Re: Luminos (Kentmere) non supercoated paper

s carl king (sanking@hubcap.clemson.edu)
Sat, 30 Dec 1995 16:57:22 -0500 (EST)

I obtained a box of Luminos SW ART paper, contrast #2,
manufactured by Kentemere. According to Steve White
at Luminos this is the only non supercoated paper in
manufacture anywhere in the world. (Meanwhile, I am
following up on an earlier post indicating that the entire
brand of Kentmere Kentint RC papers are non supercoated.)

I tested the paper this past evening and the results are
very encouraging. Without question this paper has better
take-off than any other I have used in carbro printing.
To test, I made enlarged bromides of a Stouffer gray scale, on
both the Kentmere non supercoated paper and the Kodak
Polycontrast III, N Surface, developed together in D-72
1:2. The Kentmere and Poly bromides were then used to
make carbros. The silver bromides and carbros were then
read with a reflection densitometer, with the following readings:

Poly silver Poly carbro Kentmere silver Kentmere carbro
(reading positive densities from Stouffer gray scale)

1. 1.64 1.83 1.40 1.81
2. 1.62 1.80 1.40 1.79
3. 1.53 1.76 1.37 1.69
4. 1.30 1.50 1.33 1.57
5. 1.00 1.16 1.22 1.41
6. .74 .71 1.02 1.13
7. .46 .33 .74 .81
8. .26 .15 .52 .51
9. .16 .14 .33 .31
10. .13 .10 .22 .17
11. ---- ---- .16 .16
12.---- ---- .16 .15

The data was plotted with a computer program, with the
following results:

Polycontrast silver curve: Eff. grade = #3, ES = .87, Dr = 1.33,
with Dmin of .16, Dmax of 1.49.
Polycontrast carbro curve: Eff. grade = #4, ES = .69, DR = 1.48,
with Dmin of .18, Dmax of 1.66.

Luminos (Kentmere) silver curve: Eff. grade = 2, ES = .99, DR = 1.13,
with Dmin of .17, Dmax of 1.30.

Luminos (Kentmere) carbro curve: Eff. grade = 2, ES = 1.00, DR = 1.45,
with Dmin of .20, Dmax of 1.65.

The important difference in actual printing between the two papers is
that the Kentmere SW ART has excellent take-off in the all important
highlights, and produces a carbro of about the same contrast range as
the silver image. These test results are very encouraging and indicate
that Kentmere SW ART should work very well with carbro.

Sandy King
Sanking@hubcap.clemson.edu