I have some old (at least 15 years) Kodak RC paper that I need to use up. I've been cutting it down to 4x5 and running it through my Grafmatic in my Sinar. I also have some Arista Grade 2 paper I bought specifically for paper negative experimentation.

So far I've been frustrated by disappointing results for reasons that aren't clear to me. I've been getting very, very dark negatives with almost zero contrast. It's impossible to do anything with them because they're so dark.

I don't have an enlarger and my darkroom is very basic. I have a single 40W bulb in the ceiling and no other way to create a timed exposure in my darkroom. I wondered if I should preflash in-camera if that would help. I could set up the camera to do a preflash of everything in the Grafmatic but what exposure do I use? Just point at a white surface and meter +2 stops?