Are there any soft contrast papers left?

[frotog]

With the demise of kodak portra what is there to replace it? I just found five more boxes to add to my stash but the freezer is full and you know how that goes...

 

[Ray Heath]

g'day fro
if you have a freezer full, why worry now?

your problem will be what to use when your stash runs out, an alternative available now may not be available then

 

[Richard Harris]

I think you are right to be concerned. With Laser minilabs able to adjust the relative contrast of areas within a scene then faster and more contrasty papers are bound to become the norm. If you can make a paper for thin and underdeveloped negatives with the minilab altering the relative contrast of normal negs then everybody is happy; except us optical enlargers. But we represent but a minute percentage of the paper market. I can't see these problems becoming anything other than more acute.

 

[FilmIs4Ever]

Well, since you have the choice of low- and high-contrast films, Portra really was only suited to printing from Ultra films, no?

I used it for making prints from Portra film and always had trouble with it. In fact I like Supra and Ultra a lot better.

At the same time, though, I agree that there is nothign that really fills its shoes. Kodak is starting to tighten their product lines up like Fuji already has.

Perhaps lowering the temperature of the RA-4 developer during development would allow for a reduction in contrast using Supra paper? It'd definitely take experimentation though.