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Which variable contrast printing papers have you used lately?

Curt

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Which variable contrast printing papers or paper have you used lately and liked? I've used a variety of them over the years but none seem to be equal to the original Oriental paper even though what I used was graded. What would you consider to be the highest quality and is it the most expensive?

Give me some of your impressions if you would.

Thanks,
Curt
 
I am currently using Fomatone MG with a glossy finish. This paper exhibits a very attractive warm tone which is very responsive to different developers and also responds well to Selenium, Thiourea and Gold Toning. I have never tested it in any other type of toner. On the downside the base colour is a little more off white than I like and it is very slow.

If I want a cold tone I find Adox Vario Classic fits the bill. It is considerably faster than Fomatone but is not as responsive to toners as the Foma. It also needs a dark red safelight.

For proof work Ilford Multigrade IV RC works just fine. Of the three it is the least responsive to toning exhibiting no colour shift in selenium and just a slight shift to blue black in gold. You can "persuade" it to be more responsive to toning by bleaching it in a Potassium Dichromate bleach then redeveloping it in the developer of your choice.
 
I've used a lot of the Fomabrom Variant III and it is a beautiful paper. Neutral to cold tones. Only downside is the dark red safelight needed. I've basically given up on finding some sort of light that does not fog while giving decent amounts of illuminance to see anything. Now I use a RH Designs safelight Torch for checking the time and develop in total darkness.

Otherwise, Silverprint Proof for... uhm... proof printing. Very good and even with the hilarious shipping fees from UK, it is quite cheap.
 
I really like the Ilford Multigrade IV RC Cooltone. It goes really cold in Selenium, but pleasantly warm in Sepia bleach and re-develop.

Unfortunately, it isn't all that easy to find on shelves.
 
Ilford MGIV RC and FB is about all I find on shelves here so it's what I'm using, on a Fiber kick at the moment. I like being able to switch grades so the MG paper seems good, graded paper doesn't cover the range I need and I'd need even more packs of paper than I have now trying to cover matt and glossy, 8x10 and 11x14 sizes.
 
I'm using Arista.EDU Ultra, which is one of Foma's variable contrast papers, and the house brand of paper from Adorama. The rebadged Foma is good. Witout toning, it is very slightly warm toned. Tone it in selenium and it warms up very nicely on a white base. The Adorama house brand paper is excellent. When I first tried it, I'd hoped that it was as good as the paper they used to sell under their brand name. It was better - much better. The only downside I see to it is that it does not change tone very much in selenium, and I don't like the way it looks when toned in sulphide toner
 
Since I used it the first time it is Adox MCC 110 to me, when I need a warmtone paper I use Adox Variotone Premium, very responsive to toning
 
I personally believe Ilford's warmtone is the best VC paper out there. Many will agree with me. It's too bad I can't use it for my neutral/cold tone work as well. For that I turn to Oriental VC. It's a lovely paper, looks great in 130 1:1 then selenium toned, and at a good price too.
 
I use a variety of papers. I prefer a semi-matte surface, but other than that there is a fair variation. My usual is Ilford MG IV RC Pearl, but I ran out and started using the FB variety. Nice, but it wrinkles badly after drying. I've also used Kentmere VC Select recently. For warm tone I go to Foma. I was curious about the new Adox products, so I picked up a couple of boxes of their 312. I've just started to work with it, but so far I am not very impressed. Maybe I'll like it better after I get better acquainted with it. It's definitely not like the old Agfa papers. Also out of curiosity, I picked up a couple of packs of the Oriental VC product. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hopeful.
 
nworth said:
I prefer a semi-matte surface, but other than that there is a fair variation. My usual is Ilford MG IV RC Pearl, but I ran out and started using the FB variety. Nice, but it wrinkles badly after drying.
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How are you drying your fiber prints? Unfortunately fiber requires a bit more work in the rinsing and drying department than resin coated which is fast and dries flat no matter what. I find a simple book press works well after drying my MGIV FB either flat on glass or even on my Eagle RC drying rack as long as I'm careful with them. I tried line drying but I find the pegs leave marks and the prints are worse for curl than simply drying them flat. I meant to try the tape on glass trick but so far I've found simply letting them dry and pop off with a day or two in a press leaves them perfectly flat and I get the whole print, no need to cut the tape off.

I generally prefer matt too so I like Pearl and Satin in RC but in Fiber I found the matt to be really matt. It looks nice, great for fine art but for portraits I prefer the glossy FB.
 
I'm using and liking the Ilford MG IV warmtone, Fomaspeed 311, and for contact printing my negative pages and volume printing, the normal Ilford MG IV glossy, sorted in order of preference, developed in dektol.

The Ilford warmtone looks nice with it's subtle warm tone built in.

