Looking for Neutral to Cold Tone, Matte or Semi-Matte Fiber Paper

[Hiernst]

Hello all,

My first posting on APUG.

I'm getting back into the darkroom after several years and I'm absolutely amazed at how few options I have for neutral-to-cold tone, matte or semi-matte fiber paper.

I've been using the Ilford Multigrade IV, but was curious to see if there were other papers that give noticeably different results. After hours of searching on sites (B&H, Freestyle, Adorama, etc) I've only found a couple of options - all of which I've never used.

Fomabrom VC FB Variant 112
Arista EDU Ultra FB VC Semi-Matte
Varycon Variable Contrast
Slavich Unibrom 160

I was curious to know if people could share their experiences, results, advantages/disadvantages, preferences with these papers.

I am working with an extremely tight budget, so I don't exactly have the liberty of buying a bunch of every type of paper to try - I'd like to narrow down my choices first with the helpful suggestions of APUG posters and then try some out for myself.

Also, I found Kentmere's Fineprint VC - finegrain surface - but can only find places selling the glossy surface, not the finegrain surface. Any comments or suggestions about this paper would be sincerely appreciated as well.

Thanks so much!

 

[Silverhead]

If you're stuck for options, I would suggest trying Arista Premium Coldtone paper developer. I remember Henry Gilpin being knocked out by its performance a few years ago when he took some of his old Agfa Classic and zapped it over to cooltone with that developer.

 

[brian steinberger]

I have a bottle of Clayton cold tone developer, which is the same as Arista that I'm looking to get rid of. I'll give it to you for the cost of shipping if you're in the US.

As far as papers, Kentmere is the coldest paper I've ever used, unfortunately I don't like how it performs at higher contrast grades. Oriental VC and Ilford's MGIV are almost identical. Both are good neutral papers. Selenium toning will cool most of these papers even more.

 

[Hiernst]

Thanks for the responses. I was really very curious to try the Kentmere, but I can't find anywhere that sells it in the finegrain surface - only the glossy surface (which I'm not too thrilled about).

Before trying out the cold tone developers, I'm going to see what my existing Ilford MGIV prints look like selenium toned. My first time using selenium, so I'm excited to see what it does - looking more for permanence and increasing the density - not so much a color shift.

Thanks again.

 

[2F/2F]

Hi,

There are not a whole lot of cold papers made. But there is a lot you can do with developers if you start with a neutral or slightly cold paper, and you can even go totally blue or just mildly blue with iron toner. You can buy some developers off the shelf, or you can find formulas to mix your own. As for off-the-shelf developers, I like Clayton TST.