bad Arista II paper?

Has anyone had trouble with this paper?

I used to use Illford paper but then I bought some Arista EDU.Ultra paper and Arista II paper to try.

At first I tried using Arista II paper but it was making it very difficult to print a negative I had already printed successfully on Illford. As I remember, I had to use a 00 filter to control the overall contrast on a negative I had printed with grade 2 with resonable results on Illford, and the results were very unattractive because local contrast was destroyed. I switched to the EDU.Ultra paper and had no problems.

But I used up the whole 25 sheets of the EDU.Ultra paper now and went back to the Arista II paper and it's the same thing...I cannot get a decent print to save my life, even with negatives I've printed easily on other papers. It's as if the contrast is really wrong and it doesn't respond to my Illford filters at all...yet printing with no filter is not satisfactory either. The paper is also ultra-fast.

Did I get a bad batch of paper?

The fruits of my 2+ hours trying to print on this paper are drying right now, I might scan them later.

It is a moot point now as Freestyle is no longer going to offer the Arista II. But that said I have used it professionally for years through all the versions and get great results. Might be a matter of color of light. I have never run into a bad batch. you could try the same paper packaged as Kentmere and see if there is a difference.

arista II

dpurdy said:

It is a moot point now as Freestyle is no longer going to offer the Arista II. But that said I have used it professionally for years through all the versions and get great results. Might be a matter of color of light. I have never run into a bad batch. you could try the same paper packaged as Kentmere and see if there is a difference.

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I agree I have been using the Arista II in all sizes up to 11x14 for several years now with no problems. It does however have an incorporated developer. I am using liquidal as a developer, water stop, and TF4 fixer, Beseler 23 CII with a Dual Dichro S head operating in condenser mode. The stuff (paper) is really Kentmere paper and I have never had a problem other than my own screw ups with the paper..Dave

I love this paper, and always found it to have one grade higher contrast than Ilford in my darkroom.

One time I did have pack of this in 8x10 that had two roller marks running through every sheet (replaced promptly by the distributor). I have had a package of Ilford that printed very flat, and varying contrast filtration had minimal effect. This bad package was very unusual in my experience, and I unscientifically attributed this to it getting very hot somewhere in route to me.

Since your other papers are working properly, I think it is safe to assume that there is a problem with your package of Arista II.

I think that the Edu Ultra is awesome paper.