Ilford Photo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ilford Photo | |
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| Type | Limited |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1879 |
| Headquarters | Knutsford, Cheshire |
| Industry | Photography |
| Products | film, paper, chemicals |
| Website | www.ilfordphoto.com |
Ilford Photo is a maker of photographic films, paper, and chemicals. Ilford is known worldwide for its black-and-white films and papers, as well as its range of Ilfochrome and Ilfocolor colour printing materials. Ilfochrome was formerly called Cibachrome, developed in partnership with Swiss company CIBA-Geigy. Formerly, it published the Ilford Manual Of Photography, a comprehensive manual of everything photographic, including the optics, physics and chemistry of photography, along with recipes for many developers.
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 1879 by Alfred Hugh Harman as Britannia Works. Initially making photographic plates, it grew to occupy a large site in the centre of Ilford. In 1902 it took the name of the town to become Ilford Limited, despite the objections of the local council[1].
Ilford produced a number of cameras, starting with a 'box' camera in 1902, but most were made in the 1940s and 50s. The Ilford 'Witness' was a rangefinder with interchangeable lenses announced in 1947, but not released until 1953 because of manufacturing difficulties. In the mean time, the simpler 'Advocate' series 1 was released in 1949 and series 2 in 1952. A pre-release Advocate series 1 camera was given to Princess Elizabeth in 1948. It was stolen but later recovered when it was sent to be repaired. Also released in 1949 was the 'Craftsman', a twin-lens reflex (TLR) which took 120 or 620 film. Then 1951 saw the 'Prentice' folding camera which also took 120 film. In 1957 Ilford released the 'Sportsman', a simple and cheap 35mm camera to compete with the Kodak Retina. The Sportsman became a series of camera models produced over the following 10 years. Finally, in 1958 Ilford released the 'Monobar', a monorail camera manufactured by Kennedy Instruments with a 35mm back that resembled the earlier Advocate camera (which KI had also manufactured). The Monobar allowed the front (lens) and rear (film plane) of the camera to be moved and rotated, bringing the scheimpflug principle to the 35mm world.
In 1983, their UK headquarters was moved to Mobberley, Cheshire. In 1989, Ilford was acquired by the USA-based International Paper company, also owners of graphic arts materials manufacturer Anitec. The two companies were merged in 1990 to become Ilford Anitec. In 1996, the sales and admin offices were also moved from London to Mobberley.
In 2004 the company went into receivership. The UK site was subject to a management buyout, which resulted in the formation of Harman technology Ltd in February 2005. The company, now traded as Ilford Photo, produces high quality monochrome photographic products. The Swiss part of the company was bought by the Oji Paper Company of Japan in July 2005. It produces inkjet products under the name Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH.
[edit] Products
[edit] Film
 [edit] Film developers
[edit] Specialist products
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[edit] Paper
[edit] Paper developers
[edit] Fixers and other chemicals
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Ilford timeline. Ilford History and Chronology. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
