Travelling with film chemicals

[sloveless]

Was wondering if I could pick the collective brain about traveling with black and white chemicals for film processing? I'll be on the road in the near future and will need to bring chemicals to basically set up a field lab. Typically, I work out of one gallon jugs and have traveled with them in the past. But they're heavy and take up too much space in the car. In the interest of saving weight and space, I'd like to be able to pack enough chemical and equipment to process about 30 rolls of 135 and 120 into a milk crate (or something similar). Running water will be available.

I'll be processing for several shooters and won't know which films they're using until I get there, though I doubt there will be anything exotic. As such, I've decided on HC-110 for the dev. It's flexible, travels well and diluting from concentrate is not a problem. Our time is limited and fast processing is necessary, so stop, fix and clearing agent are necessary (I'm open to suggestions here, but in my experience a water stop is just too slow). As for the rest of the chemicals, I'd like to get them into quart bottles or smaller.

The equipment I'll be bringing along doesn't take much space - two daylight tanks that will handle two 135 rolls or one 120 roll, a few beakers, changing bag, timer, thermometer, etc. Standard stuff.

Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks in advance.

[David A. Goldfarb]

My usual water stop time is about 30 sec. for film. I don't see an acid stop as a big time saver here.

For starters, I'd use larger film tanks, if I had to process a large volume of film quickly. It would be handy to have a few different sizes, since you don't know what films will be used, and then you could batch them as needed.

Zonal Pro fix or another fixer that comes in a liquid concentrate that you can mix from the bottle without having to mix a large quantity would work well for this application.

Permawash is easy to mix from the concentrate as a clearing agent.

[laverdure]

I've done this some. Water stop works fine... I don't know what would take long about it. Ditch it, save space. Also clearing agent, unnecessary. Research the Ilford washing method. Finish with distilled water. If you use a fixer without hardener, it ought to wash that much easier- I use just plain hypo crystals. The only liquid you need to carry with you is developer (or not, dry is fine, hell, folgernol is fine) and distilled water. Reels, tank, changing bag, clothes pins, voila.

[Travis Nunn]

I never use anything but water for my stop bath and have never had a problem with it being too slow. Like David said, Zonal Pro fix is a good choice, Ilford RapidFix is another option.

[Paul Howell]

When I was a working PJ covering Africa and Southern Europe I usally traveled with a metal tank with ss reels, quart size Dinafine, and a couple of quart size packets of fix, a small bottle of photo flow, and three plastic bottles, the kind that collapse. I liked Dinafine because it is almost impossible to foul up and does not need a stop bath, just plain water.

[Ian Grant]

I've been going camping and processing as I go along for about 20 years, 35mm, 120 and 5x4.

Take good sized measuring beakers, but stick them in with your clothes when travelling, it's remarkable what you can fit in them. As others have said use water as a stop bath, the only bulky items should be you fix and your developing tanks - and even dev tanks can be used for storage I took a Jobo 2000 to Turkey and filled it with socks while flying !

Ian

[craigclu]

Consider an alkaline fixer such as TF-4. It's fast, avoids second thoughts about stop bath and HCA issues, too.

[gainer]

Use TF4. Carry the concentrate. Forget the stop bath. 1 oz of TF4 concentrate added to the developing tank for each 8 oz of solution will stop and fix in 2 to 5 minutes, with the slowest time for the high iodide films like TMX, TMY. If need be, pour out as much developer as you will add of fixer.

30 rolls, 30 oz fixer, 15 oz HC110, water from a stream or well. It works. I have done it. I even do it in my darkroom. I think the developing is, if anything, more accurate than when using a water rinse. Use of a rapid pouring tank is more important than short stop.

[sloveless]

Thanks a bunch for the replies. I'll re-examine my own reasons for not using a water stop. I guess I've just been doing things "the right way" for so long that I've accepted it as the best thing for me. I have about a month and a half before the trip, so I'll play around with your suggestions and see what works. Ordering some TF-4 today. Thanks again, folks. Much appreciated.

[Ryuji]

If you use chemicals in the field, please consider the proper method of disposal, even though I understand that the quantity you use will be rather small. Discharging of photographic chemicals in sewer system is preferred over dumping to the ground or dumping to septic system, although this may require you to accumulate the spent solution in a closed, leak-proof container until you visit a nearby area with sewer system.

Since the volume is so small, the compounds that can be decomposed by air, sunlight, and bacteria may not cause a major harm to the environment, but there are those that aren't decomposed by these ways in the products mentioned above. One is borate (standard for plant toxicity is about 100ppm; TF-4 concentrate contains about 800x this level, which is particularly high for a fixer) and another chelator such as EDTA and DTPA. These things are not biodegradable and they remain in the environment.

Disposal to septic system is more problematic, since more chemicals in the solution can disturb the septic system. Also, compounds like borate and EDTA will come right through the septic system and go into the nearby field.

Usually, disposal of photographic chemicals to the field and septic system is strictly regulated by local government body. As far as I know, there is no photographic chemical manufacturer that recommends disposal of their products in these ways.