Age & Identification of Ilford MGIII paper

[MattKing]

I have a line on a fairly large quantity of unopened boxes of Ilford paper. I know that it means taking a chance, but I'm at least going to look at the boxes.

The person selling it doesn't know much about it, and doesn't really know how to even read the labelling.

From what I can tell, it is Ilford MGIII. I'm not sure whether it is FB or RC. From one of the labels he read out "MG 44, 2.5, 1 m".

Can anyone suggest an approximate age for this paper? Does the apparently incomplete MG coding tell anyone what type it is?

I'll most likely be able to tell which paper it is when I see it, but I'd like o know it's age before doing any negotiating.

Would you take a chance on it if it cost, say, $10 per box of 100 8x10s?

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear Matt,

MGIII is very old....send me the batch number and I will find out how old, my suggestion is do not buy it before you sheets to test.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN tcehnology Limited :

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Matt

Good stuff for a school project to get kids interested in 'real' photography, or some experimental or creative large-format pinhole work, but I'd stay away from it for serious work. It's just too old.

Paper loses speed and contrast with age and may fog. The speed loss is not a big issue, just expose longer. With VC papers, the contrast loss can be compensated for up to a point, but the fog needs involved chemical treatment to remove it, and at that point the question comes up: Why the hassle?

 

[tomalophicon]

I inherited a large amount of MGIII and every bit of it I've used has been very good.
It may be luck of the draw but I've got no problems with it at all.

I believe MGIII was superceded in the late 1990s so it's at least over 10 years old.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Iford Multigrade III was introduced in Feb 1990.

 

[tomalophicon]

Iford Multigrade III was introduced in Feb 1990.

So it's between 10 and 20 years old.

 

[MattKing]

Thanks all.

I expect that my desire to experiment with this will be determined by how close to "free" the price gets.

 

[Dennis S]

Maybe I got it from the same batch. He gave me 3 boxes. 5 x7, 8 x 10,11 x 14. I tried out some 5 x 7 fogged badly. What I did pay for was very old developer Ilford ID-11, Microphen, Perceptol. And tons of new trays, safe lights, books etc. The developer was kept dry so I have had no problem with it. It must have been old because the developer had a $1.87 price tag on a 500 ml package

 

[MattKing]

I see that I never actually followed up on this thread. I ended up buying a fairly large batch of the paper. Some of it was MGIV RC, and was mostly fine. There was a small amount of MGIII that was only slightly fogged and I've made use of it. The majority (including the 11x14 unfortunately) was too fogged to be useful to me. I sent it off to another APUGer, who hopes to be able to use it for lith and other experiments.

The amount of usable MGIV I got made the total price I paid worthwhile.

I have learned that it is really boring testing multiple boxes of paper for fog .

 

[Dennis S]

Yes I was trying to find out about this and I just saw a person had the identical paper that I did and then I saw your posting and then it all seemed to make sense. I was just happy about all the new trays and developer I had gotten from North Van.. Well worth the trip. Still haven't tried the 8 x 10 or 11 x 14 yet because I still have a fair amount of the Kentmere paper that I got a year or two ago. Now that the printing season is with us I have enough until spring.
:munch: