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  #1  
Old 12th March 2022, 12:52 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Default 7 grades of multigrade filters???

Just browsing, I came across a few posts for sale on eBay UK, for 7(!?!?) multigrade filters, numbered 1 to 7.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185333642....c101113.m2108

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284620958....c101113.m2108

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134041861....c101113.m2108

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363755186...Cclp%3A2047675

I'm presuming that these are older versions and not a new system from Ilford?

I've just never came across these before.

And if they're old, will they even work with newer papers, even if the filters appear in good condition?

I'm not in the market for them by the way - I'm just curious.

Terry S
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Old 12th March 2022, 01:45 PM
John King John King is online now
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At a guess, some may work but not give the grade you are expecting. The current filters have grades 00 to 5 in half grade steps and the deeper colours are magenta, not purple. Yellow is still there though
There is also a calculator which would not be used with todays filters and that would be superfluous for most of the grades. the exposure for grades .5 to 4 should be more or less the same it is grades 00&0 and 4.5&5 which should need exposure reassessment. In practice however it is not exactly the same, although not far out. You still have to burn in or dodge.

Bear in mind these filters are probably for MG1 and possibly MG2 so will be 40-45+ years old. If they are like modern filters they will fade over time, some filters fade faster than others which further complicates matters.

The filter holder will however still work very well!
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Old 12th March 2022, 01:46 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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Yes the Resin Coated Ilfospeed Multigrade paper used 7 filters. 1 was a bit softer than Ilfospeed 0, while 7 was a tough higher than Grade 4. 5 gave Grade 2 and 4 Grade 2

The filters will work but not give the expected grades and they all need different exposures, hence the calculator wheel.

Current Multigrade 5 is actually the 9th or 10th generation. Early versions used 5, 5 then 3 yellow filters, increasing Yellow increased Contrast, I have some MG paper and the filter set from around 1953/4.

Later the next version of MG added the Magenta filters and increased the set to 5 filters, increased Magenta for Softer, Yellow for Harder. This was reversed for Ilfospeed MG.

Ian

Last edited by Lostlabours; 12th March 2022 at 01:51 PM.
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Old 12th March 2022, 02:26 PM
John King John King is online now
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I recall there was also a very early MG paper from sometime around 1960. I had someone make a set of prints for me in 1964 and they were truly awful with virtually nothing in the way of contrast. They were printed on single weight fibre paper. Would these be the filters used around then?

Mind you I would have though they would have been the plain gel sheets, not those mounted in plastic.

Using the filters in a colour enlarger and going by the guide enclosed with each box or packet of paper makes the process lot more reliable.
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Old 12th March 2022, 03:51 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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The very first set of MG filters, bought second hand when I was just starting to use MG paper, back in the 80's, were exactly the same, a set of under he lens filters numbered 1 to 7, but without the grades they represented marked,, I used them for 3, and they did work, but not gresat as I was never sure what grade I was printing, I nearly gave up on MG paper, but got hold of a set of MG above the lens filters, and found with them that MG was so much easier then the graded paper I had used for many years, I never did work out what the grades should be with those under the lens filters
Richard
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Old 12th March 2022, 04:00 PM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is offline
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The 1959/early 1960s version of MG used cardboard filter holders, they were sets of 5, then 6. It had been dropped by the time I started darkroom work around in 1968.

I'm not sure why anyone would buy any filters like those Terry has linked to, except if very cheap for the filter holder.

Ian
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  #7  
Old 12th March 2022, 05:20 PM
John King John King is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lostlabours View Post
The 1959/early 1960s version of MG used cardboard filter holders, they were sets of 5, then 6. It had been dropped by the time I started darkroom work around in 1968.

I'm not sure why anyone would buy any filters like those Terry has linked to, except if very cheap for the filter holder.

Ian
Some of the stuff uploaded for sale on Flea-bay is worse than these items.Such as sheets of B&W printing paper spread out for all to see and marked 'unused'.
Even one dealer in London selling mainly classical items and darkroom kit has advertised recently for sale- Konica RA4 paper The selling point is 'very cheap'! It needs to be. I used some back around 1994/5 and it was rubbish then. It has been out of production at least 30 years and possibly longer.
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Old 13th March 2022, 12:40 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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Thanks for all the comments everyone. I didn't realise that MG paper and filters had gone through so many versions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by John King View Post
Some of the stuff uploaded for sale on Flea-bay is worse than these items.Such as sheets of B&W printing paper spread out for all to see and marked 'unused'.
I totally agree John. I think most of us have seen darkroom paper fanned out in the light to show it's not marked. I gave up trying to tell sellers it was now no good, after received a very nasty reply from a lady seller! But yes, i too am amazed by over exaggerations in descriptions of items and some of the really tatty things being advertised, that really should just be binned!

Terry S
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  #9  
Old 13th March 2022, 01:07 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Well I have some "new" paper that's only 20 years old.
New??? Well I bought it new and haven't even touched the box since so that's a reasonably accurate statement, isn't it

After all if I had bought a car new 20 years ago and it was transported from the showroom to my garage where it has sat untouched ever since then really it is in the same state as it was in the showroom so it's new as in never used

So what's the problem with using "new"

Mike
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  #10  
Old 29th March 2022, 06:51 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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The colours of those filters look totally different from current MG filters. So my guess is that they won't give the results you want with current papers.
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