I live in the UK. I will admit to a terrible infidelity by spending the last 5 years out of the darkroom and in front of the computer. This may have contributed to the dearth of papers on the market. But now I want to go back into my darkroom. But where are the papers? What is left? Kodak appears to have gone. Agfa has gone. Silverprint no longer stocks my favourite paper - Oriental Seagull. What is left?

Are there any really good neutral or cold b&w papers available out there? Or is it all Ilford and RC?

What does anyone use?

You really can't go wrong with Ilford papers. I would recommend not using Multigrade developer, though, as it's hard to get an over-the-top max-black with it. I've personally found that the Perfecta paper/developer combination is quite good, but not readily available.

Given your location, I'd just stick with Ilford. Honestly, it's good stuff. There is a user-forum over at ilford.com which is quite helpful too. The best part of using Ilford is the consistancy between different surface-types. An exposure that works on one paper will almost always work on another without having to reinvent the wheel.

Also, Ilford's pearl-surfaced RC paper is most-excellent and capable of giving fiber-glossy a run for its money. For those who hand-tint photographs, the RC-pearl is now the preferred paper.

Silverprint carries Forte, tis the only paper I use. The FB poly warm tone is splendid! - Enjoy

I remember using only white, smooth glossy (WSG) as single weight or double weight by Kodak (mainly) or Ilford, which was always a semi-grade softer, making that horrid all-grades-in-one stuff totally unnecessary. Much as with the introduction of resin coated, it was more to do with simplification of production lines (choices? why?) I´d suspect, than anything else. Let´s face it, if you can print and know how to expose/develop film properly, then you don´t really need more than two grades of material at the best of times.

With respect of the WSG: I used to hate matt paper in the wet, but I just love it in digital guise, possibly because it is easier to understand how it will look dry than it did as wet; also, there was no commercial demand for it (matt) in my particular scene. Now, being my own best client, I can do as I wish (if it doesn´t cost much) and the digital matt under glass is just fantastic.

However, my retiral from the darkroom was more logistics-based than anything else and I would probably still enjoy producing a nice print of something interesting. But, that´s all in the past and part of very fond memory.

Cheers - Rob C

Agfa, Arista, Bergger, Cachet/Maco, Emaks/Fotokemika, Foma, Forte, Fotospeed, Ilford, Kentmere, Oriental, and Slavich. Lots of paper still out there.

Regards, Art.