Am getting my darkroom stuff back :D paper question

Hello guys I moved to bath to be with my partner last December, also leaving my darkroom stuff behind, as my landlord at the new house got funny about it, after living there 6 months I moved due to problems with this landlord, and in the new house have the space to set up a darkroom once more! Have ordered fresh film, chemicals and paper and am getting my equipment and cameras back from my parents house at the end of this month bOy have I missed being in the darkroom! I ordered a load of paper, film (ilford pan f 50, ilford pan 100, ilfords 125 film, and some tri-x, I've ordered some rodinal, ilford id11, microphen and their speed decreasing fine grain one. However I snapped up some ilford 8x10 paper sealed and 6 months old for the cheap as well as my kentmere paper. What is the difference between ilford and kentmere? Ive always used kentmere and love it which one do you guys reccomend? Kentmere saves a lot of money and am not sure what advantages ilford Has over kentmere. The vc type.

I prefer grade 3 paper myself...

I hope everyone is well here

Have you tried Ilford Art 300? Here's a review: http://www.shutterbug.com/content/ilford-multigrade-art-300-new-exciting-multigrade-silver-paper

For top quality exhibition prints, we now use nothing else.

Cheers,

R.

Nice to see Roger Hicks on APUG. Welcome back!

To the OP: The Kentmere papers are now made by Ilford, as you may know, but if the new Kentmere paper is anything like the old one, its contrast will be different from the Ilford one. The multigrade paper also didn't work with the Grade 4.5 and 5 filters, when doing split grade printing, which I always though was strange.

Roger's recommendation regarding the Ilford Art 300 is interesting. I find its texture to be very difficult to deal with when there is a lot of black in the print, particularly if the black consists of even tone. The paper texture gives strange reflections, making it difficult to actually see shadow detail. For some things I personally find it incredibly beautiful, usually portraits and other things with fairly close focusing. (that's my personal view anyway).

When it comes to photo papers, I always recommend, as a general practice, to have one main paper and paper developer. You can have others, but make one your main paper/developer. What you'll come to realize is that the paper and developer is capable of a certain tonal range, and a certain tonality. Now you need to learn how to make negatives that best fit that paper and developer combination. Once you have mastered this, your darkroom efforts will be a lot less demanding because printing becomes easier, but most of all you will waste a lot less paper, which I find important in this day and age of high cost, environmental concern, and as a bonus your results usually improve too.
In the end I doubt it matters much whether you choose Ilford or Kentmere, just as long as you consistently use the same. This whole process becomes easier the fewer films and developers you use too. I understand the lure of using many different ones, but same as with paper I recommend using one main film/developer combination, and experiment with the others on the side.

Have fun!

My 'primary' paper was Kentmere grade 3 paper with champion universal developer or ilford universal PQ developer, however I plan to experiment with dedicated paper developers now. As for film, ilford ID11,kodak D76, and rodinal were my two favourites. Ilford 125 film and ilford PAN 100 were the two films I used, now however I intend to work with ilford PAN F 50, ilford 125 and 400 depending on lighting. Ilford PAN is a very good film, They are not AMAZING but for the price, they are superb.

However now I have more funds available this time around I am able to dabble in the higher priced ilford films, as some are like £5 a roll, but for most uses for me, 125 and PAN suffices, rollei no longer do their amazing twin packs of iso 100