Changing paper brand for contact sheets

[Elmarc]

Hello all
Now that Easy Print paper from Fotoimpex is no longer available I need to find something to take its place for making contact sheets.
With a grade 2 filter the Easy Print paper gave me a good overall idea of overall contrast of the negatives.
I am aware that not all papers have the same contrast. Foma for example use grade 3 as their normal grade and I think Ilfords RC V is nearer grade 1.
So with this in mind, is there a way of tailoring a new paper to my original standardised workflow apart from matching the contrast of an existing contact sheet while achieving maximum black?
Any advice most appreciated as always.

 

[koraks]

Maybe I'm just too sloppy, but I'd make the contact sheet in such a way that the entire tonal range of all the negatives is captured. If that takes grade 1 or grade 3 on whatever paper used, so be it. Whatever it takes. I've even made contact sheets using Van Dyke brown or cyanotype when I didn't feel like darkening the room.

Are you working within a controlled/calibrated zone system approach?

 

[Elmarc]

Maybe I'm just too sloppy, but I'd make the contact sheet in such a way that the entire tonal range of all the negatives is captured. If that takes grade 1 or grade 3 on whatever paper used, so be it. Whatever it takes. I've even made contact sheets using Van Dyke brown or cyanotype when I didn't feel like darkening the room.

Are you working within a controlled/calibrated zone system approach?

I am not working within a calibrated system just the system that I have become accustomed to for a long time. I can 'read' the contacts and get close to the grade needed to print very quickly. I can also judge if I have over exposed/over developed etc too.

 

[koraks]

I see what you mean. I think in your case I'd pick a paper that you feel is likely to be around for a long time and then get used to that so you can work in the same intuitive way as you're doing presently. When starting out with the new paper, do as you proposed yourself and find out which contrast grade you need to set on the new paper to get results as close as possible to your previous paper.

Also, IDK what the most recent EasyPrint really was; I don't think it was really an ADOX paper. I know that some 10 years ago there was an EasyPrint that was a pretty horrible paper with poor, mottled blacks. More recently I understand an EasyPrint has been sold that didn't suffer from this problem. It seems that EasyPrint has changed at least once.

 

[Elmarc]

I had no such problems with the Easy Print thankfully. I don't think that it was an Adox paper either. It was decent, inexpensive and perfect for contact sheets.
I think that I will match whatever the new paper will be (probably Foma considering the prices of Ilford RC) to an existing contact sheet. I don't need to be too exacting but just enough to retain some standardisation.