[LargeFormat] paper negs

[Don Wilkes]

At 06:52 AM 3/15/01 +0800, Stein wrote:
>     ASA 3 for Agfa MCP RC paper in bright sun and if you put a yellow
>filter over the lens you can tame the contrast for some paper negative work.
>Use glossy paper and choose one that don't have the manufacturers watermark
>printed on the back. Lovely and cheap way to do small sized prints.

Dear Uncle Dick,

I had a shot at it last night, after I got home from work, since it wasn't
totally gloomy and raining.

My usual enlarging paper is Ilford multigrade RC, and using the
wild-ass-guess system, and the previous suggestion of an E.I. of about 6,
I gave it a shot at about one second.  I say about because the shutter is
very unreliable at slow speeds, and the time & bulb settings don't always
work either.  Anyhoo, that came out pretty dark, so I had another go at
something vaguely half-second-ish, which turned out looking remarkably like
a negative.

Making positives was a tad more challenging, since I didn't have much of a
clue where to start for exposure.  The halfway-decent "neg" ended up taking
about 10 seconds, while the dark one took about a minute (yeah, a slight
variation).  I was expecting a pretty soft image, but was still surprised
at how much detail was mushed.  Also, the contrast is VERY low.  Help me on
this one, folks -- multigrade is still "new technology" to me... Does it
make much difference when printing *contacts* what colour the light is
coming from the enlarger??  Part of my brain says yes, and part says no.

Speaking of contrast, I'm puzzled that you'd suggest "taming" it on
exposure, Dick.  The near-normal one was not particularly contrasty at all.
 Mind you, it was around 5pm on a mostly cloudy day; it might have looked
vastly different on a prototypically bright and sunny June afternoon...

Anyhoo, it was gangs of fun, and proves that the camera has no major light
leaks, at least.  If the owner wants to go to the somewhat hideous expense
of finding respooled 122 film, and can put up with a cranky shutter, he's
off to the races.

Cheers,
\don

P.S.  You must be somehwat near my age (51)...haven't seen anyone use "ASA"
for yonks!