TMAX400 and DBI

[Michael Kadillak]

The diffused globe that I use is the one that you find in college dorm rooms that are held in place with three side screws. You can find them at Wal Mart or you local hardware store for a couple bucks. I took a coat hanger and wrapped it around the side recesses and twisted a hanging hole with pliers to hang it on the wall.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

[Will S]

Thanks for the replies all. It is good to know that I'm not going blind.

I use Pyrocat-HD so the dye must be making it black. I'm not getting fogging, even though I was looking at them quite a bit and very close to the safelight.

I'm switching to 8x10, so I'll just have to change films. I don't recall FP4+ having magenta dye... and there is always TriX.

Thanks,

Will

[Michael Kadillak]

I went to Wal Mart and got the standard around 8" diffused globe for about $2 that reminds me of the round dorm room light covers with the three screws in the base of the ceiling light that hold them in place along the side recess. I wrapped a metal coat hanger along the side recess and with a piers made a hanging loop to cover the wall mounted 18 LED IR light source. Seems to cut the non-IR light out very effectively and I can activate it with a foot switch when I want a back illumination of the negative. Sure can't beat the price.

Cheers!

[Michael Kadillak]

Sorry for the duplicate post. Somehow my computer must have had a hiccup and I thought the last one did not go through. My bad.

[Michael Kadillak]

Unless you take an unexposed sheet and cover it with black tape BEFORE you view the sheet with the IR light source, process the film and measure the density difference with a densitometer you do not really know with certainty that you are not experiencing some film fogging. THe higher the ASA, the more susceptible the issue becomes. The only conclusion that one can honestly make is that the possible fogging is not aggregious enought to be descernable to the naked eye. Remember adding even 0.1 + units of BF+F is the sensitometric equal of using outdated film and and the longer printing times that go with them. I am not pushing the panic button here just attempting to raise the awareness of this issue in the pursuit of optimizing the results to the highest level possible. Cheers!

[Mike A]

Unless you take an unexposed sheet and cover it with black tape BEFORE you view the sheet with the IR light source, process the film and measure the density difference with a densitometer you do not really know with certainty that you are not experiencing some film fogging. THe higher the ASA, the more susceptible the issue becomes. The only conclusion that one can honestly make is that the possible fogging is not aggregious enought to be descernable to the naked eye. Remember adding even 0.1 + units of BF+F is the sensitometric equal of using outdated film and and the longer printing times that go with them. I am not pushing the panic button here just attempting to raise the awareness of this issue in the pursuit of optimizing the results to the highest level possible. Cheers!

Thanks for the info Michael, I planned on doing some testing after my first session processing with IR and a high ASA film like TMY400.

Mike

[colivet]

Ok. This is how I do it with Tmax and Pyrocat HD. I never had a safelight in the darkroom other than the Thomas for B&W paper. What I do use for developing by inspection is one of those safelights or maybe better called nightlights that plug right into the outlet and that is used for safety reasons when late at night for reason A or B you don't want to turn the light on.
These are usually 4 watt leds that emit light in a very narrow spectrum, so I figured that that is good since the paper is sensitive to all colors. Narrow spectum should equal less exposure which should equal less or no fog. Follow me?

To make the story short the little gadget works great for all films and well enough for Tmax 400. When I get bullet proof neatives on TMY I literally need to bring the film at almost touching distance from the light to discern anything and if I doo it will only be for a second or two. In that case wether I see an image or not, I know the neg has reached sufficient density for a good print on AZO. In all other cases I can discern the image formation thorugh the film pretty easily.

One thing to have in mind is that you don't want to take a peek at 2 min if you now that full developement should occur at around 10 min, especially with 400 asa films. You know that.

By the way, at one time I did get the 5x7 OC safelight and I thought that I could see better with my eyes closed. I sent it back for a refund and don't miss it.