simplest possible fixer formula?

[pierods]

What is the simplest possible fixer formula for film?

My process:

- all chemicals are one-shot
- i use a water stop bath (sometimes no stop bath...)
- I don't need any hardening
- I don't need my process to be specifically acidic or alkaline
- i wash my film with the Ilford method (water, 5 inversions, 5 minutes wait, water, 10 inversions, 5 minutes wait, water, 20 inversions, 5 minutes wait)

Thanks.

[Ian Grant]

Plain hypo solution (sodium Thiosulphate) 250g/litre. That's the simplest and remarkably cheap.

Howver your better adding a little Potassium Metabisulphite - 25g that makes Kodak Fixer F-52

Ian

[pierods]

What does the Potassium Metabisulphite do?

[Ian Grant]

As your using water as a stop bath the acidity bfrom the metabisulphite will help prevent dichroic fogging, this can be an issue with neutral or alkaline fixers when an acidic sstop bath isn't used.

In addition the precesnce of sulpites helps with the efficiency of the fixing process,they an active role in the equilibrium reactions where unused silver halides forms semi-soluable silver/thiosuphate complexes before becoming fully slouable.

Ian

[pierods]

Cool, thanks!

[holmburgers]

But using that one-shot would be quite wasteful, no?

[Robert Hall]

"Quite" is hard to quantify.

The accepted archival process (via Ilford) for fine art prints is 10 8x10's per gallon of working solution. The fix can fix substantially more, but not to that standard.

So one has to educate ones self on capacities and make the decision on how "archival" one wants their prints to be.

[Michael R 1974]

4 8x10s per gallon??

[Robert Hall]

I was mistaken. 10 per gallon. Mia Culpa.

[Bill Burk]

Is that first or second fixer?