what current B&W paper comes closest to the old Agfa Rapid papers?

I am returning to the B&W darkroom after a twenty year break and the industry has gone through the digital imaging revolution while I have been away. The task is portraiture for which I prefer cream base and warm tone. I am about to chose some papers, RC and FB, and would like to find the closest multigrade equivalent to the old Agfa Record Rapid and Portriga Rapid graded papers which I used in the past. One interesting candidate is the FOMA Fomatone MG series of papers, these claim to have the cream base and warm brown-green tones, these are qualities that distinguish RR. I am interested to hear opinions on this FOMA MG paper and recommendations about other warm tone papers with cream base. I already have the very helpful Ilford swatch book of their paper samples, this tells me Ilford MGFB is cream base and warm tone, which is promising (and I have had good results in the past with Ilford papers) but the sample differs a lot from old RR in the color of the image, RR being warmer browny-green and MGFB a more neutral deep brown-black. I'm hoping to narrow down the field and zero in on one type of paper if possible and so avoid tedious wasteful and expensive purchases of small paper quantities for trial printing. Please share your experiences with warm tone papers currently available in the USA.

tedr1.. welcome to apug!

i responded to your message because i've used the old agfa papers, and like you, thought they were great. i've yet to find any like them, although the ilford papers have come closest. (i've traveled the less enlightened but interesting, more expensive route!) i haven't used the fomatone mg series but will be interested in what others say.

you've joined at a time of change - a good thing. they re-worked the entire apug site , so some things that worked one way, now work another.... my old method of getting notifications of threads doesn't seem to work, and have stumbled on the new way to being informed of new threads in forums that i follow. for instance, a question like this will usually get a large response with varying opinions... and probably will still. so it'll be a bit of an experiment to see how it works... or, i may actually have to read the instructions/sticky's.

jvo

p.s. monroe, ny - nice stomping ground!

The simple answer is none come close to the old Record Rapid and Portriga since Cadmium was removed from Warm tone papers.

My favourite was then Forte Polywarmtone which I love, still have some left, and Fomatone MG is a good paper as well. I've now switched to Ilford Warmtone which is no longer on the slightly creamy base which I didn't like and was why I used Polywarmtone instead.

Ian

The old Fomatone, before they re worked it and removed the cadmium, was very close, I used both Portriga and Record Rapid and I don't know of any modern warm tone paper that comes close, I haven't used the new cadmium free paper, so can't comment, but nothing ever was quite like the old agfa papers, I personally like the Adox MCC papers, developed in a warm tone developer, I use Fotospeed WT10 at 1/29, it is a nice paper, but not a patch on the older Agfa's

fomatone is very nice!
touch of olive-brown..
and reasonably priced as well.

ps. cannot compare it to the old agfa papers though, as my life with analog photography has only begun two years ago..

like you, ive been on a quest to find a relacement. ive tried all the recomended replacements but nothing has pleased me. i have found the illford mgv fb and mgv fb warm are about the closest youll get.

adox was another close contender but illford is just easier for me to get when i make my regular B&H pit stops.

Things I liked about Portriga Rapid was its light tooth and absolutely zero luster on the 118 surface. Somehow the semi matte of MGWT doesn't quite match up. I have some Fomatone variant IV that isn't bad color wise but it has a bit of luster that I'm ambivilant about.

I've used the Fomatone in glossy with the cream base. I would give it a try. Expensive though. I used Compard Print WA developer which is supposed to be like the old Agfa Neutol WA. A nice warmtone developer. If you show a group of prints the one in Fomatone will stand out if the others are on a bright white base.

Also you may try Ebay and pickup some of the older Agfa paper to try. Sort of a crap shoot but I've had some good results buying older papers.