Battle of Britain (papers!)

[John Kasaian]

For you cold tone fiber based graded types out there:

Do you prefer Kentmere Bromide or Ilford Galerie? And why?

I've been playing with these and can't decide which one of the two I want to commit to. Perhaps you've noticed some advantage of one product over the other that I've overlooked?

[Alex Hawley]

First big advantage of Kentmere is cost. Last time I looked, a 100-sheet box of Gallerie 8x10 was well over $100.

[Scott Whitford]

In my experience, the Kentmere Bromide is significantly cooler than Galerie. To my eye, Galerie is just on the warm side of neutral in most developers.

And as mentioned above, the price of Galerie has gone out of sight. B&H now gets $130 for 100 sheets of 8x10 paper, whereas the Kentmere is roughly half that at $69.

Scott

[John Kasaian]

Interesting responses so far.

FWIW, Freestyle still has some boxes of Arista FB Classic/Galerie-oid paper at closeout prices.

If Galerie is slightly warmer, I wonder how it would compare to Emaks?

[Scott Whitford]

John, I happen to have some of the Arista Classic Graded paper (rebranded Galerie) and some recent Emaks. The papers are very similar in tone, with the Emaks being maybe a wee tiny bit warmer. This is using Ansco 130 paper developer.

Scott

[Michael Graves]

I bought two boxes of Kentmere and both were fogged right out of the box. I'm sure it was a fluke situation, but still, that was enough for me. Tried Galerie and hated it. But that was just me. It didn't make images the way I like, so I didn't like the paper. For cold toned work, I've decided that there is no substitute for Oriental (now that Agfa went bye-bye). If I want warm tone, I go to Forte. Very nice paper, that forte. Both papers develop very nicely in Ansco 130 with beautiful mid-tone separation. Both tone well in selenium.

[Sylvester Graham]

Very nice paper, that forte.


Forte is also my favorite paper. But I was under the impression that the company recently went out of business.

[Scott Davis]

Yes, Forte is gone. Bergger remains available, albeit precariously (Forte made their papers for them). You may want to try Foma papers as a reasonably-priced, high-quality alternative.

[John Kasaian]

FWIW Freestyle still has quite an inventory of Forte papers boxed under the "Arista.edu " label. IIRC they might even have some Galerie around under the "Arista Graded Fiber Classic" label as well (I think I've got 500 sheets of the stuff next to the frozen succotash & eskimo pies!)