Velox

I've gotten hold of a box of Velox 2.5" x 3" contact paper from the 1950s. I'm planning to build a pinhole to suit and use some of them for paper negatives, and likely do some creative-cropping under the enlarger with the rest. Just for a test, I stuck a sheet under a middle-of-the-road 6x6 negative on the Omega B600 at maximum height and f/11. Exposed for 10 seconds, got absolutely nothing. After a few minutes in the dev, rinsed the sheet and left it sitting out under the room light. After a few minutes I did start to get purple blotches showing up, so it's not completely dead.

After a bit more reading, I see that while Velox was "fast" for a contact print film it's still far slower than modern enlarging papers. So, I'm assuming my 10s at f11 and quite a high enlargement ratio wasn't nearly enough exposure. Some of what I'm reading suggests I may need to try something on the order of a couple of minutes. I'll try again to get a bit more feel for that end of things.

The major question I have, though, is about developer. Kodak recommended Dektol. I was trying the Ilford Multigrade paper dev, allegedly an equivalent to Polymax. Will this work at all? I'm not familiar enough with the chemistry to know if this developer is appropriate for a non-bromide paper.

ETA: I misread the info I was looking at. Velox *develops* quickly, but was quite slow even for a contact paper--to the point that it was apparently safe to work with under dim room light. Huh. Learn something new every day.

You'll need a much longer exposure. Try 30+ with the lens wide open for about a 4x enlargement.

It might be a fast contact paper but it's slow compared to today's paper.

BTW I've been using some similar sized paper expirery date of 1951 and works just in Ilford MG.

Good to know, thanks!

Velox is a contact printing paper and not designed for projection printing with an enlarger. It is slow - it came in 6 grades with speeds of 170 for grade 0 to 10 for grade 5. Kodabrom enlarging paper from the same period had speeds from 11,000 to 2500 for papers graded from 1 to 4. Chances are the Velox may even be slower with it's age factored in.

Try contact printing your negative under a piece of glass to make sure you have good contact. You can expose the contact under room light for a test.

Gord

I remember our school physics master making a simple pin-hole camera using Velox paper...this was in the 1970's, so the paper was probably not new stock then. With hindsight, I now realise that it must have been very slow, needing long exposures in the camera, and even possible to load the camera and process in very subdued artificial light.
I can't be sure, but I seem to recall also that the developer was used at a lower dilution than for enlarging papers.

IN my teens I had the Ansco home developing kit, the contact printer had a switch that turned on a 7.5W bulb about 3 inches from the paper. I think it was several seconds exposure at that using Velox.

Velox was twice the speed of Azo. That's why it was considered to be "fast." Kodak listed the speed for grade 2 as 8, compare to 500 for Kodabromide grade 2 and 320 for the original Polycontrast Rapid with a No. 2 filter.