kentmere VC

David Lingham · Aug 24, 2006

I have used Kentona and the late lamented Art Classic, and was thinking of trying Kentmere's Fineprint VCFB. Reading the data sheets on there website, they advise against using "manual" developers for there VC papers. Never having heard this term before, I assume they mean anything non multigrade. I normally use Agfa Nuetol and Tetenal Ekubrom, and these have both worked well with a range of other VC papers. Why not with Fineprint? Does anyone have any experience with Kentmere VC paper, if so with what developer? There tech dept is yet to return my email. The data sheet also advises using there own multigrade dev. Well they would wouldn't they!

Travis Nunn · Aug 24, 2006

I've used it with Dektol and gotten very nice results. I've also used it with Sprint's developer, but not enough to really give much of an opinion on it. Buy a 25 pack and test it and see how you like it.

dancqu · Aug 24, 2006

David Lingham said:
Does anyone have any experience with Kentmere
VC paper, if so with what developer?

Fineprint VC. With no filtration and a condenser enlarger
expect Grade 3 using Beer's 5 print developer. IIRC, the
paper air drys to a some what dull gloss. Neutral black.
Dektol I'd expect would give the same or a bit more
contrasty results. Dan

jp80874 · Aug 24, 2006

David,
I switched to Kentmere VCFB when Kodak stopped producing Polymax. I use it with Ilford Multigrade developer, 8x10 T Max 400 film, Durst 138S enlarger converted to 8x10 with an Aristo 12x12 cold light head, 300mm Rodenstock, Ilford 6 inch filters and RH Designs StopClock Vario. I've used about 450 sheets of 16x20, found it consistent to the point that I've used one box of 8x10 for test strips. I print fairly light and the result has been complimented as being a very silvery gloss with a good range from light to black.

Good luck with it.

John Powers

Dave Miller · Aug 24, 2006

From their site Kentmere recommend: Agfa Multicontrast, Champion B&W Multicontrast, Ilford Multigrade, Kodak Polymax, and Tetenal Variospeed developers, together with their appropriate fixers. Equivalent products from other manufacturers should give similar results.
I use Nova developer.

David Lingham · Aug 24, 2006

Thank you all for your replies. Kentmere came back to me saying Quote:"We recommend multigrade developers but it works in other devs but gives best results in multicontrast" Says it all really. I use a lot of Kentona, mostly for lith, so I think I'll try the Fineprint VCFB.

pentaxuser · Aug 24, 2006

DaveL. So what does Kentmere classify as a manual developer and if it's not clear from its description as to how this differs from a multigrade developer then has your research revealed this.

I too would have been puzzled and I am still.

Thanks

pentaxuser

Bob F. · Aug 24, 2006

I use the Fineprint with Ansco 130 which does a good job (also MGIV, but then the 130 seems to do a good job with just about everything you dunk in it from reading other's experiences).

I've wondered about "Multigrade" developers: what is so special about a "multigrade" developer I wonder... Is it just a marketing ploy?

I have read some people say they could not get a good hard grade or that the grades are not well spaced on Fineprint. Perhaps that depends on the developer used, IDK, but I've not seen that to be the case at all. It has as good a Grade 5 and 00 as MGIV in Ansco 130, that I can say for certain.

Cheers, Bob.

David Lingham · Aug 24, 2006

Pentaxuser:
Kentmere's only reply was that they recommend multigrade developers. With no explanation as to what they mean by a manual dev. By that I can only assume they mean non multigrade devs. It's just an expression I've never heard before.

BobF:
Thanks for the reply. An earlier post said, buy a small box and try it. That sounds good enough to me. I'll be interested to see if there is a difference between my standard Agfa neutol and whatever multigrade dev I can get, Probably Ilford.

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 24, 2006

I printed a fair bit of it as part of a quest to find a replacement for Bergger (which I ultimately came back to). I found the Kentmere to be too cool for my taste (nothing wrong with it for that, just not quite the look I wanted), and too contrasty. I find it prints about a half- to a whole grade contrastier than my filtration suggests. This can of course be compensated for, but having to filter the stop softer starts to affect exposure times as well.

pentaxuser · Aug 24, 2006

David Lingham said:

Pentaxuser:
Kentmere's only reply was that they recommend multigrade developers. With no explanation as to what they mean by a manual dev. By that I can only assume they mean non multigrade devs. It's just an expression I've never heard before.

Click to expand...

David Lingham said:
David L. Thanks. I was coming from a position of total ignorance, not realising until seeing Kentmere's instructions and its subsequent reply to you that there must be one type of developer for presumably non multi-graded papers( graded?) and another for multi-graded. I had always assumed that paper developer was good for both multi-graded and graded paper. My deduction from Kentmere's reply is that while multi-grade developer is OK for graded paper, there are developers which are only any good for graded paper only. If so can any of the chemists out there explain in layman's terms what the difference is between a developer for a non multi-graded paper and a multi-graded paper?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Tom Hoskinson · Aug 24, 2006

AFAIK The difference between a developer for a non multi-graded paper and a multi-graded paper is most likely the label on the developer.

Markok765 · Aug 24, 2006

Ive bought a bottle of ilford multigrade, and find it slightly more cool than pq universal

kentmere VC

Membership Council

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency