Agfa portriga

dfoo · Nov 22, 2010

I just bought a several hundred sheets of 11x14 portriga from a local seller. I tried it last night and I'm very shocked at how great this paper is even after all these years (I think he bought most of it in 1984). I love the warm tones, and the way it accepts selenium toning is amazing.

So ... what modern paper is closes to this paper?

jvo · Nov 23, 2010

jealous

boy, i hope someone has the answer to your question - AND that there is an equivalent paper! portriga was a great paper as was agfa brovira!

Ian Grant · Nov 23, 2010

There's no similar paper because none use cadmium these days, as it's use is banned. Your lucky it's still OK, more modern Warm Tone papers including Record Rapid and Portriga after the late 1980's have poor keeping properties.

Ian

R gould · Nov 23, 2010

No cadimuim can be used today so you can't paper of the likes of Portriga these days,great shame as it was a beautifuf warm paper, I have been trying to find a replacement ever since is was stopped, and the nearest I could find was Fomatone, although even that was not as good as the Agfa paper,Richard

climbabout · Nov 23, 2010

Portriga

Cherish it and use it wisely. I have a fair amount of 16x20 frozen that I use for contact printing 8x10 and it still prints beautifully. My next favorite current paper is the Ilford warmtone multigrade - but nothing made today compares to the old portriga.

jelke · Nov 23, 2010

dfoo said:
I just bought a several hundred sheets of 11x14 portriga from a local seller. I tried it last night and I'm very shocked at how great this paper is even after all these years (I think he bought most of it in 1984). I love the warm tones, and the way it accepts selenium toning is amazing.

So ... what modern paper is closes to this paper?

fomabrom variant 123

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/ProductByGroup.asp?PrGrp=1125

paul ron · Nov 23, 2010

I was doing prints last night using the last of my Record Rapid 11x14 left over from from 1992 and crying with every sheet I used as my stach got depleated to about 10 sheets. I treasure it like gold.

Where did you buy that paper and does he have any more? I want, I need. Tell me he still has a nice load of it?

Now I know how heroin junkies feel at the end of their stash.

paul ron · Nov 23, 2010

jelke said:
fomabrom variant 123

http://www.silverprint.co.uk/ProductByGroup.asp?PrGrp=1125

I am going to try this stuff, thanks. It sounds great, just like the AGFA 111 Record Rapid. I'll check to see if B&H carries it.

dfoo · Nov 23, 2010

paul ron said:
I was doing prints last night using the last of my Record Rapid 11x14 left over from from 1992 and crying with every sheet I used as my stach got depleated to about 10 sheets. I treasure it like gold.

Where did you buy that paper and does he have any more? I want, I need. Tell me he still has a nice load of it?

Now I know how heroin junkies feel at the end of their stash.

Sorry, I bought it all I have 2 full boxes of grade 1 which I've never printed. Not sure what I'm going to do with them.

Paul Sorensen · Nov 23, 2010

dfoo said:
Sorry, I bought it all I have 2 full boxes of grade 1 which I've never printed. Not sure what I'm going to do with them.

Guess you have to start over developing your film so that you can get negs contrasty enough to use with your great paper! Oh, the things we do...

dfoo · Nov 23, 2010

Great recommendation earlier on the Fomabrom... I'm going to pick some of that up and give it a try. What amazed me most was the way the Agfa toned. I've printed quite a bit of Kentmere FB and obviously the color of the paper is different (the Agfa is much warmer), but it won't tone the same either. I toned my print last night in 1:9 selenium for 20 minutes and the color is _very_ eggplant. I've never seen anything close in the Kentmere.

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Nov 23, 2010

dfoo ,

Ansel Adams also toned his Agfa prints with Selenium. Good selection and hit.

Umut

paul ron · Nov 24, 2010

paul ron said:
I am going to try this stuff, thanks. It sounds great, just like the AGFA 111 Record Rapid. I'll check to see if B&H carries it.

Oh it's number 1, never mind you can keep it. I recomend you send it to me so I can recycle it properly.

BTW I was looking on B&H site, they don't have the 123, only 131. Anyone know about this paper?

Ian Grant · Nov 24, 2010

Mustafa Umut Sarac said:
dfoo ,

Ansel Adams also toned his Agfa prints with Selenium. Good selection and hit.

Umut

Ansel Adams didn't like warm tone papers so would have used Brovira.

Ian

Steve Sherman · Nov 24, 2010

Ian Grant said:
There's no similar paper because none use cadmium these days, as it's use is banned. Your lucky it's still OK, more modern Warm Tone papers including Record Rapid and Portriga after the late 1980's have poor keeping properties.

Ian

I would agree in part, that the newer warmtone, in Agfa's case post 1990, those emulsions do go bad much sooner than the 1980's version.

Pre 1990 Portriga does have cadmium along with a chloride based emulsion are likely the reasons for enhanced keeping properties.

I, along with Climbabout purchased two freezers full of pre 1984 Portriga which still yields wonderful results. It's possbile to roughly date the emulsion version based on the design and color of the label.

I have some old (1970's) Portriga #0 which changed to PRW #1 in the next version of the emulsion, the older # 0 has noticeably superior low value contrast than the later PRW # 1.

Simply stated, there is nothing in today's papers resembling Portriga Rapid, hence, it becomes a choice of what is the best alternative, subjectively speaking my choice would be Ilford's Warmtone albeit a far cry from Portriga.

Cheers

Ian Grant · Nov 25, 2010

Unfortunately Steve I have to throw out two boxes of 16"x12" Record Rapid from around 1992, and some 24"-x20", it's not just fogged the emulsion and base has gone a slight peachy red colour, nothing removes this. The Cadmium stabilised these emulsions.

Older Agfa WR papers kept very much better. It's also noticeable that modern WT papers tend to shift towards a more neutral tone over a couple of years.

You can get an image close to Portriga's unique colour/tone by using the Ilford IT-8 Toner which is a re-developing toner using a Dichromate bleach with a Pyrocatechin redeveloper., but you can't get a similar surface.

Ian

EdSawyer · Dec 4, 2010

Grade 1 for Tech Pan

Grade 1 paper is perfect for Tech Pan negs. If you want to part with it, I'd be up for it. ;-) I shoot a lot of Tech pan, and it almost always needs grade 1 to get a decent print.

-Ed

Agfa portriga

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