Bergger Silver Supreme Questions

[Francesco]

I have a box of these which I purchased 6 years ago. I thought I would use them for contact printing some of my negatives (which are exposed and developed for printing on AZO paper) just for comparison and really just to see what the paper "feels" like. Here are my questions to those that have experience using this paper:

1. How slow or fast is it? Will it fog under low lighting conditions (AZO cannot be fogged as it is VERY slow) - I will be cutting up the 20x24 down to size?

2. Will using a 200 watt bulb 3 ft from the frame be too fast for this paper? Perhaps a 40 watt lightbulb?

3. Will my AZO negatives be too dense? Any idea what the DR of this paper is?

4. What developers have you used? How long before the pic comes out in the developer?

Many thanks in advance everyone.

 

[Ole]

1. How slow or fast is it? Will it fog under low lighting conditions (AZO cannot be fogged as it is VERY slow) - I will be cutting up the 20x24 down to size?

It's fast. It's an enlarging paper. In my experience (with two packs) it can be quite variable in speed - testing is not only recommended, but necessary.

There is another paper by Bergger called "Art Contact" which is a contact paper: Still a lot faster than AZO, but less likely to fog. This can also be used for enlarging (unlike AZO with a normal enlarger), but with very long exposure times.

2. Will using a 200 watt bulb 3 ft from the frame be too fast for this paper? Perhaps a 40 watt lightbulb?

All depends on the exposure times, but I would think a 200W bulb will be too bright.

3. Will my AZO negatives be too dense? Any idea what the DR of this paper is?

No idea - and it also depends a lot on the developer. This paper responds beautifully to changes in developer, and tones very well in just about anything you can think of.

4. What developers have you used? How long before the pic comes out in the developer?

Ansco 130, Gevaert G262, Neutol WA, MACO Lith, Moersch Amidol... It all depends. I give it 2 minutes in "normal" developers, extending as needed for the odder brews and dilutions.

 

[Francesco]

Tack så mycket Ole! Looks like I should play with a 40 watt bulb first and move up from there if needed, maybe even increasing the height as well. Cutting it down to 4 sheets of 8x10 will be tricky - with AZO I can have a small lightbulb on to see what I am doing with the rotary blade. I am quite curious to see how my negs would look on this paper base, which they say is Arches Platine.

 

[Ole]

Bergger calls the base "COT-320", which AFAIK is made for them by Arches. I don't know if it's the same as Platine, but I know that it's very popular for alt. processes - but there are very many who know more about that than I do.

 

[rjr]

I have bought and tried Fomatone MG and I like it as a warmtoned baryta paper - but is quite fast... I´d guess half the speed of MG4 RC.

I´ll probably stay with it as my baryta base... btw, the Chamois ´tone MG looked quite nice, I hope it will be available outside the Czech Republic.

 

[Alex Hawley]

Hi Francesco,
I recently did a comparison between Ikford MG IV and Azo. I used a neg that prints on grade 2 Azo and still requires a minute water bath. (Believe that thread is in the Contact Printing category). Based on that comparison, here's what I think:

1. How slow or fast is it? Will it fog under low lighting conditions (AZO cannot be fogged as it is VERY slow) - I will be cutting up the 20x24 down to size?

I have not used Silver Supreme but I have used CB Art and its a good 2 stops slower than MG IV.

2. Will using a 200 watt bulb 3 ft from the frame be too fast for this paper? Perhaps a 40 watt lightbulb?

Yes, way too much. Try a 120 watt about 4 ft above or a 60 watt at 3 ft.

3. Will my AZO negatives be too dense? Any idea what the DR of this paper is?

No, the negatives will not be too dense if they print with any reasonable time on Azo. No idea what the DR is.

No answer to #4 but emegence time should be along normal times for the developer you usually use.

Go for it. Contact printing on enlarging paper works well. No reason why it shoudn't. Its just that it works better on Azo.