To stop, or not to stop ?.....

[Peter_Jones]

.....that is the question.



What are the respective benefits of using stop-bath or plain water when developing B&W film ?

(other than cost savings with water)

 

[oscroft]

I've never used a stop bath for film, but my development seems to stop just fine. It may stop more slowly than if I used a stop bath, but my development times are based on how the finished negatives look and so will incorporate that without me even having to think about it.

People say using a stop bath enhances the life of your fixer because it prevents any developer getting over into it, but I always get as much life out of my fixer as anyone else I know of, including people who use stop.

For prints though, I think you should always use a stop bath, because paper absorbs far more developer.

 

[moonwire]

If I have a development time of 5 minutes, I always use a stop bath to avoid over development. I don't use it for stand development. Stop bath is cheap, it takes 30 seconds - I don't see a reason not to use it for regular development.

 

[varjag]

Modern commercially available fixers are acidic anyway, doing the function of stop bath. Doing a water bath prior to fix will still prolong fixer life however.

 

[Bryce]

There are a lot of us...
I use stop only with prints for the reasons listed above, and that I actually might exhaust my fixer when printing. Personally, I never develop enough film in a given period of time to worry about saving the fixer from contamination with developer.
The reason I quit using stop baths with film is that I got pinholes in several early rolls of film. Following a tip online, eliminating the stop bath also eliminated the pinholes.
I've since heard people say it is impossible for stop bath to cause pinholes. I won't argue with theory, but when I quit stopping I quit getting pinholes....

 

[oftheherd]

Well, I certainly use stop bath when I develop film. The reason? It's the way I was taught. So there!

I have never had pinholes in my film, so I have no fear of using stop bath. It is also rather inexpensive. Seems I remember something about strenth of stop bath, or hardness of water for pinholes, but I don't recall for sure. I have tried using a presoak and then a water rinse. I didn't see any advantage to it for me, so went back to stop bath. As I said, it is the way I was taught, and since nobody ever showed me an advantage, that is what I do.

 

[pesphoto]

Films...no stop
printing...yes stop

 

[drewbarb]

For developing film, I use acid stop when I'm going to use acid fixers, and only plain water when I use alkaline fixers. I don't buy stop bath, but use diluted distilled white vinegar. (Fears about "food product adulterants" are unfounded- white vinegar is a 5% solution of acetic acid in water, nothing more. Comercial Stop Bath products are also acetic acid- usually in lower concentration, around 2%.)

The acid arrests development immediately, which can be helpful to control development, especially with short times. Most of the film I process (and this is largely what I do for a living) is done at long enough times that I don't really need the stop for that- but I use it to prolong the life of my fixer, which it does. Not by a huge amount, but I process over a hundred sheets and rolls of film each week, and the use of acid stop prolongs the life of my acid fix enough to save me a significant amount of money.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Longer fixer life, as others have said.

Also -- reputedly, I have never verified this -- if you are photographing a flat grey surface (often out of focus) for sensitometric purposes, stop bath gives a flat, even grey that is difficult or impossible without short stop.

Why, I do not know. Nor did the person (ex-Ilford) who told me. But I'd trust him that it's true.

But how often do you shoot flat grey tones?

Personally, I make up very weak SS one-stop from acetic acid.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Bryce]

Quote: "You aren't suppose to you the acid full strength!"

Fred-
Is that what I was doing wrong? Silly me!
Truth be known, I was using the stuff per the bottle directions (1+19, like Ilford says) on film from the same manufacturer even. I was developing with Rodinal though and have heard that may have something to do with it.
Hard to say, but the problem stopped happening after I stopped stopping. So I never went back.

 

[Peter_Jones]

So......potential cash saving by using water as a stop would be outweighed by using fixer only once (I had planned on one-shot chems anyway) ?

How many times can fixer be used when developing film ?

I plan on using slow(ish) dev times, so no real urgent need to use stop, I may try both methods when time (and child-induced disruption) allows, see what works for me, but for now I think I'll try stopless.


Thanks all for your opinions, as always there's more than one "right" way 😀