Safelight experiences anyone?

[John Koehrer]

An LED safelight will do the job for you and offers a couple of advantages.
It's smaller. lighter, more durable, much less expensive to ship, Will be much less expensive to replace when or if it stops working.
It doesn't happen often but the replacement lamps for the Thomas are not cheap.

[Newt_on_Swings]

An LED safelight will do the job for you and offers a couple of advantages.
It's smaller. lighter, more durable, much less expensive to ship, Will be much less expensive to replace when or if it stops working.
It doesn't happen often but the replacement lamps for the Thomas are not cheap.

~$27+shipping for a philps brand, the OEM replacement is $99bucks from BH

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/4770/LPS-327817.html

[john_s]

If you've had trouble with a not so safe safelight, a layer of Rubylith over it will probably fix it. Rubylith is used in the graphic arts and is easy to buy.

[winger]

I have a pair of these - http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ight_with.html
And when I started trying the Arista lith film in pinhole, I bought (I think) - http://www.adorama.com/PESLF10121A.html I cut two pieces using a dremel (not that I'd really recommend that). I haven't had obvious fogging problems or issues seeing well. I have the red ones in all the time 'cause that's easier than climbing up and detaching them from the walls to change the filters. I can see well enough.

[George Collier]

All of my safelights are simple fixtures that have a normal screw-in base, a ruby screw-on dome which covers the bulb. I bought them from a local professional graphic arts supply house, I forget the brand, but it was a popular 20th century GA manufacturer of darkroom equipment. I put low wattage bulbs in them. They aren't bright like the Thomas, but this makes for easier vision when it's time to burn and dodge, which I do with virtually every print. At $20 - $30 each, I have them around the perimeter, and can turn them on and off individually.
A friend of mine used to print all day with a B&W TV on in the darkroom (she was commercial, not fine art - and got bored with long production sessions). She bought a piece of red plexiglass and taped it over the screen, right above the counter with everything else. She had no fogging, so I guess simple red plexi is safe.

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I use an old cast off Thomas Duplex safelight. It's super bright. My only qualm is that it hums very loudly. When it dies, I'll probably use orange or red LED rope lights. They use very little energy and easy to install.

Here's a vendor:
http://www.orangetreetrade.com/shop/

[jeffreyg]

Dittos for Rubylith. You can make your own filter by putting it on a piece of acrylic sheet. Even more than one layer if necessary. It's cheap and if testing it doesn't give the desired result you can always try one of the other suggestions without having made much of an investment since the leftover Rubylith can be used for masking.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

[John Koehrer]

I use an old cast off Thomas Duplex safelight. It's super bright. My only qualm is that it hums very loudly. When it dies, I'll probably use orange or red LED rope lights. They use very little energy and easy to install.

Here's a vendor:
http://www.orangetreetrade.com/shop/

Mine hums the Colonel Bogey march and it drives me nuts. Must not know the words.

[Ken Nadvornick]

Safelight experiences anyone?

This is an area where I've done a fair amount of research and gotten some dramatically successful results. The following two posts from another recent safelight thread summarize my experiences and contain links to the mentioned products:

My use of red LEDs as a safelight...

And in the second half of the following post:

My use of sodium vapor as a safelight...

Hope these help a little bit.

Ken

[Leigh B]

Another vote for the Thomas Duplex safelight. I use mine with Ilford VC paper all the time with nary a problem.

It's bright enough that I can read the fine print on chemical bottles anywhere in the 8-foot by 12-foot darkroom.

I've not tried it with film. The filters in the vanes are different from the ones in the body. Supposedly if you close the vanes the light is safe for film (ortho?), but I have no experience with that mode.

- Leigh