The Foma is nice for general purpose use and has something about it that I like a little better than the normal neutral ilford glossy. On the dowside, the drydown darkness change is more pronouced than the Ilford. Things with rich shadows have to be printed a little lighter, and you'll be well pleased with the highlights when it's dry.

The normal Ilford MG IV neutral paper is good like a toyota camry, but doesn't get me all excited and doesn't display any serious character.
 
hpulley said:
How are you drying your fiber prints? Unfortunately fiber requires a bit more work in the rinsing and drying department than resin coated which is fast and dries flat no matter what. ...
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I use a heated drum dryer. The prints come off quite flat, and the curl develops over a couple of days. I've used drying racks in other darkrooms with moderate success. Drying the print slowly seems to help. The problem is obviously a differential absorption of water from the air by the print. I'm not sure if the paper or the emulsion is the greatest culprit. The curl problem has always been around with FB papers, but it seems to have become worse in the past 20 years or so. I'm beginning to wonder if the use of non-hardening fixers may be related to it becoming worse. I think I'll try rewetting and then hardening and rewashing and drying a couple of prints to see if it helps. I'll rewash and dry a couple of more without hardening for comparison.
 
I use Arista Edu.Ultra VC RC. It prints easily enough with Ilford contrast filters. I find it has an unpleasent green tint in fresh Dektol...cold but not pleasantly so...and I've taken to keeping my Dektol old and brown, only adding a small amount of fresh developer every printing session. Then I get a decent warmish tone. I use MGIVRC when I find it cheap, and it has a nicer cold tone.
 
Have you tried just air drying them instead of heating them? On glass or a rack I find this gives them at most a very gentle overal curl which is easily removed in a couple of days at room temp in a simple weight press. If I line dry them then the edges get a nasty wave in them which seems to be impossible to press out though I may try an iron. So far I'm just experimenting with them so I haven't printed anything all that important on them but I will be soon.
 
jp498 said:
The normal Ilford MG IV neutral paper is good like a toyota camry, but doesn't get me all excited and doesn't display any serious character.
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I couldn't agree more. I would love to have a paper like MGWT but in a cold tone emulsion on a white white base. MGIV is ok, but I still prefer Oriental VC FB as I think it has much more character and tones easier.
 
brian steinberger said:
I couldn't agree more. I would love to have a paper like MGWT but in a cold tone emulsion on a white white base.
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I think Fomabrom variant III could be a candidate for "cold tone on very white base". I am not sure about its toning properties but as it is a chloro-bromide emulsion, it probably won't budge much unless you prod with a stick.

The official word on Fomabrom variant III from Foma is that it is a "neutral-to-medium warm tone" but if this is warm-tone I am going to have to check my eyes.
 
Interesting that there is such a basis toward warmtone papers in this thread. I've always liked the glossy neutral to cool paper look myself.

Mike
 
Jerevan said:
The official word on Fomabrom variant III from Foma is that it is a "neutral-to-medium warm tone" but if this is warm-tone I am going to have to check my eyes.
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I'm pretty sure that Fomabrom Variant III is the paper that Freestyle sells as Arista. EDU ULTRA paper. The degree or warmth is dependent, to a certain extent, on the developer. I used Dektol, and I dilute it 1+3 instead of the more usual 1+2. After running a few prints through a liter or so, the bromide levels start to build up and the developer becomes "seasoned." I don't want to say exhausted, because the developer at this point still has plenty of life left in it, and gives dependably repeatable performance for many more prints. But anyway, with Dektol under these conditions, I can detect a very slight warm tone to this paper under the correct lighting conditions. If you were to compare identical prints made on this paper and say Ilford MGIV, then you'd see the slight warmth. The difference really starts to show up when you dip the prints in selenium toner. After a couple of minutes, the print really starts to warm up considerably, which is something Ilford MGIV doesn't do.
 

Got to agree with you there. The last print I made on this paper (developed in D72 1:2) was neutral to cold tone. I suspect that selenium toning will increase the density of the blacks but not much else.
 
I have quite a lot of experience with Fomabrom Variant 111. I like it best in Dektol, it need a contrast developer somehow. It is slightly warm in Dektol but if you selenium tone it for 4 minutes 1:20 it will go more neutral and the blacks will pop out.

Actually I feel this paper needs Selenium toning to gain nice blacks.
 
Interesting to hear about your findings on Fomabrom, Frank. Honestly, I've always developed the paper in Ilford Multigrade and that looks neutral-cold to me. I haven't toned it, only seen that it does exhibit very little tonal variation in lith. When I started out printing B/W (being a wee fish in a big pond, etc) I used Neutol WA - I wonder if the warmtone developers could shift the tone a bit with Fomabrom?
 
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