What to do with lots of Agfa Signum II color paper?

[John Schneider]

I'm finally cleaning out all the photo stuff I likely won't ever use, among that about 20 boxes of Agfa Signum II color paper that came to me about 4 years ago along with a Durst 184. The boxes range from 5x7 up to 20x24. With digital processing these days, is there still a demand for this paper, such that I should offer it here or on eBay etc.? Sorry for the vague question, I've only ever worked in B&W.

[Phil Hudson]

Whenever I've bought "old" stock RA4 colour paper I have found that it displays a noticeable colour shift (particularly if not cold stored). With a lot of time and patience this can be overcome with filtration, but my experience as a buyer is that it is not really worth the time and effort considering the rising costs of the RA4 chemistry and the relatively cheap deals out there on fresh paper.

Others may have has better luck, or have found paper in better condition.

Just my thoughts!

Phil

[Gene McCluney]

Fortunately, your paper is still a current process. RA-4. I'm sure there are a lot of beginners and casual darkroom enthusiasts that would love to have it at a bargain price. This paper was very economical to begin with. I used Agfa Signum for years and years, thousands and thousands of sheets, used to order it by the case. In my opinion it has better keeping qualities than Kodak did, but Kodak may have improved. It might still work OK.

[dsphotog]

Or maybe you could get a tax deduction by donating it to a school photo dept.

[g.lancia]

Does any of you know whether ra4 paper could be used as paper negative? I do that with ordinary bw paper. I would do it even with colour paper if all one needs is to expose at, say ISO 3, and then process in ra4. Although I suspect it would not be that simple. Or is it?

[Gene McCluney]

Does any of you know whether ra4 paper could be used as paper negative? I do that with ordinary bw paper. I would do it even with colour paper if all one needs is to expose at, say ISO 3, and then process in ra4. Although I suspect it would not be that simple. Or is it?

;

It should work, but you might have to filter the light, as it is color paper, and it is balanced for tungsten light + a filter pack. You could scan your paper negatives, and invert in photoshop. Also bear in mind that photo paper is at "true" dimensions, and sheet film is slightly undersize for a given size, to be able to "fit" into film holders. So, each sheet of paper will have to be slightly trimmed to fit into a film holder.

[Struan Gray]

You can also reverse-process RA4 paper to get a positive image (albeit inverted). See this photo.net thread for details:

http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00A4vW

A search on Rowland Mowrey's name will turn up a couple more threads. He has also posted info at APUG under the name 'Photo Engineer'.

[Gregg Cook]

agfa signum and fuji color neg film = excellent saturation almost as good as slide.

FWIW

[David Wolf]

Hi John,

Just came across this posting in the hope of finding some old Agfa paper. Would you still happen to have any of the Signum? I'm interested in the larger sizes, thanks!

My best,

David