A friend of mine suggested I try this Luminos Flexicon VC RC> I am presently using Ilford MG IV RC. I can see the disgust in your eyes over the use of RC, but I am a student and it is what we are required to use, due to time constraints. I was wondering if it was just as good or better than the Ilford, which I am very happy with at the moment. Looking at B+H, I see it is less expensive. I just wanted anyone's opinion.

-- Cat Johnson (Catzear@aol.com), February 10, 1999

Answers

You should definitely try it!

My parents have been professionals since the 1940s, and have used Luminos papers for many years. In fact, over the last 15 years, they've switched almost completely from Kodak papers to Luminos.

I've used Flexicon VC RC almost exclusively for all my printing in the last few years, and I think it's great stuff. Nice look, good tonal range, responds well to filters, has excellent "pullability" (i.e., if a print is starting to get too dark in a shorter-than- optimal development and you pull it quickly and get it right into the stop/fixer, it doesn't mottle or develop grayish patches like some other papers), and is generally a pleasure to use.

And don't apologize for using RC paper! After all the years I spent burning my fingers pulling hundreds of thousands of glossies off our old massive gas-fired drum drier, I think RC paper is arguably the greatest darkroom advance of the last 30 years. It may not be "archival" in the long run, but I have yet to see even my oldest RC prints fade, have the emulsion flake off, etc...

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), February 12, 1999.

I think it's hard to buy a really bad paper these days, but I believe Ilford does a better job than most of handling excess contrast. Ilford Multigrade IV goes clear down to a contrast index (or whatever you call it) of 180 with a 00 filter, whereas most papers, including the Luminos, stop around 130. In the darkroom, that should mean the Ilford paper will do a better job of differentiating tones from an extremely contrasty negative without going all gray on you. Outside of that, I haven't noticed much difference between the two, except that the Flexicon is developer incorporated, which I wonder about on the permanency level.

-- Brian Hinther (BrianH@sd314.k12.id.us), March 03, 1999.