Old photo paper

[cerber0s]

What are the chances that old photo paper (70’s-80’s) in unopened boxes is still functional? They have allegedly been stored in a cool basement.

 

[Don_ih]

Depends on what paper it is. RC paper from then is probably near-useless (but possibly lithable). FB paper is much more likely to be good. The higher the contrast grade, the more likely it is to be good.

 

[MattKing]

Functional - maybe.
Consistent - less likely.
Perform the same way as when new - even less likely.
Fun for someone like me to play with - excellent chance, because I have lots of experience as well as paper that is functioning like new to make comparisons with.
Potentially very frustrating for less experienced people - undoubtedly.
But for things like lumen prints - wrth considering if free or extremely cheap.

 

[cerber0s]

extremely cheap

$4 for 50 sheets of 9.5x12 in. I’d say they qualify as extremely cheap?

 

[john_s]

One data point from my personal experience: Graded Agfa Brovira purchased in around 1971 and stored in temperate house ever since is still good. Possibly not exactly the same, it's hard for me to remember the contrast grade after all these years of VC papers since. I develop it in ID-78, a standard Ilford PQ developer.

Agfa Portriga Rapid from the same era or a bit later is totally useless, unfortunately.

One imagines that a cool basement in Sweden would be good for paper storage.

 

[Paul Howell]

As stated, some papers hold up rather well, others with developers incorporated in the emulsion are likely to be fogged. My last box of FB Kodabromide dated 1978 I got at a yard sale held up, it was graded 3 and seemed to print grade 3.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

As stated, some papers hold up rather well, others with developers incorporated in the emulsion are likely to be fogged. My last box of FB Kodabromide dated 1978 I got at a yard sale held up, it was graded 3 and seemed to print grade 3.

This is what I found from buying nearly 2000 sheets of expired paper..

Ilford rc papers will have good chance of being usable.
Most fibre papers will be usable.
OId Agfa rc may or may not be usable, old Kodak and other developer incorporated papers will be of no use as will Sterling and others.

If the price is right for old stock it's worth the chance .
Slight fogging can be offset with BTZ .
I'm also going to experiment with Flic Film phenatol green, variable contrast developer, with the old Agfa paper.

 

[cerber0s]

One data point from my personal experience: Graded Agfa Brovira purchased in around 1971 and stored in temperate house ever since is still good. Possibly not exactly the same, it's hard for me to remember the contrast grade after all these years of VC papers since. I develop it in ID-78, a standard Ilford PQ developer.

Agfa Portriga Rapid from the same era or a bit later is totally useless, unfortunately.

One imagines that a cool basement in Sweden would be good for paper storage.

There is one box of Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe, and one box of Kentmere Fineprint VC.

I currently have a box of the Kentmere paper that I bought almost 20 years ago, it still prints just fine.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

I just printed with Ilford RC glossy grade 3 , pre multigrade, with good results also Ilford RC velvet stipple with wonderful results.
Both papers are at least 40 years old.

 

[Don_ih]

one box of Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe

That will almost certainly be perfectly good.

Ilford MGII and Ilform MGIII paper is almost all garbage, unless frozen since new.

 

[Agulliver]

This time last year I was using some bromide paper from the 70s that seemed to work well enough. I probably wouldn't put the prints in a gallery but they're fine up on my wall at home.

But 80s multigrade paper, less likely to work so well.

 

[guangong]

So there is hope for my Agfa Brovira stored for decades in the basement of my house in mountains.
That is the one paper I truly miss.

 

[koraks]

So there is hope for my Agfa Brovira stored for decades in the basement of my house in mountains.

Yes. Brovira keeps well in my experience, too.

