How Old Is Your AZO??

mikewhi · Apr 18, 2005

I'm always amused by posts where someone says they have some AZO that was torn from the hands of a dead Roman soldier killed while carrying off loot from some enchanted land in a far away country. And it prints better than the new stuff, too, just a little benzatriazole that's all.

I have some AZO that expired in Aug 1947. It was probably made in 32 B.C.

So, how old is YOUR AZO???

-Mike

jimgalli · Apr 19, 2005

My Azo's only about 3 years old....but.....I bought a Calumet c1 outfit last year to rob the Ries Tripod. There was a 250 sheet box of Gevaert Contactone. No Agfa-, just Gevaert. That dates it to at least 1964. Gorgeous paper. Like AZO but double weight. No benzotriazole needed. Hope there are some stories out there. I love threads like this. Good bottomfeeder stuff.

Rlibersky · Sep 1, 2005

I had some from 1921 that I sent off to Paula Chamllee. She sent me a print that she had printed, a very nice print. Ammazing that it was still good.

David A. Goldfarb · Sep 1, 2005

My Azo is fairly new, but I'm eager to test the box of Haloid Industro I just got from 1952.

Jeremy · Sep 1, 2005

I've got some Kodabromide, Agfa Brovira, Ansco Cykora, Luminos Bromide, Luminos Proof-S, Luminos Industrial, Ansco Ardura, Kodak Bromesko, Kodak BG-4, Kodak Velox, and then some current Forte in the freezer. Tomorrow I'm going to try and skip out of work early to go pick up some paper developer and do some printing.

Not on topic at all, but I wanted to play the "old paper" game since I don't have any Azo. If anyone is interested in trying any of these out send me a PM.

John Bartley · Sep 1, 2005

I don't know exactly, but the photographer from whose estate it was rescued has been dead for 20 years so it's mid-eighties at the latest. I'm told that he had it for quite a while, but there's a zip code on it, so it can't be much older than the 60's I guess and that sort of makes it fairly recent for AZO.

kiku · Sep 1, 2005

mikewhi said:
So, how old is YOUR AZO???-Mike

Hi Mike!
Well, I just turned 70 on 14 Aug so my "AZO" must also be 70!!!
The best to you, Kiku

mikewhi · Sep 1, 2005

kiku said:
Hi Mike!
Well, I just turned 70 on 14 Aug so my "AZO" must also be 70!!!
The best to you, Kiku

Did the AZO came out of the womb with you? Did you bring enough for the rest of us? Was the AZO fogged by the xrays they took of your mother while she was carrying you?

-Mike

Daniel Grenier · Sep 1, 2005

FYI, AZO is (was) the oldest photographic paper still available until just recently when Kodak announced it will no longer be made. It saw the light (pun intended) in the late 1890s in Rochester at the Photo Materials Company which was bought out by Eastman Kodak soon after. Mine is fairly new but I have some that goes back 25 years or so.

Chaska · Sep 1, 2005

Mine is circa 1969. Kind of neat because it is a 500 sheet box of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, surface E-2 double weight with a deckled edge. Gonna be neat for some 4x5 contacts.

raucousimages · Sep 1, 2005

10x10 E-2 double weight expired in 1958

User Removed · Sep 2, 2005

I had a box of G-2 AZO and a box of Kodak VELOX that I sold to a fellow here on the board. I have not heard back from him to how the printing has been going, but I tried a few sheets of each paper before selling it...and both printed beautifully! I wish I could have kept the VELOX, but it was 5x7 size, and thats too small for me.

I have some very old G-3 Kodabromide paper I want to try out. I also just got done print with some old Platinum/palladium paper...which printed more beautiful then I can explain. There is one post under my gallery on it.

John Z. · Sep 2, 2005

Some for sale on Ebay from 1921; I wonder if it is any good?

Claire Senft · Sep 2, 2005

Same age I am and it still works with regularity. I need to finish up with contact paper.

kwmullet · Sep 2, 2005

Jeremy Moore said:
[...]
Not on topic at all, but I wanted to play the "old paper" game since I don't have any Azo. If anyone is interested in trying any of these out send me a PM.

Jeremy,

I've got a box of contemporary Azo 8x10 with probably about 50-70 sheets left. Since it'll be a while before I get my darkroom up and running again, if you wanted to borrow the box and pull 10-15 sheets for yourself, lemme know. It ought to work just fine with the Ansco 130.

-KwM-

Rlibersky · Sep 2, 2005

John Z. said:
Some for sale on Ebay from 1921; I wonder if it is any good?

I had bought some from Ebay. With a 1921 date. Sent it to Paula Chamlee. See sent me a print. It looked different them modern Azo but still Quite nice.

I was the recipient of McPhotoXes print. Some Old Palladio paper I sent him. Hard to describe how beautiful that came out. The gallery is only a representation of the actual.

sanking · Sep 2, 2005

Rlibersky said:
I had bought some from Ebay. With a 1921 date. Sent it to Paula Chamlee. See sent me a print. It looked different them modern Azo but still Quite nice.

I was the recipient of McPhotoXes print. Some Old Palladio paper I sent him. Hard to describe how beautiful that came out. The gallery is only a representation of the actual.

During the past year or so a number of folks have sent me very old AZO for testing, most of it from the 1920s through the 1940s. I evaluated these materials carefully with BTZS type testing and am amazed at how well the old material printed. For example, the AZO 2 paper from the 1940s had a B+F of only about log 0.04 over contemporary AZO 2, and the ES and Dmax was virtually identical.

It is really sad that this wonderful paper will not be made any longer by Kodak.

Sandy

How Old Is Your AZO??

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