Adorama house brand availability

[fschifano]

Just got back from a supply run to Adorama. Sadly, they were out of their house brand, 250 sheet packages of 8x10 RC glossy. Other finsihes were available in that size and the glossy finish was still there in 100 sheet packages, but overall the house brand section was pretty thin looking. There seemed to be quite a bit of Kodak paper, as well as some other brands. There was not an Agfa package in sight. One fellow, apparently a back office type, was on the floor and I asked about the paper's future availablility. He said he was expecting some in but didn't know when and who the supplier would be.

 

[srs5694]

A couple of weeks ago I placed an order with Adorama for four items, including RC and FB versions of their house-brand paper in 8x10 (100 sheets for the RC, 25 sheets for the FB). After a delay of over a week I was told that everything I'd ordered was out of stock! I was rather annoyed at that; normally they're much less flaky than that. I ended up getting Agfa RC and Oriental FB from B&H instead.

I'd heard rumors that their house brand was rebadged Ilford. If Ilford is no longer supplying their products for rebadging, as is also rumored, that could explain part of the Adorama supply problem. It could also mean that their next batches may differ substantially from what they've delivered in the past, if they're forced to switch suppliers. This is highly speculative, though.

 

[fschifano]

What with Agfa out of the game and Ilford no longer allowing re-badging under private lablels, the current shortage does not surprise me at all. Freestyle seems to have jumped on the wagon sooner than some of the other retailers though. The general consensus, if I recall correctly, on Freestyles Arista.EDU Ultra paper is that it is a re-badged Foma product. I've never used Foma papers before, but who knows, it might be better than the old stuff.

 

[srs5694]

I tried the Arista.EDU Ultra RC paper and didn't care for it, but that was because it had a substantially warmer tone than the Agfa and Adorama papers, and that doesn't work well with most of the subjects I shoot. Somebody who prefers a warmer tone might like it just fine.

 

[Paul Sorensen]

I tried the Arista.EDU Ultra RC paper and didn't care for it, but that was because it had a substantially warmer tone than the Agfa and Adorama papers, and that doesn't work well with most of the subjects I shoot. Somebody who prefers a warmer tone might like it just fine.

I also didn't like it. I found that it was hard to get enough contrast from it. Interestingly, I do a lot of warm tone work with J&C or Arista.edu warmtone (both Forte) but didn't like the Arista.edu Ultra.