Seagull VC Paper -- A Report

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Neutral blue-black tone in selenium (1:3 to completion), significantly warmer (and far more pleasing to my eye) than Ilford FB IV (a "blah" color in selenium); about the same speed and initial contrast as my favorite, Agfa 111 (though, of course, a completely different color); roughly similar tone (in selenium) to Seagull G-2, much cooler than Seagull G-3 (which is *very* warm, a cold purple tending toward brown); faster and contrastier than Ilford FB WT (which is simply too red for my tastes); a little more expensive than Agfa 111 or Ilford FB IV, about the same price as Ilford FB WT, though slightly cheaper than Seagull graded papers. I find Seagull graded papers to be (1) inconsistent in image tone, and (2) too contrasty even for my (preferred) flat (PMK) negatives (Seagull G-2 prints somewhere in the neighborhood of a VC 3+! -- maybe 60 magenta filtration.) I consider this and Agfa 111 to be my current standards: Seagull VC for neutral cold-black, Agfa 111 for cool brown. Both are exquisite papers. Preferred developer: Kodak's Ektaflo Type 2. Has anyone else out there tried this paper? http://www.ravenvision.com/rvapeter.htm

-- Peter Hughes (leonine@redshift.com), August 14, 1999

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