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Old Maco multispeed F paper

darkosaric

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Apr 15, 2008
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So,

Interesting thing I noticed in old (don't know how old) Maco multispeed F paper (RC base). Contrast is so low that even with grade 5 ilford filter I got too low contrast. But there is no fogging, unexposed white are pure white.
I know that from old paper from ebay one should not complain, but it is interesting: so far when paper was old and low contrast - it was because of base fog - there was no pure white in paper, but here I have unusual situation. Anybody else had similar situation?

Regards,
 

pentaxuser

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I had similar experience with Ilford Multigrade III which was the previous paper to MGIV so it was very old The borders seemed to be white but the contrast was low and could not be altered by filters.

pentaxuser
 

MattKing

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Multigrade papers use a mixture of emulsion materials to allow for adjustment of the contrast. Essentiall you can thing of them as if there were two or three different emulsions, with each one having its own effect on the total contrast.

Most likely, the "high contrast" emulsion (s) lose their effectiveness faster as the paper ages.