Kentmere Bromide

[Jarin Blaschke]

Is this paper a real Bromide paper, or just an evocatively named chloro-Bromide paper? If not, are there any traditional Bromide papers on the market?

Thanks

Jarin

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Kentmere Bromide Technical Data Sheet

"[Kentmere] Bromide graded papers have conventional bromide emulsions..."

Ken

 

[MartinP]

Papers made with mostly silver-bromide are the "usual" ones these days. The older, slower materials used mostly/entirely silver-chloride. There may be others available from specialist resellers, but the most easily available silver-chloride paper (in Europe anyway) is Foma Fomalux and it is not even horrifically expensive. It is about five stops slower than a normal bromide paper though, which is why it is mostly thought of as a contact-print paper.

 

[juan]

As stated above, the Kentmere data sheet says it is a bromide emulsion.
juan

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

It is still made, but with a shrunken product footprint. I seem to remember grades 1-4 being available. I still have 2-4 in my darkroom. Now it's down to 2-3 in only a few sizes. But it's still there.

Years ago when the Zone VI Brilliant bromide papers were available I also seem to remember that near the end it was rumored that Kentmere Bromide was being relabeled as a replacement for Brilliant. Don't know if that's true. The original French manufacturer of Brilliant was Guilleminot Boespflug in France, up until the late 90s I believe.

I still have vintage prints on the original Brilliant bromide that have a glow to them that I have not been able to reproduce decades later. For example, (there was a url link here which no longer exists) is a vintage Brilliant sample. And this early print scan was made using a crappy $69 scanner, not my latest pretty-darn-good-quality scanning hardware that replaced it.

Kentmere Bromide Current Product List

Kentmere Bromide Currently Available at B&H Photo

Ken

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Is Kentmere Bromide still made?

It is still made, but with a shrunken product footprint...

That's incorrect. It's still available, but no longer manufactured.

Several years of asking Simon for a straight answer after HARMAN acquired Kentmere in 2009 were to no avail. Finally, last summer, he let the truth out in this post:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)
​

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Thanks Sal. I missed that piece of good-to-know info. I was mistakenly assuming current availability meant current production.

I do know from experience that the paper itself, although quite beautiful when processed in Ansco 130, was more difficult to work with than the regular Harman papers. Due to the only hours that ever seem available to me, my processing usually calls for leaving prints to still-water soak overnight. Harman papers seem to have no problem with this, even if it's not exactly the best practice.

But the Kentmere Bromide had huge problems with it. The emulsion would begin detaching and flaking off from the edges inward. To mitigate this I would routinely leave sufficient white borders that the damaged portions could be trimmed off when dry mounting at the end. That worked, but was a bit irritating.

Harman's standards of quality are so high that maybe this even contributed to the paper's demise?

Ken

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...Harman's standards of quality are so high that maybe this even contributed to the paper's demise?...

I doubt that. Simon's ignoring our questions from 2009 until 2013 gives a good indication that very low sales volume was what drove the decision to cease production. It's taken until even later than 'now' to deplete Bromide stock on hand at HARMAN! Who knows how much longer Bromide will remain available? HARMAN's quality standards might have something to say about that, particularly with respect to maximum storage time for parent rolls.

 

[Jarin Blaschke]

Hmm. I was wondering why I see it online at B&H, but not Freestyle. It's still on the Kentmere website though. Why would it be there, if they no longer make it? I'm a cold tone lover - should I not seek it out while I'm setting up my new workflow? My paper developer is Ansco 130. I'll adjust the bromide for Benzo, or adjust the hydroq for contrast, but this developer has served me well through the paper chaos the last ten years.

J

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

When Freestyle stopped carrying Kentmere Bromide I gave the graded Slavich Unibrom 160 paper a try. It's supposedly also a pure bromide paper, and it requires a red safelight. I thought it was a fine substitute in Ansco 130, toning in selenium particularly well.

I still have the empty packages and they are labeled as grades 2-4. However, if you look at the following data sheets, Slavich refers to the three grades as semi-soft, normal, and contrast.

Technical specifications for Unibrom 160 BP and Unibrom 160 PE

Last I heard this paper was only available in the USA on a batch order basis from the following source:

Laser Reflections Holography Studio

And in Europe it's currently advertised by the following APUG advertiser:

Labo-Argentique

Ken