Zone VI Brilliant fiber paper???

wbryant · Mar 26, 2005

I started using the Zone VI Brilliant variable contrast fiber paper and love it. I love the whites and blacks and the in betweens, and I love the rigidness of the wet paper. (I have had other fiber paper kink the emulsion when wet...) I have also not seen any difference in the wet and dry prints, so I don't have to compensate for drydown I think it is called.

But, my question is, what do the other APUGgers think of this paper. I haven't seen much written on it.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

John McCallum · Mar 26, 2005

Hi WBryant, I love it.
Excellent paper for a lot of the kind of images I've been doing. Has a nice white base as you say, and gives beautiful rich dark tones.I bought 1/2 doz packets of old stock a while ago, and I can see the end of it coming. Wish I could get more.
Regards, John.
My contributions to the current Print Exchange will be on zone vi brilliant.

mikewhi · Mar 26, 2005

Quite possibly my favorite all-time paper. I'm working with AZO now, but I always loved Brilliant. I used it mostly in graded emulsions, not the VC. Are you using VC Brilliant? It is very cold neutral black and whites, no greenish balcks like Gallerie. I always preferred it to Seagull, too.

-Mike

hortense · Mar 26, 2005

The old Zone VI paper was OUTSTANDING; Fred Picker cut a deal with a famous (in Europe) printing paper manufacturer (can't recall the name). A few years later, this arrangement fell through. While contuing to use Zone VI paper from Calumet, I determined (or, perhaps, surmised) that this was paper manufactured by Ilford. I now mostly use Kodak Polymax and am quite satified with it. For warm tone I use Ilford MGFB and on occassion Se tone to obtain what ever degree of brown shading I am seeking. For colder tone needs, I use Polymax paper and add some benzotriozole to my D-73 print developer.

Neal · Mar 26, 2005

Dear WBryant,

I use it regularly, although not exclusively. It has a very good look and tones easily.

Neal Wydra

George Collier · Mar 26, 2005

I've heard (Fred Picker, I think) that contrast can diminish, even in less than a year, depending on storage conditions, as others have suggested. Like you said, like all B&W photo materials, always test first.

payral · Mar 26, 2005

The old Zone VI paper was made by Guilleminot & Boesflung in France and it was a marvellous paper.
When that company stopped its production it became Bergger with some people from the old company but now Bergger production is made by Forte.

Bob Carnie · Mar 26, 2005

I think hortense and payral are correct,
I used the Fred Picker version and it was a beautiful paper , when it switched to Calumet it was a different paper, now I believe as hortense says it is Ilford.

John McCallum · Mar 26, 2005

mikewhi said:
Quite possibly my favorite all-time paper. I'm working with AZO now, but I always loved Brilliant. I used it mostly in graded emulsions, not the VC. Are you using VC Brilliant? ....
-Mike

Yes I use VC Mike. Still great stuff.

Bob is Calumet the only place to obtain zone vi brilliant now, do you know?

hortense · Mar 27, 2005

John McCallum said:
Yes I use VC Mike. Still great stuff.

Bob is Calumet the only place to obtain zone vi brilliant now, do you know?

Yes.

Jeremy · Mar 27, 2005

Is the Zone VI Brilliant currently sold by Calumet the same paper as you are using? I believe it is only sold in 8x10 and 11x14 glossy now.

John McCallum · Mar 27, 2005

Yes they only seem to advertise those two sizes. Have yet to try their stock (all mine is 16x20 so perhaps different paper? not sure).
Calumet did not seem to be able to satisfy a question I had regarding delivery charges, so this made it difficult to pursue it with them.

Alan Davenport · Mar 27, 2005

mikewhi said:
Quite possibly my favorite all-time paper. I'm working with AZO now, but I always loved Brilliant. I used it mostly in graded emulsions, not the VC. Are you using VC Brilliant? It is very cold neutral black and whites, no greenish balcks like Gallerie. I always preferred it to Seagull, too.

-Mike

Brilliant is the finest enlarging paper I have ever used. I have some in the freezer that is 20 years old! The whites are crisp and clean and the blacks are the blackest next to Azo. In Zone vi developer and KRST it gives beautiful cold tones, and for a warmer tone try Ansco 130 at 1:1.

