End of Fomatone MG 532

Trond

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Hi,

I just received the sad news from fomafoto.com that production Fomatone MG 532 has ended. The paper has been a personal favourite because of the beautiful base and surface.

I've never seen another paper similar to this, so I'm wondering what to do now.

Trond
 

Lachlan Young

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Likely because of difficulty in being able to get a sufficiently small amount of base material made - 542 went a while ago because of this & as soon as it did, I suspected 532's days might be numbered. Then again, about a decade or so ago 532/542 became unavailable because their substrate went out of production & Foma worked to reintroduce them. Hopefully a solution can be found & they'll be put back in production.
 

Lachlan Young

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I'd also add that it's probably entirely likely that Foma had secured a specific amount of the base (projected to last 10 years?) possibly in one batch - & they've obviously had other non gloss or matte stocks of varying degrees of lustre and texture - 113, 115, 133 etc. Problem is that there's an MOQ for manufacturing substrate probably considerably bigger than their minimum coating length.

Personally, I'd like to see them do something like Ilford's ART300 - Arches Hot Press watercolour paper would be nice - or a custom paper from St Cuthbert's Mill (aka Somerset) - and they are likely to have far smaller minimum orders than Schoeller (for example). From an archival standpoint, a pure linen base would be amazing, but the resultant paper would likely be astronomically expensive.
 
OP
OP

Trond

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I have some 532 left. But I'll just have to use another paper in the future. Can someone describe what the suface of Fomatone MG 132 looks like? Fotoimpex describes it as semi-matt, which sounds promising. I'll have to buy some, and try it out.

Trond
 

aleckurgan

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I don't know who these guys at fomafoto.com are, but the paper is still available in all sizes including 10m rolls from Foma's webshop: https://fomaobchod.cz/cernobilefotopapiry/fomatonemgclas/fomatonemgclas532/
According to Ilford current papers can be stored for 5-8 years without problems, so if you really like this paper probably now is the time to stock.
 

AgX

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The photographic industry blamed the base paper manufacturer not to offer paper in economic volumes, the paper manufacturer then argued the others were not ordering anyway.
 

mooseontheloose

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That's unfortunate. I have a box or two left but I would like to order some more if I can find some in the size I like that will ship to Japan. Unfortunately the Foma online shop only ships within Europe.
 

mnemosyne

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132: I would describe it as slightly less structured/glossy than 532 II, not as dull as 112
 
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