Rolf-Werner
Hello,
I bought a pack of Kentmere Baryt a while back to try it out. But now it doesn’t appear on the list at all. I actually quite liked it and would have liked to buy a few more sizes to experiment with. So now I have to start all over again.
How can I be sure that a paper I buy here will still be available after a while? Or to put it another way: is there any indication of which varieties are always in the range and which ones might suddenly change?
Thanks for your tips!
Rolf
piu58
> I want to be sure that the paper I buy here will still be available even after some time
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Ilford.
sputnik
If everyone isn’t just buying Ilford, then FOMA is a good alternative too. ;-)
I, for one, wouldn’t change my favourite paper just because my usual supplier no longer stocks it.
You just order it from wherever it’s available.
In this day and age of the internet, that really isn’t a problem.
sputnik
Speaking of Kentmere.
What’s actually in it?
bernhardmangelsgmxde
As far as I know, there’s nothing left in the Kentmere FB range; Ilford now only produces Kentmere RC.
sputnik
OK, so there’s not much point in buying it elsewhere if it won’t be available there in the medium term either.
Right. You could stock up and freeze it, if you’ve got room in the freezer.
Rolf-Werner
OK, but Ilford is so expensive that it’s only worth it if you really know what you’re doing. Before that, it’s better to have a go with cheaper products first...
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They really should have mentioned on the order page that Kentmere is being phased out; then I would either have ordered more straight away or given it a miss.
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I’m not 100% sure, but could it be that it also comes/came from the Ilford section? I’m not going to run out into the cold to the back of the shop to check, though; I’d rather stay in the warm kitchen where my wife is baking bread right now... :)
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Rolf
piu58
Harmann had taken over the Kentmere factory. It was then decided, step by step, to discontinue paper production, starting with the more specialised products. The factory was eventually closed (around 2010). Before that, however, a large quantity of paper was produced, apparently – in typical Agfa fashion – to use up the existing materials. This was then sold on the market at special prices.
Rolf-Werner
Yes, that’s something you need to know, of course :) Thanks for the info!
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Rolf
GeorgK
My memory of it is slightly different. Ilford/Harman took over Kentmere at the time with the promise that, with the exception of a few unprofitable niche products, they would take over the entire portfolio (Mr Galley always comes across as very friendly and approachable in the forums). I found that suspicious even back then, because I couldn’t imagine Ilford setting up a cheaper, yet equally high-quality competitor within its own company to rival its own, very confidently priced range.
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To illustrate, here is an extract from the Kentmere website:
"Following the buy-out, HARMAN is keen to stress that the Kentmere brand will remain relatively unchanged. It will continue to offer the same resin-coated and fibre-based monochrome papers and inkjet products, including Opaljet, whilst employing the same marketing approach."
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To my knowledge, production of Kentmere papers did indeed continue initially on the equipment at Ilford. A little later, I bought two packs of 24x30 Fineprint VC, apparently from the first batch of the ‘new’ production run, and the paper bore little resemblance to the ‘original’ Kentmere. The original was strictly neutral and had a very pleasant (though this is, of course, a matter of taste) gradient, whereas the new version displayed a (for me) very unattractive chocolatey brown tone and shadows that were mercilessly washed out. The money for the 100 sheets of 24x30 was effectively flushed down the toilet, which annoyed me immensely. What’s more, the paper hadn’t even set properly, but was still quite sticky (which also looked like a new edition rushed onto the market in a botched job). Since then, I’ve kept my hands off this paper. If nothing has changed in the meantime, the loss to humanity is limited. It was being stocked by fewer and fewer distributors anyway, which also points to a dwindling customer base.
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Georg
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Rolf-Werner
Hmm. Perhaps not quite as neutral black as the Foma. I can’t confirm anything else. The ADOX PE, which I was also processing that day, has a much warmer, brownish cast (at least in Eukobrom), especially when you compare it to the others (including the Kentmere Baryt).
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The shadows, yes indeed... They did turn out a bit darker. But only after drying! That really got on my nerves: at first the prints were too light, even after drying, then they looked fine, but after drying I found myself thinking a few times: that was a touch too much again. "Riddles in the dark", to quote Gandalf :) But the shadows aren’t getting washed out; that sounds more like a poorly chosen gradient.
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Now it’s becoming clear to me: you could call this a quality defect. For me, it was more of a characteristic—less of a ‘bug’, more of a ‘feature’ of the baryta.
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Rolf
sputnik
The shadows, yes... They did turn out a bit darker. But only after drying! That really got on my nerves: at first the prints were too light, even after drying; then they looked fine, but after drying I found myself thinking a few times: ‘That was a touch too much again.’
That’s perfectly normal, though.
I’ve never found it to be any different with ANY baryta paper (leaving aside matt baryta, which is a special case and, in my opinion, even trickier to judge when wet).
Blow-drying the test strips takes a bit more effort, but it solves the problem.
What I don’t understand, however:
You write that the prints were still too light AFTER drying, but then also too dark.
In my view, only one of those can be true.
Did you make a mistake there?
Rolf-Werner
No :) More like "misjudged": I started by doing some test strips and a print. The next day, the surprise: the shadows were darker, but the whole image looked as if it had been exposed for the shadows (which it wasn’t). Simply "too light".
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So I made some more test streaks, let them dry, making sure the shadows didn’t run into each other but came out stronger. Underwent another exposure – and after drying, you get the impression “actually, that was a bit too much”. The image looks a touch too gloomy.
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Making the gradient softer isn’t the solution, that’s true. Rather, choose an exposure time somewhere in between. It’s easy to misjudge the dark areas; after drying, they’re actually darker than you’d expect with PE. I just have to get used to the fact that it changes so quickly. Or make some other test strips.
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So, the usual madness...
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Rolf
karlokell
Hi Rolf!
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This is exactly the right situation for a highly diluted Farmer’s developer, ideally if you separate the two chemicals in the developer: the ferric bath first, followed by a separate fixing bath. Not much happens in the first bath, but be careful: in the fixing bath, the heavy layer that sits on top is then ‘washed away’!
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Best regards, Karl
piu58
> quite sticky
something like that
I’d noticed that too, so I stopped using that paper.
