developers, and that stocks are expected to be available from the end of June 2005. ID-11 will be supplied in 1 litre and 5 litre packs, with Microphen in 1-litre packs.
Powder chemical manufacture at the company’s UK manufacturing site in Mobberley, Cheshire, ceased when the original ILFORD company went into receivership last year. Since the management buyout which saw the business resurrected as ILFORD Photo, part of Harman Technology, these products are among many being reintroduced to the global market.
"We were very concerned that loyal customers who had used these tried and tested formulations for many years had been deprived of these high quality developers,” says Howard Hopwood, marketing director of ILFORD Photo.
“From the customer feedback received, we knew we had to reintroduce these products as soon as possible. Our key priority was to ensure the quality and identical product performance, which we are satisfied has now been achieved.”
ILFORD ID-11 is an economic, versatile, powder developer which can be used for processing large volumes of all general-purpose black-and-white films in deep tanks and in dip-and-dunk (hanger) processors, as well as for manual processing via spiral tanks or dishes.
This fine grain film developer is ideal for all general film processing requirements where fine grain negatives are required without loss of emulsion speed.
ID-11 has long been recognised internationally as a standard in many fields of scientific and technical photography. It produces excellent results with all films – both ILFORD Photo and other brands – and is ideal where a wide range of films and film speeds have been used. It ensures the best balance of fine grain, sharpness and tonal rendition producing negatives which allow a high degree of enlargement.
ILFORD Microphen is a fine grain film developer which gives an effective increase in film speed. A speed increase of up to half a stop can be achieved with most general black-and-white films, with faster films such as HP5 Plus, Delta400, Delta3200 and SFX200 gaining even more.
While many developers which give an increase in film speed usually produce a corresponding increase in grain size, Microphen is formulated to overcome this disadvantage via its low alkalinity which reduces grain size and grain clumping.
Consequently, Microphen has a high speed/grain ratio, ie: it gives a speed increase while retaining much of the grain characteristics associated with fine grain developers.
For a technical fact sheet on ILFORD Photo ID-11 and Microphen powder chemistry, visit www.ilfordphoto.com/html/us_english/PDF/powder_dev.pdf
“Whilst announcing this welcome product return,” says Hopwood, “I am pleased to add that work is progressing well on the development and launch of some new and exciting ILFORD Photo monochrome chemistry products which are scheduled for Autumn 2005."
For further information on ILFORD Photo ID-11 and Microphen developers, along with other world-class black-and-white photographic products available from ILFORD Photo, telephone: 01565 650 000, or email: sales@ilfordphoto.com
END
June 2005
EDITOR'S NOTE: For further press information, contact the ILFORD Photo Press Office
maintained by SWC Media Services:
T: +44 (0)20 8504 3389
E: ilfordphoto.press@swcmedia.co.uk