Cadmium...

[Shaun Haselden]

I'm sure there are many here who remember using those absolutely stunning warm tone papers of the 60's and 70's ? Those that when printed onto from large format negatives or even 6X7 produced monochrome tones to die for. Developed in that age old juice Kodak D163, these papers were above all else.

Kodak Royal Bromesko, Agfa Portriga Rapid, Agfa Record Rapid and Orintal Portrait. Oh my these were the stuff of dreams when I started back in 1970 and I had every intention of trying all of them. It wasn't until the 80's that things went noticeably wrong, music especially but that's another story. Cadmium was used in the emulsions of these papers that made for a beautiful warm tonal range and Cadmium was banned.

So it was that papers such as Kentmere Kentona were no longer of interest and other papers took over with a slightly false warm tone in comparison. Glossy resin coated stuff was going to be the norm which also promised much shorter wash times and drying times but sadly, their depth of tone was gone.

And so it was that I stopped darkroom printing and turned to digits. Of course there is no comparison. Exhibition prints on to watercolour paper are good but only a facsimile of a fabulous Cadmium saturated darkroom print.

Progress.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I can't remember what I was using for prints in the early 1970's. I do remember having a polished surface dryer that I needed to use if I wanted glossy prints. I'm pretty sure I never used anything other than the least expensive print paper offered by Kodak.

 

[Tony Warren]

The warm tone papers I used were all Agfa from memory. I used to use Hahnemüle mostly and Epson occasionally with injet for exhibition and I can't say I was particularly disappointed, but pure black and white was always difficult so a toning colour had to be added to avoid the strange casts varying light seemed to introduce. That deep sepia that the old chloro papers gave was most effective. Gosh, that's going back a long ways.

 

[Pete Askew]

We used the later, cadmium-free Agfa Record-Rapid in the darkroom of the microscopy suit along with the dedicated processor. I inherited that when they switched materials and still have the drier somewhere. I suspect there is even a box of paper (A4) around in a fridge somewhere! That was more neutral toned though and was chosen more for convenience (and stability).

The technical imaging suite used Multigrade (plus a processor) and that is what I stayed with in my own setups for most work. Resin coated for the machine processed stuff of course, but fibre-based for more ‘permanent’ and toned prints. I still have a large stock that I really should use up.