POLL : The BEST enlarging paper is...

POLL : The BEST enlarging paper is...

  • AZO and only AZO

    Votes: 2 0.9%

  • Oriental Seagull Fibre

    Votes: 23 10.1%

  • ILFORD/AGFA Graded papers

    Votes: 20 8.8%

  • ILFORD/AGFA VC/Multigrade papers are just as good

    Votes: 109 48.0%

  • I have no idea either, waiting to see the answers!

    Votes: 77 33.9%
  • Total voters
    227
Bryce said:
Can we all agree on this?
"The best paper is the one you actually use."
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Isn't the best paper the paper that's most suited for the negative in case and the print in mind?
 
I was thinking even simpler than 'the best for the paricular negative'... What I meant was that the best paper is the one you actually expose and develop, as opposed to the one you thougt about and then never printed.
I've gotten along REALLY well with just two papers; Ilford RC for tests, contact sheets, etc. and Forte MG Fiber for 'real pictures'. Toning varies a bit depending on the subject matter.
I'm still running along on paper I had before Forte died, but soon it'll be time to find a replacement. Kentmere is sounding interesting lately.
 
ChrisPlatt said:
Ilford MG IV RC Pearl is a great everyday paper.

Chris
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Agree, it was really all I ever used until i discovered Ilford MG Fiber papers(glossy). I would never use glossy RC paper.
 
My current standard for fiber paper is Oriental. I can't even begin to think about all the papers I have loved which are now dead- including Azo and Forte, which are in the poll! Ilford Gallerie Matte was my favorite for toning, but they don't make grade 1 anymore, such a shame. Brovira, we hardly knew ye, yet I could have been happy for the rest of my life with always a few more sheets in the box. Agfa Multicontrast Classic was excellent, too, and another one I'll miss. Then there's Ektalure....sigh.

Recently I've been trying a few new papers, and I'm confident I'll find some things that I like, but it is alarming the extent to which great materials have disappeared.
 
Zone VI Brilliant was brilliant. Other than that, Gallerie, Ilfobrom graded. I never used enough Ilfomar to be as addicted to it as some were, so can't mourn its passing these 30+ years later.
 
Ilford MGWA Fiber glossy is perhaps the best I use these days, with the Seagull VC Fiber glossy a close if different second.

I came to VC papers for my own prints very late- Seagull G and Portrigia were my main papers for years and years, I only used VC for commercial printing, and most of that was RC. When the Portrigia ran out I moved onto Agfa Insignia, which was a really wonderful paper in it's own right. Printed a huge body of work on 2024 Insignia from 810 negatives, fussing with developer dilutions, additives and times to fine-tune contrast- something in some perverted sense I'll admit I miss sometimes. I'll still pour a little Benzotriazole or Bromide into the developer tray, but these days it's only for color change. But VC paper has really come a long way, the ILMGWA near perfect for me, except for it's propensity to overtone in selenium a little too easily- I've been caught more than a few times by this. For cold-tone printing nothing beats the old graded Seagull G- that 80's emulsion (remember the blue boxes?) had a color, depth, luminosity and surface that nothing these days can touch. The current VC Seagull is a fine paper, don't get me wrong, but that old G was, for me, the nines.

I've tried most of the current fiber papers- when Agfa discontinued Insignia I was only about 2/3 of the way through this project and scrambled to find a good match. Thankfully my Agfa rep hunted down enough paper for me to finish, but in that scramble I tested everything I could find. I like the FOMA warmtone paper on the creamy base- it is a pretty close match for Portrigia in many ways (again not in surface), developed in Selectol with some extra Bromide I can get a very nice greenish tone out of it. I'm using this for some of the prints of an empty grain elevator I rented for a month and a half last winter. Forte Fortezo was another beautiful one, especially so lightly toned in sepia. So many old papers missed in my darkroom.

One paper I really miss is SW Kodak Polyfiber in 8.5x11" size. That was my proofsheet paper, and seeing proofs on RC is just not nearly as satisfying, though the time savings in processing does make up for most of that.
 
