ilford mg IV poor blacks

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billzorn@billzorn.com - 08 May 2005 01:32 GMT

has anyone had problems with ilford mg IV recently? i've had 3 boxes,
one 20x24 one 16x20 that both had problems with poor blacks. i had a
box of 20x24 that was 2 years old; couldn't get a good black. figured
it was old, got some benzotriazole (though i think this if more for
fogged whites); no help. whites seem ok.

got some new paper, seemed better at first; now it's 3 months old,
can't get a good black.

i keep this stuff at room temp (72 or so), not in the darkroom. i have
a box of 11x14 that i got at the same time that gets good blacks.

any ideas?

bill zorn

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Jean-David Beyer - 08 May 2005 02:29 GMT

> has anyone had problems with ilford mg IV recently? i've had 3 boxes,
> one 20x24 one 16x20 that both had problems with poor blacks. i had a
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> bill zorn

I do not mean to insult your intelligence, but are you exposing them enough?

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Richard Knoppow - 09 May 2005 14:39 GMT

What are you developing in and for how long? Generally, paper
should not have problems in such a short time. When it does go bad the
effect is usually to become foggy and lose contrast, not blacks.

--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@ix.netcom.com

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Dr. Dagor - 23 May 2005 05:00 GMT

I've been printing with both MG III and MG IV recently and don't see a
problem with DMax on either one. I did notice that MG IV doesn't like
think Dektol. I've been diluting it 1:1 instead of 1:2 and leaving it
in for a full two minutes. I also have an Ilford 25XX RC processor.
On that DMax of MG IV seemed a little low. But the problem was
temperature.

Could temp be the problem you are seeing? If the bath temp drops below
70 degrees F, blacks suffer.

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Jan T - 23 May 2005 20:45 GMT

| Could temp be the problem you are seeing? If the bath temp drops below
| 70 degrees F, blacks suffer.

Is this generally spoken or typically MG IV? So far I always tried to avoid
temperatures below 68°F (20°C) and never had any such problem. I use nothing
else but MG IV BTW.

Jan

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