 

[Ian Grant]

I acquired a lot of 1950s & 60s when I bought a darkroom job lot for the equipment. Maybe 20-30 boxes mostly Kodak (all FB), I tested every box yes most was slower and contrast had dropped maybe half to a full grade, only one box was useless, all the rest reached a good D-max, with no base fog. I gave the paper away for workshops for childeren

Around 2003/4 my local pro lab had largely wound down, I spotted Durst 5x4 enlargers in a skip, damaged unfortunately. Terry gave me two turrets full of Componon lenses, off roll head printers and two 100ft rolls of Kodak Polycontrast, he said they would be fine although they were around 10 years old. I'm still using the unopened roll it's like new. The opened roll has an issue as the emulsion has stuck slightly to the base it's in contact with, I've not figured out a way to rescue it.
sheets
If paper goes off it's poor storage, Warmtone papers don't keep as well my last Record Rapid went off, it turned pink, older Record Rapid with Cadmium keeps way longer.

Ian

 

[Arthurwg]

I have some Agfa Classic Matt paper left over from the 1980s. Absolutely useless.

 

[Ian Grant]

I have some Agfa Classic Matt paper left over from the 1980s. Absolutely useless.

So is or rather was my Glossy, it was the Record Rapid MG replacement.

Ian

 

[MattKing]

I have some Agfa Classic Matt paper left over from the 1980s. Absolutely useless.

Always sad when something described as "Matt" is deemed as worthless .
Out of curiosity, was it actually labelled that way, or was it labelled as "Matte"?

 

[Don_ih]

Generally, papers with "rapid" in the title are all foggy. Agfa Brovira, like Korak's said, is quite a trooper - I have some of that that's 65 or 70 years old and prints extremely well. The slower the paper was when it was new, the more likely it is still good.

Papers I wish you could still buy: Forte Polywarmtone, Kodak Opal/Ektalure (same stuff, basically).

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I have some Agfa Classic Matt paper left over from the 1980s. Absolutely useless.

Not to a carbon transfer printer, it isn't!

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Generally, papers with "rapid" in the title are all foggy. Agfa Brovira, like Korak's said, is quite a trooper - I have some of that that's 65 or 70 years old and prints extremely well. The slower the paper was when it was new, the more likely it is still good.

Papers I wish you could still buy: Forte Polywarmtone, Kodak Opal/Ektalure (same stuff, basically).

Forte Polygrade V...

 

[MTGseattle]

I have some slightly newer data points:

Agfa Portriga rapid 11x14 grade 2 with a 1994 exp date. Frozen for about 18 years, then in my basement since. It seems to be just slightly fogged, but I don't have any to compare with to judge the level of fog.

Ilford MGIV FB glossy purchased in 2005 but stored badly (sometimes refrigerated, sometimes not), definitely fogged.

I just scooped up a bunch of partial envelopes and boxes of paper that I trust were stored well. My main thought was to start experimenting with paper negatives. I'll update this thread if I find anything "interesting."

 

[cerber0s]

Thank you for all your comments s!

 

[Nitroplait]

Maybe use the old paper exploratively/creatively?

Nikolaj Howalt did that for his Old Tjikko project:

Book: Old Tjikko - Nicolai Howalt

Book release, Old Tjikko 04/11/19 — 09/09/20 PARIS PHOTO 2019 Old Tjikko, a tree an a single negative has become the many different photographs in this book: a total number of 96 variations created on approximately 96 different types of aged analogue light-sensitive photo papers.

nicolaihowalt.com

 

[Mike Crawford]

I'm sure I've posted this link before, so apologies for self plugging!

I worked on a collaborative project a few years ago when I was given a load of old paper, mostly 30 to 50 years old, by a client.
https://obsolete-discontinued.com

In the end I gave the paper to nearly 60 photographers and artists who worked in all sorts of processes. (In the Gallery section, you can chose to view by processes. Click on each image for details on paper and process.) There was such a great response by the contributors and all sorts of techniques were used with the old paper. As said above, the Brovira was in good shape, maybe a grade or two softer, (see Tanja Verlak), Record Rapid was really fogged but was great for lith, (Guy Patterson), which may be the same for Portriga. Old Kodak had some great uses and a lot of the Ilford RC was used for making negatives, photograms.

We ended up having six exhibitions in Spain, Germany, Italy and UK and I self published a book under the imprint of Brovira Press! Hopefully get to show it again sometime.

So lots of potential in old photographic paper.

 

[Saganich]

I found a box of this last week being discarded from an electron microscope lab, maybe from 2005, so not that old! Is F1 high contrast or low contrast??