Brovira!

Sean · Sep 7, 2005

Well, some of you may remember my father-in-law bringing me boxes and boxes of old brovira. Well yesterday I printed some and as far as I can tell it looks fine. I was shocked that it was printable since it is 34yrs old. It is very moody looking paper, has a dark broodiness to it I'd say, which is working well with my grainy 35mm street photography. I'm going to be pretty sad when it runs out! I have been using it with Neutol and will try to post a scan or two tonight in the gallery. When it does run out, what can I replace it with for a similar feel?

Here is the pic of my brovira stock:

mikewhi · Sep 8, 2005

I used to print on Brovira a lot back in the late 70's. I recall it was capable of very strong blacks and bright whites. I always liked it. I do know of a place that has some old Brovira, but I'm not sure how much.

-MIke

blackmelas · Sep 8, 2005

Yeah Its great stuff. I inherited several boxes of grade 4 and 6 from my darkroom. My guess was that it had been sitting since at least the late 70s. Most of it was printable, though some sheets had pressure(? from sitting stacked ?) marks that caused uneven development. I'd also love to hear of a modern replacement for this paper.
James

Joe Lipka · Sep 8, 2005

My guess is that there is no "replacement" for Brovira, but....

Grade 6 paper. How that takes me back...

ann · Sep 8, 2005

ah, paper of choice for many years.

Moved to Oriental Seagull graded when they stopped making Brovira.

df cardwell · Sep 8, 2005

Maybe Kentmere.

Weeping.

.

George Papantoniou · Sep 8, 2005

You should try lith developer with the Brovira, Sean. I have heard that it looks great...

I don't think that there is a contemporary paper that can be considered "similar" to Brovira. I would try Forte Bromide paper (I think they used to call it Bromofort, I don't know its current name). Anyway, it's the Neutral-Cold tone FB paper from Hungary...

MurrayMinchin · Sep 8, 2005

55 boxes of legendary paper and a heap of chemicals...tell us Sean...what motivated you to marry into this family?

Murray

P.S. Give your Wife a hug from me for that one.

Paul Howell · Sep 8, 2005

Brovira hold up very well, when Agfa stoped Brovira production in the 80's I bought a lot of Brovira #4 and 6 and found several boxes at an estate sale, some fog, but very printable. I have not found any current paper that has the look of Brovira.

Paul

Canuck · Sep 8, 2005

I've been using the new Classic and Neutol WA. Close but no cookie compared to the old stuff but does look nice. I like it

Photo Engineer · Sep 8, 2005

Ahh, Brovira, a classic AgClBrI emulsion. It uses metal salts for contrast control and has a nice slug of ammonia in it to promote ripening. Nice formula.

If it were not for the ammonia, I would make some myself. It tends to smell up the house when I do that type of ammonia digest.

Actually, if someone wanted, it would not be that hard to put the formula back into some sort of production facility.

PE

Ronald Moravec · Sep 8, 2005

If the paper base is still ok, no yellowing, and there is no fog, invest in an extra freezer. You can get a small one for a couple hundred.

The paper base yellowed on my 1966 exp date Medalist and Ektalure, but the emulsion is fine unlike the current paper which lasts two years due to the small quantity of incorporated developer. I hear freezing doesn`t help from Ilford. The Kodak was inherited last year, so I didn`t have an oportunity to do much. Sad.

Careful of the contrast grades. #3 was what Agfa considered normal when everyone else used #2. So if you want normal, open a pack of #3. During distributorship changes, a lot was repackaged and relabeled. Test test test. Then label and freeze.

Brovira!

Sean

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