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paulclemy
18th February 2012, 12:47 PM
I have seen this subject brought up a few times and this may be of no surprise to most here, but I just thought I would share my experience of using old B&W photographic paper. When I stopped using a darkroom back in about 1995 I boxed all my gear and paper up and stored it in the temperature extreme loft, presuming it might never be used again . My stocks of paper were all RC, some graded and most VC. I guess some of this paper was already at least 10 years old as I bought a lot of second hand stuff back then. Well to cut to the chase, 17 years later I have tried all the different papers and all but one pack ( age and manufacturer unknown ) still prints acceptably well. I also developed unexposed sheets from each pack and there appears to be no fogging or staining present. So I guess the tip here is dont be too worried about buying second hand 'old' paper. Though I can't speak for FB papers. Maybe someone else has had a different experience to this, it would interesting to hear what happened.

Mike O'Pray
18th February 2012, 02:45 PM
Good to hear this Paul. I think that by and large the "news on paper ageing problems has been greatly exaggerated" to mangle M Twain's quote about his death.

I have bought quite a lot of secondhand paper in the past and only twice have had any problems. One batch was Agfa RC MCP and benzotriazole largely cured it, the other was Ilford MGIII, so very old, which had lost a lot of contrast but for some prints looked OK. It was bundled in free with other MGIV paper which was fine.

Just as an "aside" I have noticed that cheap paper secondhand paper on e-bay seems to be a thing of the past. The winning bidders are buying partly used boxes of paper several years old and proportionally are paying new prices without the usual guarantee that comes from new paper from our sponsors

Mike

Paulographic
18th February 2012, 04:02 PM
I in the past bought S/H paper from ebay but learnt to avoid already opened packs after fogging problems, some people don't have good practise in the darkroom obviously.
I've only today had another sort through my stocks of paper, most of it old, and selected a few things to use up in the next few weeks cutting down a lot of larger sizes to 10x8 (and test strips) rather than let it get any older and possibly not work and spend money on new 10x8.
Quite a bit was given me three years ago by a professional who retired five years before that and had paper much older than that. Some was MG111 which has retained its contrast and with a cold light source is rather "soot and whitewash" which suits some of the negs I'm printing. A few sheets of MG11 which are Ok but warm in tone. 2x100 packs of MG Fibre based six and halx eight and half unopened, some Paterson Acugrade, Barclay (Kentmere I believe), Kentmere warm tone, Seagull FB, Ilfospeed grade 2, Galerie, Jessops own graded (doubt I'll use the grade 1). All picked up cheap on my travels or given by digital converts.
Never had any problem with the Agfa MC, except for some 6x4 "sample" packs of tens which were all fogged, ebay purchase. Jessops (not earlier Jessop) own VC was rebadged Agfa. For "bite" I like Agfa.
I've 150 sheets unopened of Agfa MC Classic FB matt which I'm tempted to print things suitable for hand colouring or similar on.

Fun to come.

paulclemy
18th February 2012, 04:23 PM
That's quite right of you to point out about poor handling practice which may cause fogging due to light exposure. Most of my 'old' paper is MG III which is mostly what I have been using lately. I bought the 10x8 100 pack brand new in about 1992. I was just amazed that the extremes of temperature in my loft did not cause any issues.

paulclemy
18th February 2012, 04:26 PM
Yes Mike, I have also noticed how high a price that second hand paper goes for. I get the feeling that traditional photograpy is far from dead.

pentaxpete
18th February 2012, 05:29 PM
I have been stuggling with my paper -- I have some ORWO which is not too bad but the Ilford Multigrade and Ilfospeed has all gone Soft - I tried some 1% Benzotriazole but it didn't seem to do anything !

vincent
18th February 2012, 05:54 PM
If you read up on Lumen printing it is often recommended to use old paper.

Terry S
30th September 2012, 12:45 PM
I have been stuggling with my paper -- I have some ORWO which is not too bad but the Ilford Multigrade and Ilfospeed has all gone Soft - I tried some 1% Benzotriazole but it didn't seem to do anything !

Benzotriazole I believe helps with slightly fogged papers but if any of your older paper has lost it's oomph and is lacking in contrast, you might want to try adding some Sodium Carbonate / Washing Soda to the print developer.

Check out this other link that I started, after trying this out to great effect:

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6190

Terry S

Ricus
30th October 2012, 01:23 PM
If I may add, you can also try lithprinting age fogged papers, I have had good results from Kodak and Agfa papers that are too aged fogged to be develop in normal developer.

just my 2c
regards
Ricus