PhilippReichmuth
Hi everyone,
Is there actually any panchromatic photographic paper still available in Central Europe, apart from the discontinued Oriental Panchro paper? I have a pile of negatives on CN black-and-white films with coloured backing, and I regularly have problems controlling the gradation when using standard orthochromatic paper.
What sort of darkroom lamp do I need for panchromatic paper? Red light probably won’t work.
Philipp
Gast
Hi Phillip!
Your films are black and white, so you don’t need Panchromatic paper; fixed-contrast paper will do the job. Of course, the exposure time will be longer because of the orange mask.
You only need Panchromatic paper if you have colour negatives and want to render them correctly in greyscale.
Varicontrast and Panchromatic don’t work together anyway, so fixed gradation isn’t a disadvantage for you either.
Oleksander
fotohuisrovo
Panchromatic paper must be processed in the dark or under dim sodium vapour lighting.
Depending on the type of CN black-and-white film, it works well on classic black-and-white photographic paper (Ilford XP2) or, better still, with a neutral density filter on RA-4 colour paper (Kodak T-400CN). The orange mask on the Kodak type is also much stronger.
For XP2, it works best when the EI is set to around ISO 250 and a standard C41 development is used, with black-and-white photos at a gradient of 2.5–3. All chromogenic films produce a fairly soft image.
Best regards,
Robert
PhilippReichmuth
Hello Oleksander, hello Robert,
Thank you for the information.
SW fixed-grade paper works quite well with the XP2, but with the Kodak and Konica VX400 films I usually use, it works very poorly or not at all. The orange base on Kodak and Konica CN films produces a light to which, at least, my Fomaspeed is practically insensitive.
I suppose I won’t be able to avoid using colour paper for this...
Philipp
