Foma Silver Chloride Contact Printing Paper

[Joe VanCleave]

Folks;

I was perusing the Spring 2007 issue of Freestyle Photo's catalog when I noticed, on page 9, this item:

" NEW ITEM! Fomalux 312 RC Contact Speed: A medium-weight, resin-coated, grade #2, matte surface, very slow speed, silver chloride emulsion paper characterized by a rich halftone scale. Designed primarily for contact work."

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried this paper, and can provide some comparisons with other silver chloride papers. This may be the only one currently in production, unless there's another silver chloride paper out there somewhere that's not stocked by Freestyle.

[Ryuji]

Fujifilm makes contact printing papers (fiber base) but they are not sold in North America.

[mjs]

I saw that not long ago when I was ordering 8x10 film. I wish they made a non-RC version.

mjs

[Curt]

RC

It couldn't be FB could it?

Fujifilm makes contact printing papers (fiber base) but they are not sold in North America.

If this is so then what's going on? Isn't the word out or loud enough that there is/was a demand for a contact printing paper to replace AZO. Maybe the Fuji paper would be a good alternative until the Lodima paper becomes available or maybe it's better, wouldn't that be a surprise? Why isn't the paper better known? More questions than answers again. Maybe an AZO type paper could be made in China, anyone think of that?

[Ryuji]

Fujifilm makes A LOT of good stuff (and it had made a HUGE amount of GOOD STUFF) but many of them are not available in North America. Some of them can be available in Europe but not very common either. Fujifilm has experience of fighting a big nonsense marketing war with another big film manufacturer in 1980s and they are also very protective of their sales/marketing channels. So if the official US importer doesn't want the product, they just make it not available in that market. So the best way is to get what you need very quietly.

The contact paper market is so small and Fujifilm may discontinue it any time.

[Scott Peters]

So, how good is it? And how do we go about 'quietly' getting some?

[Ryuji]

You could contact megapearls and ask if he would get some for you.

You could also have someone in Japan go buy some and ship or bring them for you.

I'm not in business of selling anything (besides my prints), so I'm afraid I can't help much in this regard, besides posting what I know. When I need some Japan-only Fujifilm products, I have to use one of these ways to get some for my own use as well.

The Fuji website lists 2 kinds of contact paper. One kind (warmtone) is being phased out. Another one (coldtone) remains in grade 3 but grade 2 is being phased out. By phasing out they mean they are selling the existing stock but will not make another batch.

[Ryuji]

I might have made an error earlier. Fujifilm currently sells two kinds of contact printing paper but they seem to be both resin coated. Their target market seems to be industrial uses, research labs and aerial film printing (for which they have another paper), and the product seems to be resin coated. "WP" is Fujifilm's designation for "waterproof" or resin coated paper.

[patrickjames]

Just throwing this out there.... Is it possible that this is the same emulsion as the Lodima paper, only on rc?

Patrick

[chrisofwlp]

"Just throwing this out there.... Is it possible that this is the same emulsion as the Lodima paper, only on rc?

Patrick"

Its possible But I highly doubt it. M&P havn't released their paper yet (lodima), and they are going to be the only provider of that paper. I guess it's possible they are allowing someone else to use their emulsion, but highly unlikely.