The use of positive paper has been growing in popularity over the last couple of years, since Ilford brought out their Harman Direct positive paper, yet a new type is about to make waves in the analogue world.
The new competitor goes by the name of Galaxy, which is a group of photography professionals with almost two hundred years of combined experience in this field. Their currently working on bringing their own positive photo paper to market using Kickstarter, yet this paper has a distinctive feature, the speed!
A few years ago Galaxy came across an Eastman Kodak book that covers the subject of direct positive photography using the company’s Super Speed Direct Positive Paper as an example. Unfortunately this valuable paper disappeared from the market in 1970.
Instead Galaxy decided to create a substitute paper, and they believe that they can make something even more exciting rather than just bringing back a discontinued photo paper. They want to make a better one, with higher sensitivity, better dynamic range, and easier development process that would be performed with room temperature solution.
The only direct positive photo paper currently available comes from Ilford, the sensitivity of this paper is low, around ISO 1-3. Yet Galaxy’s Hyper Speed paper has a high-speed ISO of 120, exciting news for all pinhole and large format lovers.
Based on their research on the solution Kodak developed 70 years ago, the team partnered up with photographic paper and emulsion company Slavich Co. in Russia. Together, the two companies are producing high-speed glossy photographic paper with “the largest amount of silver in the industry”.
Thanks to the large quantity of silver within the paper, Galaxy’s product has “distinctive half-tones and rich dark tones”. Take a look for yourself:
Galaxy is currently trying to raise $30,000 (about £19,000) on Kickstarter to launch it. Packs of paper are available “for preorder”, (if they reach their pledged amount). The prices can range between $20 (£12) to $500 (£300) dependent upon the size and number of sheets desired.
Here’s a list of the sizes that will be available:
- 4×5″, 5×7″, 8×10″, 11×14″, 16×20″
- Custom sizes: 4×10″, 7×17″, 8×20″, 12×20″, 14×17″, 20×24″
Galaxy is currently running test batches with further chemical testing scheduled for this September. The supporters of the project should begin to receive their orders by this December if the funding and launch are successful!
Information: Kickstarter
© Galaxy
