Kodak Ektaflex PCT

I recently acquired a kodak ektaflex printmaker. It's very old

(early 1980's) and I was wondering if I could still get the activator

solution for it. With the printmaker I got alot of Ektaflex PCT

reversal paper so thats not a problem. I havent been able to find

the activator solution required o process the paper. The manual says

to use Kodak Ektaflex PCT activator. If anyone knows weather or not

this is still made or if there is something comprable on the market

today I would really appreciate your help.

Kodak discontinued that stuff years ago--you might be able to find some old stock if you dig hard enough.....

I have personally never used it, is it any good?

Call Kodak at 1-800-242-2424. They should know the answer.

thing is that it's probably been about 10-15 yrs since they discontinued that stuff. If I remember right (I never used it), it was diffusion transfer process like a PMT (which I have used). They sold a film that was pos or neg that you printed to like photo paper. This way you could print from negs or slides depending on the type of film. The activator triggered the development & you sandwiched this film to the paper using the processor (with PMTs this part is called a "reciever", the film in a PMT is called the "imager" sometimes, it can be a "film pos" or "film neg"). You waited however long for the image to transfer & then peeled it back, washed & dried the print. They made paper and a transparency material for this as well, so depending on the materials you have, you can make all sorts of combinations of pos & neg prints to paper or transp. material almost like a duratrans. good luck trying to track some down. hope this helps a bit.

Hello Kyle

 

Came across this tread, and since I have been doing some of the same - here is a few words.. The ektaflex used diffusion transfer, and Kodak made two films (reversal & neg) + a number of reception paper incl. transparent for it. Processor 8 and 12 (indicating max inches paper width accomodated) were made (the 12 being electric. Also durst made an ektaflex processor). The process suffered from being a diffusion-transfer process. i.e., unlike the Ciba, RA4 and other single-sheet color processes which can produce high resoutions on print (the Ciba being about 60 lp/mm) the ektaflex looses a little of its edge sharpeness during diffusion. However, the material have its uses, and after a brief periode using it as supposed to (i.e. in darkroom for enlarging 35mm slides) I took up using ektaflex again, but this time using the reversal film as camera original in my Sinar 8x10 camera for rather spesial palette studio work. I traced down a good deal of film + paper on ebay for nice prices, and have used my two canisters of activator lifted from Kodak-Norway's last supply for these ones. The activator is very caustic, so one could imagine that the color-transfer is ph-activated and that a comparable strength natrium-hydroxide solution would do the trick. However - being in US (?) You might be able to trace down som of the real soup from forgotten canisters as I think the system were populare over there. As You mention that You have a lot of reversal paper - I guess it is Reversal FILM you have your hands on, as the receiver-paper is identical for both reversal & neg. ektafex-film. It seems reciever paper is easier to come by than the film, so just will probably find the missing pieces. The glossy looks the best. When material is gone - the printmakers silicone-rubber roller still does a decent job as paper squeege removing excess paper from up to 8x10 prints befor drying.

I have an unused printmaker including a bottle of the activator. I never used it because the film was so expensive. Is any one interested?