Alan

Earl Dunbar · Mar 27, 2005

Brilliant was, well ... brilliant

Many years ago I standardized on Brilliant graded. There were other papers I liked, but I did need a standard, and settled on Brilliant developed in Amidol from Photographers' Formulary, tho' I sometimes used Dektol as well. The paper with Amidol gave me the most satisfactory results. I have not printed in years, so if Brilliant is no longer as it was, then I'll have to go back to the drawing board. I used the original made in France.

Once I start printing again, I'll probably be paying a lot of attention to Perfection from Fine Art here in Rochester. But if I could fine a big stock of frozen Brilliant, original emulsion....

Earl

Gary Grenell · Mar 29, 2005

Brilliant Paper from England

payral said:
The old Zone VI paper was made by Guilleminot & Boesflung in France and it was a marvellous paper.
When that company stopped its production it became Bergger with some people from the old company but now Bergger production is made by Forte.

I just purchased (3/29/05) some Brilliant VC III from Calumet. The box says "Made in England". Certainly, ten years ago when I printed on this paper exclusively, it was not made in England. Is it unbranded Ilford or Kentmore? I really do not know the answer.

wildbill · Mar 29, 2005

I used a box of this stuff someone had given me and i loved it. When i recently went to order some 16x20, they said it had been discontinued in that size. A month earlier they had it in stock. It's a great paper and doesn't have the coating that Ilford MGIV has so it takes toner better. The rep said to try Ilford as a replacement alternative.

shinn · Mar 29, 2005

I was recently in the SF Calumett asking about this paper and I only seemed to confuse the man behind the LF counter. I was hoping to try it for lith printing and all he could offer was that it was the "same as ilford" I'm not sure which ilford paper he was referring to and he still seemed confused, so I gave up and picked up some Seagall.

One more reason this site is such a great resource.

Happy Days
Mark

shinn · Mar 29, 2005

I menat to say Calumet.

Les McLean · Mar 29, 2005

When the French factory closed down and Zone VI had to find a new supplier they went to Ilford and for a time used MG III and reboxed it but I don't know what the situation is now.

stinkjet · Mar 30, 2005

Les McLean said:
When the French factory closed down and Zone VI had to find a new supplier they went to Ilford and for a time used MG III and reboxed it but I don't know what the situation is now.

The situation is and has been, since Fred sold the company, that Brilliant VC is Ilford MGIV1K...double weight gloss. Ilford kept on supplying MGIII for a while, but had to switch to IV around 1997. The Graded paper that everyone loved, including me, was French, then switched to Kentmere, the maker of Luminos papers. That is the absolute skinny on that.

stinkjet

aldevo · Mar 30, 2005

stinkjet said:
The situation is and has been, since Fred sold the company, that Brilliant VC is Ilford MGIV1K...double weight gloss. Ilford kept on supplying MGIII for a while, but had to switch to IV around 1997. The Graded paper that everyone loved, including me, was French, then switched to Kentmere, the maker of Luminos papers. That is the absolute skinny on that.

stinkjet

What stinkjet has recounted is exactly what I have heard. I'd add to it only that the reason why they couldn't continue supplying MGIII was that Ilford needed to switch the facility's production to graphic arts products. The MGIV1K that was subsequently supplied came from another facility (I believe the surviving Ilford Photo facility).

Rlibersky · Jul 23, 2005

Looking a the price this paper is quite cheap. It might be worth trying. Only 8x10 and 11x14 though.

Peter Schrager · Jul 23, 2005

Zone VI Paper

I know I had the first VC paper that Zone VI had made for them. It was really nice paper. Unfortunately I had NO clue what I was doing at that time with VC paper and unloaded the entire lot to Midwest Photo. That paper was extremely nice. Have no clue what the new paper is like but is probably worth trying as I would doubt that it is EXACTLY like MGIV-otherwise why would they rebrand it? Report back to us....
Best, Peter

Dennis S · Nov 8, 2018

I just used this paper for lith developing and was really surprised with the results. But my search is neverending.to find the perfect Lith paper.

DREW WILEY · Nov 8, 2018

Gosh. Another mastodon thawed out of the permafrost ! I tried Brilliant VC back in the day. It was OK in terms of what was available VC in that era, but wasn't worthy to kiss the shoes of Brilliant graded Bromide paper, nor of certain of today's premium VC papers.

Zone VI Brilliant fiber paper???

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