Agfa paper old

eunified61 · Mar 3, 2016

Just setting up a darkroom and was going through a darkroom job lot that I bought 3years ago.anyway in a tin box I found some agfa paper ,its Brovira cream glossy, cream velvet,semi Matt and glossy white also there is a box of Leonar extra soft.I would say there is 4000 sheets in all.Looking for advise on developers etc...

jvo · Mar 3, 2016

boy, am i jealous... i loved the agfa papers... if the papers are still good any of the paper developers would work... you can use any cold tone developer - dektol, lpd, etc. for warmer-tone you can still get selectol-soft (or equivalent) from freestyle, i believe.

agfa portriga was their warmtone paper and i processed in warm and cold tone developers with great results.

you'll have a great time and wonderful pix! enjoy

jvo

ozphoto · Mar 3, 2016

I'm jealous too!

If it's still viable, that Agfa paper will give some great results in either cold tone or warm tone developer, best bet would be to try in both to see which result you like best.

Was lucky enough to pick up some old Brovira (100 sheets) in 3.5 x 5" several years back, and the entire box was perfect. Dated from the mid/late 60s - wasn't expecting much but it blew me away!! Used some of it on an earlier postcard exchange here on APUG the rest I used for personal work.

Enjoy!

eunified61 · Mar 4, 2016

JimO said:
boy, am i jealous... i loved the agfa papers... if the papers are still good any of the paper developers would work... you can use any cold tone developer - dektol, lpd, etc. for warmer-tone you can still get selectol-soft (or equivalent) from freestyle, i believe.

agfa portriga was their warmtone paper and i processed in warm and cold tone developers with great results.

you'll have a great time and wonderful pix! enjoy

jvo

Thanks for the advice will get some dektol

jeffreythree · Mar 4, 2016

I have a couple of boxes of unknown expiration(maybe 1970?) Brovira. Crisp whites, no fog, and just use my standard Ilford Multigrade developer.

Molli · Mar 4, 2016

APUGuser19 said:
I have never seen any outdated Agfa paper any good. Most all I've ever tried developed pure black straight out of the package.

That's strange, my experience has been quite the opposite. Sure, I've had an odd packet or two that was too fogged for salvage or had obviously "seen the light", but the majority have ranged from good to beautiful with the paper being anywhere from twenty to sixty years old. A batch of variable contrast, 'recent' paper (mid 90s) was perfectly good with some Benzotriazole in with the developer. The older, graded papers usually haven't even required that saving measure.

Patrick Robert James · Mar 4, 2016

Did you say 4000? Holy S***! Was the "tin box" a cargo container?

You may need some Benzotriazole (anti-foggant) to be able to print clean images. Otherwise, any developer will do more or less.

Do a few prints to see if the paper is still good, then check back with any questions you have.

Ko.Fe. · Mar 4, 2016

I have around 400 of Brovira as of now left. 200 or so printed. #2 is great for lith. #4 is fantastic paper for regular prints. I'm using Ilford universal for it.

K-G · Mar 5, 2016

Old Agfa Multi Contrast Classic ( MCC ) has rather poor keeping qualities but Brovira is no problem. I have a few 8 X 10 sheets left from around 1980 and I use them for very special prints. Just enjoy your 4000 sheets.

Karl-Gustaf

paul ron · Mar 5, 2016

i have some agfa record left over that i treasure like gold. im saving it for those special shots that deserve the royal treatment.

volver · Mar 6, 2016

Agfa Brovira cream glossy bh5 (contrasty) developed in usual adox paper developer.
Shot on Leica M3, Summicron collapsible, Ilford FP4, Rodinal 1+50

Rich Ullsmith · Mar 7, 2016

With that much paper it would be good to grab a few sheets from various places in the stack to test, or even see if it is all the same paper. Same as others have mentioned, some of the old agfa is perfect and some is horribly fogged, who knows why. Test it. Also test for lith: place a drop of B lith developer (or the NaOH from your sepia toner) on a test strip in daylight. If it develops then it is no good for lith. If it is fogged and will not lith either, that would be too bad.

Agfa paper old

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