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Old 2nd August 2020, 12:05 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Southend on Sea, Essex, England, UK
Posts: 3,796
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I've just done a quick search of this site for any previous reviews of Ilford's new MG V paper, but surprisingly couldn't find anything, so this is the first.

Anyway, I opened my pack of 10" x 8" RC Pearl MG V this week and processed a few prints in Ilford MG developer, at 1 + 9, in my Nova slot processor. I was quite excited to try it, having read reviews elsewhere.

Most of my negatives were previously printed on grade 3, on MG IV paper, with the rest of the variables above being the same.

Although I read the tech sheet with the paper, I was still quite surprised to see the image appear very quickly, at just 10 seconds in the developer, with a total time of 1 minute.

My first print on MG V, when compared to the same print from the negative on MG IV, were VERY different. The new paper produced a print with MUCH more contrast, which was just a bit too much, even for me, who likes a print with good contrast.

The second print, using a grade 2 filter, was much better to my eyes. It still had good contrast, as hoped, but it was just right. and the blacks, well, they were just blacker than before, if that's at all possible?

So, although I have only done a little bit of testing of the new paper, my first impressions are good and I can see me enjoying using this paper.

I've also read other comments from users, most of which agreed with me, but of course there are a few who say that it has too much contrast and that they would be buying up depleting stocks of MG IV. I will have to try and find a dense negative and try printing on grades 0 and 1, to see what the contrast levels are like with those filters, to see if maybe they are exaggerating a bit and could achieve a softer print if required.

So, as usual the only way to find out if you like it or not, is to buy some and try it, but if you're like me, I don't think that you'll be disappointed.

Terry S
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