A lot of people on this forum and people I know locally in my photography/darkroom community are very interested in different options for bases.
How about a survey to see what people really think?
To be honest, myself and the people I print with here in Tokyo have zero interest in the new Polywarmtone paper simply because we think or heard or assume the base will be the same as MCC. I’m not trying to be rude or complain but a lot of what made Forte a favorite for us here was the base AND emulsion combo.
I’m just trying to state my and my friends’ opinion. Other people may think differently. Thank you.
The quality of the base is a fundamental aspect of the manufacturing of a quality silver halide product. If the base is not perfect, you cannot coat a flawless paper on it.
It affects the evenness of coating (homogenity), coatability in general (coating tear offs, stripes, bands, adhesion), surface gloss, evenness of gloss, DMAX and of course the whites (light tones, color).
These are only the physical properties. For the chemical properties, we have the demand of no interactions with the silver halides, or the paper goes into fog over time.
So it is not a question of whether we can coat onto a different substrate (yes we can), but rather which image quality can the paper (still) deliver if coated onto an alternative substrate.
Forte ceased the 300g version in 2002 (!). We sold more paper on 250g after this date than we ever sold on the 300g base. The 17% less in weight is difficult to even feel.
I am afraid we are talking about a rather limited market potential here which will most likely not offset the implementation costs in producing the base.