First attempt at a paper negative.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I bought a load of Agfa Brovira paper and chopped some up to fit my Century Graphic 6x9.

I exposed it as ISO 3 and developed until completion in 1:14 Fomadon LQR.

I used my old Envoy plate tank and stand developed it, which has caused some development marks, sadly. However, I'd call this test a success, the paper, despite being from the 80s has no fogging and seems to work well. I intend to use it in my new 5x7 camera and will use trays under a red safelight for development so I can do slow steady agitation and avoid these blotches/marks.





It's not as sharp as film but there's zero grain. In 5x7, the sharpness will be adequate I think. Paper is blue/ortho sensitive, the car on the left is red/maroon so appears much darker on the paper than it does to the eye.

[Attila]

Huuh , it looks pretty crap, next attempt hopefuly come out nicer.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I call it a success because it worked, I got an image and the exposure was about right.

I need to get some paper developer for my next attempt and I'll develop it in a tray under safelight so I can agitate it properly an avoid those nasty marks.

I've got 500 sheets of it to play with, all in 5x7 so my new 5x7 camera is going to be well fed.

[Attila]

[iangreenhalgh1]

I've bought some Kodak DK-50 developer, a set of trays, some tongs and a red safelight, so I'm good to go!

[Jesito]

Good luck, Ian. It seems promising, we look forward to your work and samples.

[Orio]

Good luck on your project!
But since you have gotten all the stuff, I'd say walk the extra mile and get an enlarger too. Then start having REAL fun with printing your normal photos! That's the best part of it all.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Thanks for the support guys!

I now have a beautiful Lancaster Instantograph half plate/5x7 camera (it will take both halfplate book style holders and modern 5x7 darkslides) that I am in the process of restoring, I have a lens for it, a mint Ilex Acuton 4.8/215 in Ilex #3 shutter, which is the 'normal' length for 5x7, so soon I'll be ready to shoot it.

I have 500 sheets of the Agfa Brovira paper in 5x7, a mix of grades 2, 3 and 5, plus 100 sheets of Kentmere VC 5x7, so I have more than enough paper to play with.

I also have a few hundred sheets of x-ray film I can cut up into 5x7 so I can use that too.

Sadly all of it is ortho or blue sensitive so I'm going to have to get used to a 19th century look, which is fitting I suppose as the camera dates from the 1890s.

I've got a beautiful 1950s coated dagor type wide angle to use on this camera too, a SOM Berthiot Perigraphe 6.8/110. I'm having it mounted in a shutter, and it's got me excited because it will give me a really wide angle of view and I love wide angles, can't wait to play with it. I have a Schneider Symmar 5.6/150 I will try as well, it might not cover the corners very well, but we shall see.

I would dearly love a 5x7 enlarger and a darkroom, 5x7 enlargers like DeVeres come up on ebay all the time, would just require a few hundred miles round trip to collect. Maybe I can persuade my dad to start parking his 1958 Rover outside so I can setup a darkroom in his garage?

Fat chance....

I might try contact printing from 5x7 though, just needs the sun and that sometimes appears here

[philslizzy]

Hi Ian, good first effort. You could use universal developer, saves having so much chemistry about.

I used to tray develop x-ray film and paper in universal dev at the same session without much problem.

I am struggling to build my home made camera at the moment but I'll get there. My plan was always use paper as film as I've done it in the past.

A recommended project for you could be Cibachrome prints taken in camera. Rate the paper at 6 ASA and use an orange daylight to tungsten filter (taking into account filtration. It's piss easy to dev cibachrome paper.

If you can get the paper and chemistry...

Full colour photos, none of this murky B&W!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cibachrome eh? I'll have to read up on that.

I bought 15 litres of Kodak DK-50 in powder form, that should keep me in dev for a while.