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Mike O'Pray
9th March 2010, 04:49 PM
I was thinking of trying the above as I have never used graded paper before. Anyone here with experience of this?

It seemed to me that the middle grade(2) might be best to cover my range of negs. I normally find that the majority of my negs print best on grade 2-3 Kentmere VC Select and within that range probably grade 2 for most prints using Kentmere VC is best.

So are the characteristics of Kenthene different from VC Select and in what ways and roughly what range in VC terms does Kenthene grade 2cover in Kentmere paper terms.

It might be my imagination but Kentmere paper seems at least half a grade to a grade higher than Ilford when printing the same neg and using the same grade using the respective manufacturers dichoric head filtration.

So if my analyser says grade 2 then Kentmere VC grade 2 looks about right but Ilford VC grade 2 looks a little flat.

Thanks for any comments on this graded paper at grade 2

Mike

Larry
9th March 2010, 06:59 PM
Hi and good evening Mike

I tried a box 100sheets of 7x5 Kenthene last year. Like you, I was curious to find out how it compares to the revised standard VC Select (the harman version).

Here are my obsersations, Grade 2 normal is indeed equiv. to grade min 2.5/3 in MG4 but a very close equal match to VC Select grade for grade at 2.

When I printed on both VC Select and Kenthene the times and range of tones indicated were practically identical. The only differences I noticed was that the Kenthene is on a bit warmer, slightly creamer base (similar to old kentmere) and not the new Harman VC Select. It's more like Fotospeeds RC paper base an off-white.

It's actually a nice paper, the surface appears to be the same as VC Select Semi-Matt but a little bit richer in seperation of mid-tone. It's good with Fotospeed WT10 warm tone dev (more noticeable than the VC Select) or regular MG4 perhaps more silver in it (tiny-tiny bit)?

Paper speed is about the same as the VC version. What I really liked was because most of my negs print well on MG4 at Grade 3 - it works at Normal Grade 2.5 on VC Select or 2 (normal) on Kenthene.

When my stock of other papers runs low, I would certainly consider more Kenthene as I gave me slightly better depth of tone (good on brickwork and wood subjects).

What anaylser settings are you using for your normal VC Select? I use a LPL7700 Colour Head (Kodak Scale) - Maybe I can learn something from you (he-he)!

Larry

Mike O'Pray
9th March 2010, 08:22 PM
Thanks Larry for the comprehensive answer. So far all my Kentmere paper has been the old stuff made by Kentmere and I have simply stuck to the Kentmere dual filtration which is a mile away from Ilford's. Looking at the Y and M settings it would appear that with Kentmere there is a kind of "double effect". The paper seems more contrasty anyway and the settings seem to have preponderance of M in them, once you move away from grade 1.

I have done nothing in the way of scientific testing but it strikes me that matching negs to Kentmere paper might mean producing a less contrasty neg to keep prints in the middle range.

I think I read somewhere that increasing contrast in a print and getting it to look right is easier than reducing contrast so if one's normal negs print well on grade 2 then there is relatively little left to play with if some negs are particularly contrasty. Of course there's always split grade printing a la Les McLean where contrasty negs come into their own.

My enlarger is a Durst M605

Mike