Polycontrast filters with Ilford paper?

Craig

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I bought a box of miscellaneous darkroom things and in it was a set of new Kodak Polycontrast filters. Will they be equal to a set of Multigrade filters? In other words, would a grade 3 Kodak filter produce grade 3 on Ilford Multigrade paper?
 

MattKing

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No.
But they work ok. The steps are less equal, but the contrast does go up as the numbers do.
The other concern is their age and whether they may have deteriorated. They could be 50 years old!
Polycontrast filters were superseded by Polymax filters quite a long time ago, and then years later Kodak stopped producing paper and filters.
 
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Craig

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I got it wrong, they are Polymax filters. I just automatically associate Kodak VC paper as Polycontrast that I called the filters that without looking at them.
 

Sirius Glass

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I use the chromatic filters built into the enlarger head for black & white printing.
 

MattKing

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Craig said:
I got it wrong, they are Polymax filters. I just automatically associate Kodak VC paper as Polycontrast that I called the filters that without looking at them.
View attachment 348702
Click to expand...

The Polymax filters worked similarly to the Polycontrast versions, save there were more filter numbers at the extreme ends.
So the answer is similar - they work, but in slightly different ways.
I use a Polymax maximum filter to supplement the VCCE head on my LPL enlarger - and combined with the white light lever it makes split grade printing very easy.
 

MarkS

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Equal to Multigrade filters? Maybe, but you'd have to test A against B to find out.
But do they work? Most certainly. I've been using them for many years and have yet to find a negative that I couldn't print- and let's say that over the last 50 years I've made some... challenging... negatives.
 

pentaxuser

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I once got an answer from Ilford on what age alone does to contrast filters as opposed to use which is age related and it replied that filters will retain their ability if never used and have remained in their box protected from light. I cannot speak for Kodak filters but I see no reason why they'd be any different

pentaxuser
 
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