Paper: ILFORD MULTIGRADE IV works with PQ developer?

Ni! · Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 6

A newbie question:

I have to buy some paper for b&w...

In our home-darkroom we use ILFORD PQ Universal
as paper-developer.
Until today (few weeks) I've always used
ILFORD ILFOSPEED RC DELUXE 3 paper...

But at the shop I found only ILFORD MULTIGRADE IV.
It works fine? Can I use the same developer?
Pro & Cons?

Thanks!

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy

MG RC IV is indeed a fine paper,or at least it suits my taste. It's the paper I'm using these days (in 1M/glossy surface), I've used it ever since except when Ilford went down for a while. Provided to work with a good negative is capable of giving excellent tonal range with deep black. Can definitely be developed in PQ universal achieving a neutral tone. The big difference is in that ILFOSPEED RC DELUXE is a graded paper while MG RC IV is a variable contrast one so needs to be exposed with contrast filters.

Cheers, Marty.

Sevo · Expire: 2012-12-03

All modern contrast variable papers are pretty much developer-agnostic, and essentially work in any standard paper developer.

If you need exhibition quality in image tone consistency, I'd recommend the Ilford Multigrade developer or another neutral developer over warm tone (like PQ) or cold tone developers. The soft and hard coat in a contrast variable paper tend to respond differently to toning developers, so that you will get slight variations in tone across your prints if you use contrast filters.

Ni! · Joined: 09 Sep 2009 Posts: 6

Thank you! Very Happy