A friend of mine have an old 8 x 10 camera and we just want to try the beast. The problem is that 8 x 10 film is not available here and the cost to import it is to expensive for our goal. So we were thinking if it's possible to use Ilford or Kodak black and white paper in the film holders, so we can have positives. Anyone tried this? If it's possible, what is the asa of the papers? Thank you and Happy New Year.

-- Rodrigo Malta (rodmalta@tostesmalta.com.br), December 27, 2001

Answers

You'll make a paper negative. Which will work. You'll then have to make a contact print of it to make the positive. People do this with pinhole photography all the time. I myself never did it though.

-- wdnagel (wdnagel@home.com), December 27, 2001.

The asa varies but 6 or 8 is a good starting point. In other words, paper is quite a lot slower than film. There has just recently been a discussion on this very topic on the pinhole discussion group; see the archives at www.pinhole.com. Good luck!

-- Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com), December 27, 2001.

Paper negatives are fun to play with, even if you're not checking out a camera. If you're using VC paper, be aware that colors in the scene you are photographing will affect local contrast. For instance, a yellow object will have flatter contrast than something that contains some magenta. For a truer tonal rendition, use graded paper.

You can actually put the paper negative in your enlarger, or contact print it. Just be sure that the paper doesn't have any printing on the back Have fun!

-- Kevin Bourque (skygzr@aol.com), December 27, 2001.

I`ve found single weight papers to give better results. My ASA speed has been a blistering "3". You may find the range of tones and the detail quite surprising.. Have fun!

-- Steve Clark (agno3@eesc.com), December 27, 2001.