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Used to do this in the '80s with help. Just getting back into it now (and by myself), hope I didn't pick the wrong time! Should I buy all the Endura I can afford??? From labs all I've received for years and years is Fuji Crystal Archive. IIRC I used to get Kodak Royal paper at labs before they went to Kodak Royal Digital paper.
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There is nothing wrong with the current "plain" Fuji Crystal Archive. It is optimized for both digital and optical exposure and is still available. Of course, if you prefer Kodak Supra Endura, stock it while you can.
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 Originally Posted by hpulley
Used to do this in the '80s with help. Just getting back into it now (and by myself), hope I didn't pick the wrong time! Should I buy all the Endura I can afford??? From labs all I've received for years and years is Fuji Crystal Archive. IIRC I used to get Kodak Royal paper at labs before they went to Kodak Royal Digital paper.
Probably not a good idea seeing as how most of what's still out there has already expired. FYI - the last production run has a exp. date of 5/2011. If you can find it (good luck) and freeze it you're good for the next year and change.
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Conclusion: "Digital" paper might be usable with genres where color fidelity in all colors is not necessary, like (mostly) monochrome sceneries, some product photos, or experimental work. But for anything with a palette of "natural" colors, they are useless.
In my experience, many amateurs have extremly low standards when it comes to judging own prints (it's like "my child"). This might be where the positive opinions on the web are deriving from.
For me, when "analog" papers are gone, the traditional color darkroom will be history.
Georg[/QUOTE]
Even the old supra endura from ten years ago (as well as portra endura and ultra endura) was designed for digital exposure. I imagine that one of the design constraints was to make that paper compatible w/ optical enlargements as there were labs that had not switched over the laser light exposure.
Color printers will recall how the emulsion in the endura line underwent several changes in the years before VC. With every new emulsion color balance for neutral became increasingly difficult to obtain. Most vexing was the way these papers rendered blues - a much narrower palette of blues compared to the non-endura line of papers.
Of course the most recent wave of c-paper (Supra VC et al) was not at all designed for optical enlargement but, as many here have discovered for themselves and despite your proclamation that the color drkrm. is history, it works.
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Way back in the 60s and 70s, when we had a problem with cyan fog or a soft cyan toe, we had a solution. It would only work one-shot and had to be tailored for the number of sheets processed in 1 batch of 1 shot developer. But, we had something that worked and gave us usable results from otherwise useless paper.
If anyone is interested, here it is:
Dissolve PMT (Available as a solution from the Formulary and from Sigma Aldrich - full chemical name on request in this thread). Add 1 mg - 10 mg / of PMT per liter of developer. Determine that level that works for you. Use developer as a one-shot as the PMT is used up with the first and only use. So, if you do 1 sheet in 100 ml and it needs 1 mg/L of PMT, then 2 sheets would probably need 2 mg/L in the same quantity of developer and etc. This method is NOT guaranteed to work because the emulsions have changed drastically over the years, BUT, if it does, this can make the "digital" paper usable as if it were the old paper. It works simply because the PMT acts on the top (cyan) layer to lower fog and sharpnen the toe.
There is also a fix for a pink (magenta) toe, but I see no complaints of that here.
PE
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That's interesting. PM me the name of the chemical so I can put it in my files. I am going to try some contact sheets of 8x10 film soon using drum processing, so I can easily add it to each measure of developer I use. I'll let you know if it works after I have tried it out.
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Greg;
I will as soon as I can find it. I always think of it as PMT or Phenyl Mercapto Tetrazole, but the IUPAC name is about 3/4 of a mille long.  I can never remember it. I have to look it up every time.
PE
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Is the IUPAC name the one I would be looking for on the Formulary's site?
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Greg;
It is listed as PMT in the "old" catalog, but is not in the new one. Ask Sherry by phone or e-mail. I know they have it as I made a batch there. They have both solution and powder on the shelf.
PE
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