Elieid Photographic Paper

[Masuro]

Here in South Korea, I can buy a box of 100 sheets of Ilford photographic paper for 50,000 won. Or, I can buy a box of Elieid photographic paper for 40,000 Won. Elieied comes in a box that is identical to Ilford except the name. The design is exactly the same and it says, "Made in England, packed in Korea." I searched for Elieid on the Internet and couldn't find anything. I'm guessing this is a slightly cheaper paper made by Ilford for the Korean market. Students use it a lot here. And me, when the shop is out of Ilford. Do any other countries have this sort of thing? Ilford by another name and a cheaper price?

 

[mjs]

Ilford used to sell its product under other names for lower prices, but I thought I read that they stopped doing that. Other manufactures may: possibly the other UK paper manufacturer, Kentmere?

mjs

 

[srs5694]

As mjs says, it used to be possible to find Ilford products under other brands -- often store brands, such as some items in Freestyle's Arista line. These products were made and packaged by Ilford, but the box bore another name. Ilford has discontinued this practice, though, so three possibilities occur to me:

1. The paper is Ilford paper bought in bulk or in larger sizes by a local Korean firm and repackaged (possibly even recut) in Korea. This would differ from the older practice in that Ilford isn't packaging the paper under another brand name, as they used to do.
2. The paper is old stock of paper manufactured and packaged by Ilford under another name. The "packed in Korea" notice on the label tends to suggest this isn't the case, unless of course this had been the way it was done with this brand before Ilford terminated its rebranding arrangements.
3. The paper is Kentmere paper. I believe they package under other brands on request. (I think Freestyle's got Kentmere under their Arista line, but I'm not positive of that.)

In any event, it's probably fine paper. Kentmere is well-respected, as of course is Ilford. To the best of my knowledge, those are the only two UK-based photo paper manufacturers, so it's got to be one of them. The only concern would be if it's old stock from before Ilford stopped rebranding; then it might be old enough to show its age. Check to see if the packages have expiration dates on them; if so, that'll tell you whether you should be concerned about age.

 

[Masuro]

They don't have expiration dates on them and, as far as my untrained eye can tell, the paper doesn't appear to be old. It's probably from Ilford because the packaging is so similar. Thanks for the replies.