Where are you getting paper from?

[blevblev]

Besides buying old paper on eBay, where are you getting paper and chemicals from these days? I was out of b&w photography for a number of years, and have just gotten back into it (spurred by my daughter taking photography in High School) and was amazed to find that Kodak was out of the business. I have been using old paper, and Ilford, but is there someone still making fiber based art quality paper that is commercially, readily available?

[Terence McDonagh]

I use Ilford, Kentmere and the now defunct Forte. Slavich is a Russian company now in the U.S. market. Check out www.apug.org for lots of discussions on the various papers.

For sources, I mostly use:
www.bhphotovideo.com (for chemicals, in NYC)

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_main.php?cat_id=50 (for paper, in California)

[Gene McCluney]

Besides buying old paper on eBay, where are you getting paper and chemicals from these days? I was out of b&w photography for a number of years, and have just gotten back into it (spurred by my daughter taking photography in High School) and was amazed to find that Kodak was out of the business. I have been using old paper, and Ilford, but is there someone still making fiber based art quality paper that is commercially, readily available?

You can currently purchase fiber based "art" quality b/w paper in the following brands,
all fresh and currently manufactured:

Kentmere
Ilford
Oriental Seagull
Foma
Efke/Adox
Slavich
Bergger (coated by Harman/Ilford, but not Ilford paper)

You can also find some house brands that are actually relabeled Foma or Efke made products.
Freestyle Photographic in California is probably the largest mail-order vendor of photo papers and they have all the brands listed above.

[Gene McCluney]

and was amazed to find that Kodak was out of the business.

Just to clarify this statement to those who are not too familiar with Kodak. Kodak got out of the black and white paper manufacturing business. Other than that, Kodak continues to be a major player in the Black and White film, Color negative and Transparency film, Color paper, and processing chemical business. While Kodak does not actually "own" the chemical plant anymore, all Kodak chemicals continue to be available as usual, via contract manufacturing.

[blevblev]

Thanks. I should have said "out of the b&w paper business." I did find that you can still get tri-x and hc110 etc.

So, any recommendations for the available papers? The Ilford paper that I have used seems pretty nice. Are the lesser known (to me) papers as consistent in quality, and can you always get them?

[Gene McCluney]

All the papers I itemized above can produce wonderful results..you just have to match one to your style of printing and negatives. There no one specific clearcut "winner", so to speak. If you have been happy with Ilford, by all means continue with them, they are consistent and are here to stay in the b/w film and paper business.

Whether you can "always get them" all depends on sales. Traditional film and photo paper have had a dramatic drop off in sales in the last five years. There has been some growth in niche markets, such as Large Format, but the days of photographic paper being a mass market item are over. By continuing to purchase and use traditional photographic materials you are helping keep the remaining manufacturers in business.

[Robert Skeoch]

In Canada I try to keep stock of Ilford and Kentmere products.... mostly the fibre base papers since they are the most popular with my clients.
-Rob
www.bigcameraworkshops.com

[EdWorkman]

Polycontrast IV from Photowarehouse, while it lasts

[SamReeves]

I'm using Oriental ATM. The cheapest I can find at B&H.

[trink408]

I use Ilford, Kentmere and the now defunct Forte. Slavich is a Russian company now in the U.S. market. Check out www.apug.org for lots of discussions on the various papers.

For sources, I mostly use:
www.bhphotovideo.com (for chemicals, in NYC)

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_main.php?cat_id=50 (for paper, in California)

x2

I use freestyle now for chemicals as well because bh won't ship them anymore.

freestyle has lots of paper options, even some nice budget oriented papers...

[Brian Schall]

Just ordered some Oriental FB and some rapid fixer from Freestyle yesterday morning. I have some Arista developer sitting in the cupboard also from Freestyle. Freestyle is where I order most all my paper, film and now even chemistry.