Portriga PRW 111 3.5x3.5"

[gothambill]

Can anyone give an idea as to what vintage this might be (does it have the cadmium)?

I bought some from ebay recently and wonder what to expect - it's coming from Greece.

I appreciate any development tips, developer recommendation, ideas for this size, etc.



Thanks,
Bill

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Greece , greece... you can go to police station , select a police officer and hire per 40 dollars hour. I am remembering that from somewhere where free spirits offers help for money. Dont expect anything from sold anything from there

 

[dnjl]

Greece , greece... you can go to police station , select a police officer and hire per 40 dollars hour. I am remembering that from somewhere where free spirits offers help for money. Dont expect anything from sold anything from there

As usual, your uninformed opinion is both ignorant and offensive. A product is not bad because it happens to be located in a country that has financial troubles on the global market.

 

[Guillaume Zuili]

The older Portriga was better than the more recent ones due to change in chemical.
Surprisingly... it's still like this
I have a lot of these.
It works beautiful in Lith but also with regular dev (Neutol WA etc).
Try.
Ideas because of the size.... Your call. Very simple picture, not too busy for the eye ?

 

[Molli]

Hi Bill,

I have many variations of old Agfa papers, while I can't tell you anything about whether or not it has cadmium in it, I can tell you that you're very likely to get results. Agfa AG merged with Gevaert Photo-Producten in 1964 but your packaging would be from a far more recent vintage, although I hesitate to even guess exactly when. Okay, from reading around other threads, the opinion seems to be that Agfa changed their formula in 1988 to exclude the cadmium and if you find your prints have the small Agfa logo repeated across the back of it, you've got a pre-1980s batch. (Please keep in mind that I'm merely parroting what I've gleaned from various message boards!)
Both the Portriga and Brovira that I have, have printed with a warm, creamy, almost salmon coloured base just developed in my standard Ilford Multigrade developer.

Hope this helps.

Molli

 

[kevs]

Hi Bill,

IIRc, in the old Agfa codes, PRW = Portriga Rapid Single weight (I think!), 111 is the surface and base colour, 111 = glossy, white; 2 is the contrast grade. It's a fixed grade paper, so using VC / Multigrade filters won't change the contrast. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a long time!

You should expect a drop in contrast, depending on how it's been stored in the past. Portriga Rapid is a fibre-based, fixed grade paper with a chloro-bromide emulsion that yields a warm to neutral toned image. It is responsive to selenium toners, where it takes a warm brown colour and is easily split-toned.

My tiny stock of Portriga Rapid 114e prints fine; I tested it last week. I haven't stored it particularly carefully and it's about 40 years old! then again, Greece tends to be warmer than England!

Ideas for the size (3 1/2" square) - small postcard prints from square negatives; gift prints; greeting cards; make your own CD covers... the world is your mollusc.

Have fun,
kevs

 

[john_s]

It looks like around 1980 plus or minus a few years. I have some from that era which I bought from a shop back then. The slightly earlier ones did not have a contrast grade number (2 in your case) but just the letters that Agfa used (in your case W = "weak" i.e. a bit soft). Good luck with it. I have found that my Portriga has not kept nearly as well as the graded Brovira from those days.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[gothambill]

Thanks all for the responses