The standard paper is the Harman Direct Positive paper, which is a great paper, no question.
It is, however, quite pricey, especially here in Australia.
So what are the alternatives?
The obvious thing to do is to trim down other negative type papers, and then do a reversal in something like Snapseed.
So I have been doing quite a bit of that, and I have made a few discoveries along the way.
First and foremost is that the finish of the paper strongly affects the outcome, especially with RC papers. A gloss RC paper will pit and mar very easily in the field. Of course these are the cheapest papers available. A matt, pearl, or satin finish paper does not appear to suffer from the pitting and marring issue, and are still comparatively cheap compared to the HDP.
To see what I mean, compare these two photos:
Gloss RC Ilford MGIV.
Satin RC Ilford MGIV.
Gloss papers are also more prone to pooling of developer, and the effect of that stands out more with the negative papers, so look out for that.
Hiya Rob, some interesting points there.. I have been using the RC pearl for my Pinsta enlargements and have found it to be excellent. They are also a good option for reduced contrast images and respond well to filtration. Don't forget ypu can also use tge contact printer to produce a positive print from negative papers!