EP2 color paper - any use for it?

[Tobster]

Recently I was given a heap of old darkroom equipment. Along with it came an unopened package of 10 sheets 12x16" Tetenal color negative paper.

After browsing the included booklet I learned that this paper is for the older EP2 process (pre-RA4).

So my question is, can I use this paper for anything? Does it work in any way with modern RA4 chemistry?


/Tobias

 

[Mike Wilde]

I have a whole bunch of the stuff, and even mixed up the modified RA-4 chemistry ( as I recall it was 12mL per litre of Benzyl Alcohol and a bit of bromide to try to image with it. It needed really heavy filtration, as I recall, and it had a yelow cast/stain to it, even when I got the filter pack as close to neutral as I could get it. It takes a longer time to develop than RA-4, and I have used RA-4 blix for the longer EP/2 time, althoigh I do not know if extending that part of the process is needed.

I have used some 16x20 strickly as a handy material to be a mask, to make the right sized 'windows' on my vaccuuum easel. I have alos toyed with the thoight of bleaching it then using it as a substrate to coat alt process photos on.

Until that day of experimentation comes, it sits in a rarely used part of the darkroom.

 

[Photo Engineer]

The heavy filtration and yellow stain will be normal if using EP-2 paper today even in "good" EP-2 chemistry. Adding the Benzyl Alcohol is correct, but it is about 13.5 ml / L of RA-4 developer and not 12.

It used 3.5' at 88 deg F. for development.

PE

 

[Mike Wilde]

Thanks, Ron. So I was not nuts. I am glad that I gave up on getting any closer to neutral and white when I did.

I did play with an old ep/2 kit with it before trying the RA-4 adaptation. The developer agent bottle looked mollasses, so I tosed in some dry CD-3 (or was that CD-4 - no notes at hand here as I type) of a weight to correspond to the g/l concentration of an old BJP or somewhere else formula. The reslts were not a lot different from the RA-4, but different filtration was need, as would be expected, to get to the same-ish off white with yellow stain.

 

[mts]

Use separate bleach and fix. Follow developer with a sulfite stop both. It is still inferior to RA4.

 

[Tobster]

Hi all, thanks a lot for your answers. I think I might do some experiments some day, but after all its only ten sheets.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Use separate bleach and fix. Follow developer with a sulfite stop both. It is still inferior to RA4.

I have to add that it is inferior due to keeping and also because it was an off brand made in Japan (probably) and they had some problems. RA targeted 4 things. Development rate, dye stability, benzyl alcohol and keeping. The first 3 versions of Supra pretty much made all of these goals but the keeping. It still lost red speed. Endura now keeps better than any of the Supra series.

PE