Agfa Rapitone & Rapidoprint

[McErland]

Hey!
After reading a lot on Apug I finally made my own account!

This evening I was offered to buy a lot of 400 unused Agfa Rapitone 8x11 P 1-3 papers, and 100 Rapidoprint FP 1-3 8x11! However, as I am unable to find any information about it on google I thought I'd try here!
Anyone know anything about these papers? And what would they be worth if they still works? I will try them out this weekend, so I am allowed to see the quality before I pay him

I will look for artifacts like fog and changed contrast, but is it anything else you can recommend?

Kind regards!
Marcus

 

[AgX]

Welcome to Apug.

Well, meanwhile I realized that I mixed up materials. So here is my corrected answer.

Your materials are part of a obsolete wide range of rapid-access materials that consist of films and PE-coated papers. All are intended as taking medium for reprography, most are orthochromatic, all contain developing agent. Processing was done by alkaline activating, fixing and washing in proprietory processors.

Whether they might be useful to you depends on the lack of fogging and their spectral sensibilization and gradation (Rapidoprint yielding highest contrast, Rapidotone medium contrast).

I do not find your types in my listings, so I cannot give further advise.

 

[McErland]

Hi, and thank you! I appreciate your information! What I don't understand and I was hoping you could help me with; Can I use my ordinary chemicals I use for regular Ilford Multigrade? IIRC it is a Kodak Paper developer? Since I am enlarging photos from a wedding, and I want the prints to be somewhat "vintage" I thought I could buy older paper. I think he has some Kodak Bromide paper, and some Forte as well, Maybe I'm better of trying those?

 

[AgX]

Basically you would not need regular developers as the developing agent is already incorporated, most probably just some lye-solution to activate it, followed by standard fixing.
If at all only the Rapitone paper could be usable for your intention, unless you intend graphic effects.

 

[McErland]

Oh ok! I think I am a bit to lazy to even try this paper, However he also got a stack of some Forte and Kodak paper, as well as some Ilford. So I will give those a shot instead! Thank you so much!

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Oh ok! I think I am a bit to lazy to even try this paper, However he also got a stack of some Forte and Kodak paper, as well as some Ilford. So I will give those a shot instead! Thank you so much!

I used some of the Rapidoprint, and it works to develop it in a regular developer too, because it is alkaline. It may not yield the results that Agfa once intended, but keep in mind the paper is usually so old that it's fogged and lower contrast anyway. Using it in your regular developer might also change the properties of that developer, because of what's incorporated into the paper emulsion.
My paper was horribly fogged and unusable, so what I ended up doing was simply to use a stop bath to neutralize the developer, and then use fixer to extract all of the silver. I felt a little bit better about putting the paper in the trash after that...

You may use the Part B of most lith developers to activate and develop the paper. If you don't want to do the trial and error, then that's obviously OK, because there will be a fair bit of experimentation needed.

The Kodak and Forte papers may or may not be good still, depending on how old they are, what type they are, and how they have been stored. Contact speed printing papers like Azo and Velox last virtually forever, particularly if you use low fog paper developers, or additives to help achieve that. Enlarging papers (higher light sensitivity), like Polylure, Ektalure, Polycontrast Rapid, etc usually don't fare as well as the contact printing speed ones, but can be a lot of fun in lith developers. Generally speaking it appears that the Forte Polywarmton holds up better than their Polygrade variety.

 

[McErland]

Hey Thomas (är du svensk?)!

I've found a .pdf about the Agfa paper, and found this information that a regular developer would work as well as an activator.

However using a Lith developer to avoid fogging is a kind of pricey solution, and will pretty much take away any profit of buying older paper.



I have discussed this with my friend, and we will give it a try! I'll try one sheet from every box, just to check whether or not to buy them.
The one thing that concerns me the most is pricing, what it is all worth if still usable.. Any Idea?

Kind Regards!

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

The Agfa paper is worth essentially nothing since it's for a very particular process that is now obsolete.

Some of the Kodak and Forte papers can be quite expensive online, especially at the auction site. Some of the Kodak brands, like Ektalure and Azo, as well as the Forte Polywarmton brand, carry with them a lot of hype and price escalation.

Unless you know that the Polywarmton and the Kodak papers are as good, with contrast similar to new paper, and fog levels that can be worked with, then they are not really worth much to you either, unless you do lith printing.
If you mix your own chemistry, or use the Arista Lith powder developer, lith chemistry can in fact be less expensive than standard developers. If you go this route, both the Forte Polywarmton and Polygrade varieties are capable of outstanding results, as are many of the old Kodak papers, and in this case they might be worth a lot to you.

My recommendation? I like to know what to expect, so I use fresh paper for standard printing, and I always use either Ilford Multigrade IV or (far less often) Multigrade Warmtone (both fiber versions). My negatives are developed to suit those papers, and whenever I get an opportunity to try other papers, I always struggle a little bit, because of the adjustments that are needed. Foma papers, for example, are not as bright as the Ilford ones in their base, so they require a bit more contrast in the negative to liven up. Each paper is somewhat unique.

Jag ar invandrare i Minnesota... Har bott i St Paul sedan 2001. Tackar som frogar. Ar du svensk ockso?

 

[AgX]

I just want to emphasize that this Rapitone paper is totally different from the Rapitone paper currently in the Agfa range. A paper loved by many fellows here.
For unknown reasons Agfa took over the name from a rapid access paper to a classic variable contrast paper and their colour paper too.

 

[McErland]

Yes, I'm from Sweden! Born and raised in a town called Nässjö!

Thank you Guys for your input! I will try to convince my friend about the cost of the paper, if they even work! As I said, my intentions are some wedding photos I want enlarged on a vintage looking paper, and also because I love to experiment! Bought some Efke paper online a couple of minutes ago just to try it out! The seller said that they should work as normal, and I paid a couple of dollars in postage so I thought I would give it a try!
Hopefully I am able to try all papers this weekend.

 

[Mota]

Hey!
After reading a lot on Apug I finally made my own account!

This evening I was offered to buy a lot of 400 unused Agfa Rapitone 8x11 P 1-3 papers, and 100 Rapidoprint FP 1-3 8x11! However, as I am unable to find any information about it on google I thought I'd try here!
Anyone know anything about these papers? And what would they be worth if they still works? I will try them out this weekend, so I am allowed to see the quality before I pay him

I will look for artifacts like fog and changed contrast, but is it anything else you can recommend?

Kind regards!
Marcus

Hi Marcus

I am looking for Agfa FP 1-6 (Rapidoprint) photo paper for a school project. Are you still in possession of these papers and if so would you sell them?

Kind regards
Tamara