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sepiareverb said:
One paper I really miss is SW Kodak Polyfiber in 8.5x11" size. That was my proofsheet paper, and seeing proofs on RC is just not nearly as satisfying, though the time savings in processing does make up for most of that.
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I never knew that size existed. I would have loved that size.

But I will say that when I switched to printing my proofs on the same paper as my final (fibre) paper, my work improved.
 
8 1/2 x 11 is a great size for proofsheets if you use the Print File pages, as you can easily get the whole thing on the page- notes across the top or along the side included.

Something I just figured out after twenty some years of using these pages is to write the page number in large type. Then you can read it under the safelights! I suppose this exposes me as a true moron, having only figured this out about a month ago...
 
It was Sam up there who didn't realize this thread was started over 2 years ago but whatever... The last time I printed (quite a while back) Agfa Multicontrast Classic was the only paper I used. Now the paper side of Agfa is supposed to be gone but I did hear that Adox will be making Agfa MCC on the same production equipment but on a whiter base. I just did a bit of research and here's a link to the paper:

http://www.adox.de/ADOX_Papiere/Agfa/ADOX_MCC.html

Fotoimpex doesn't have the page translated to English yet but it essentially says that the paper is manufactured on original Agfa machines from Leverkusen and has a bit higher contrast than the original with a "clean white" base. I don't know if Fotoimpex has a US distributor for this paper yet but this is worth keeping an eye on. Beautiful paper...
 
Agfa Premium MCP 310 (glossy) and MCP 312 (semi-matt) are my resin coated variable contrast favorite paper. Agfa MCC 111 (glossy) is my favorite fiber base paper.

sniki
 
drewbarb said:
My current standard for fiber paper is Oriental. I can't even begin to think about all the papers I have loved which are now dead- including Azo and Forte, which are in the poll! Ilford Gallerie Matte was my favorite for toning, but they don't make grade 1 anymore, such a shame. Brovira, we hardly knew ye, yet I could have been happy for the rest of my life with always a few more sheets in the box. Agfa Multicontrast Classic was excellent, too, and another one I'll miss. Then there's Ektalure....sigh.

Recently I've been trying a few new papers, and I'm confident I'll find some things that I like, but it is alarming the extent to which great materials have disappeared.
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I'm almost afraid to say what my current favorite is, because I've had a few others die on me too. I was using a lot of Vesta FB semimatte warmtone, for nudes, and Oriental Seagull in a luster finish for everything else. Thing is, they stopped making Oriental FB papers in anything but glossy finish, and I hate glossy paper. Vesta stopped making anything but inkjet paper. Tried several Ilford papers, but didn't like them. Ditto Kodak. Agfa made a pretty fair cool tone FB paper, but that's gone now. It isn't as good as the Oriental luster was, but I have kind of gotten used to Forte Polygrade V for the cool tone stuff. I haven't found a really good warmtone paper since Vesta disappeared. Every warmtone paper I've tried since then seems to be WAY too brown. The Vesta warmtone was not much more brown than their white paper, but it sepia toned beautifully and had a non-glossy finish, so there was no glare.
 
How about consensus on the following:
"The best paper is either no longer made, not on the list in the poll, or both".
Was it Edward Weston who complained that every time he found a paper he was happy with, it was discontinued? Film wasn't even "dieing" yet at that time...
 
They just don't make papers like they used to . . . I think we can all agree on this, and that AGFA had, by far, the best selection of papers that ever existed. Especially when Portriga had cadium in it--this was truly a fine paper indeed.

And f course the insignis and brovira--they even actually had a grad 6.

I have stored some boxes of graded 11x14 Insignia, not sure what to print on it or if it is still good.

Now a days for everything that I print, I use either graded fiber base seagull for the blacks and toning effects or Iford graded and multigrade.

I prefer the graded papers thought, they tend to have deeper blacks and brighter whites, and the gradation of the midtones are just exquisite.

I prefer to have AGFA back though . . .
 
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