Developer-incorporated papers

[tim.bowman]

What are you folks using for paper negs these days?

I'm almost at the end of my stash of old Ilford MGIV and so I'm looking around for a new paper to adopt for paper negs. I've tried the new Ilford MG, Ilford's MG RC paper, and Unibrom's single-weight grade 2. They are all developer-incorporated papers and the image comes in like a freight train, even in dilute developer.

I've tried using a water bath to slow things down with mixed results. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but there's a lot of mottling.

I tried developing with just carbonate, assuming there's already developer in the paper, all I should need to do is provide an alkaline environment and we should be off to the races. Alas, no.

Highly dilute developer (D-72 1:20) slows development and reduces contrast considerably, but now I'm not getting very much density. I'm processing individual sheets in trays and am not patient enough for dev times over 5 minutes.

So far, I like the Unibrom best because it's easier to print through the paper base. But I'm not happy with the tonality. It also has a weird grainy texture, which I may or may not learn to love.

So, what are you using? How do you process it? How's it working for you?