film rinsing and drying

[gliderbee]

I just developed a film again, and I have a lot of specs and dust, so I guess I better try to rins with distilled water.

Question is: is it sufficient to only usedistilled water for the last rinsing with some Agepon or do I have to use distilled water for everything (so: for diluting the developer, stopbad, fixer, rinsing, and the last one with some Agepon) ?

Any suggestions on a film dryer (Jobo Mistral 2 or Durst UT100) ?

Thanks,
Stefan.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Stefan,

It's actually better to wash with ordinary water -- quicker, more effective washing -- followed by a final rinse in distilled. Actually I do a final wash (20 inversions) in distilled, followed by the distilled/Agepon rinse, with about half the amount of Agepon recommended. Less than half, it doesn't have any effect; at the full amount, I'll swear it causes streaks of its own. Also consider a filter on the tap: http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/mt paterson water filter.html

I found it made an ENORMOUS difference.

Look out for a used film dryer from a lab closing down. A big metal one, like a clothes locker. Vastly easier to yse!

cheers,

R.

 

[mark-b]

Using distilled water for everything is ideal. What I use is Perma-Wash, then tap water to rinse, and then allow the film to soak in distilled water for 10-15 minutes before hanging it to dry.

 

[gliderbee]

Ok, thanks !

I'll start with a filter (I think I have one lying around) and the last rinse in distilled water; if that doesn't work, it will be distilled for the full cycle.

Thanks for the tip on labo dryers, but I'm afraid they will be a bit too big for my "darkroom" (I'm also thinking about one of those hydrophobic tents to make up a darkroom).

Stefan.

 

[Peter S]

Hi Stefan,

If you are short on space for a drying cabinet just use a salad spinner. I only do my final rinse in distilled water with a few drops of agepon and then - in the case of 35mm- add a second reel to the reel with developed film (this is for stability in the spinner), put in the salad spinner and spin. Film will dry very quickly after hanging it up and you also no longer have drying marks. To avoid dust I usually hang the film in the shower.

Good luck.

 

[oftheherd]

Hi Stefan,

If you are short on space for a drying cabinet just use a salad spinner. I only do my final rinse in distilled water with a few drops of agepon and then - in the case of 35mm- add a second reel to the reel with developed film (this is for stability in the spinner), put in the salad spinner and spin. Film will dry very quickly after hanging it up and you also no longer have drying marks. To avoid dust I usually hang the film in the shower.

Good luck.

Now that's a clever idea.

In fact, I had never heard of a salad spinner until you mentioned it. I had to google it. Do they make those with electric motors to complete the drying? That would be something like the film dryer Spiratone used to sell. Those were a little noisy, but they worked.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Now that's a clever idea.

In fact, I had never heard of a salad spinner until you mentioned it. I had to google it. Do they make those with electric motors to complete the drying? That would be something like the film dryer Spiratone used to sell. Those were a little noisy, but they worked.

Dear Stefan,

You don't need a motor: a few seconds spinning (half a minute) suffices. It won't dry any more after that. I prefer to use more reels to balance the spinner, but it works.

Try also the diagonal drying trick (it's near the bottom of the module):

http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how process 35-120.html

Cheers,

R.

 

[Keith]

I have to confess to using the dreaded Jobo film squeegee to get as much water off the film surface as quickly as possible ... the sooner that emulsion is dry the less crap there will be stuck to it! 😀

I do scrub the neoprene blades of the squeegee regularly to make sure there is no contamination on them to scratch the film surface ... so far it has caused me few problems in spite of the bad rep these things have.

 

[petronius]

I use Tetenal Mirasol for 30 secs after rinsing, the I strip off the water using my fingers instead of a squeegee.

 

[MartinP]

It depends vastly on the quality of what comes out of the tap (assuming that you have mains water of course). It might be perfect to drink, but that doesn't mean that everywhere is equal regarding photographic use. In the UK I didn't need to use a distilled water final-rinse, but where I now live I have found that it helps enormously. In the worst case I have mixed chemicals using Spa Blue bottled water, instead of the stuff coming out of a well . . .

A Brita-style water filter jug can also clean out a lot of stuff from the tap water, if you are seeing residue from it when untreated. In that case probably still do the last rinse in distilled water with NOT TOO MUCH wetting agent. The place with least dust in many homes is the tiled shower-room, and you can run hot steamy water for a few minutes to knock any remaining dust out of the air before hanging the film up. Don't turn on an extractor fan then, as it will just bring in more 'dirty' air.

I am intrigued by the salad spinner idea !

EDIT: No need to squeegee or wipe the film. Eventually you will ruin something with scratches if you wipe the wet emulsion.

 

[gliderbee]

A lot of smart idea's here 🙂.

I'll be on the lookout for a salad spinner, and hanging diagonally is a great trick !

All this combined (filter on tap, salad spinner, distilled water, hanging diagonally) should do the trick, I guess

Thanks everybody !

Stefan.

 

[Solinar]

Once the final rinse is over, I shake the reel with film using long swinging arches, with my arm fully extended.

You can do the main rinse in local tap water, if it isn't too chemically, i.e. chlorinated. I prefer the final rinse to be 60 seconds in distilled/deionized H20, the 30 seconds in distilled/deionized H20 with half the recommended amount of Photoflow.

 

[robert blu]

I solved most of similar probels doing as Peter S does: final rinse with distilled water (my wife is surprised form the higher consumption of "her" ironing water!) and half a minute of salad spinner (again wife surprised to have received a new spinner for kichen use!) I dry the film in the shower cabinet (prewashed and slightly wet in order to avoid dust).
It works, crossing fingers...
robert

 

[Mablo]

I'm using an old Kindermann film dryer. It's about the size of an A4 paper sheet. After the last rinse I drop my Hewes reels in the dryer and switch it on. It's capable of drying two 135 rolls or one 120 roll in appr. one hour.

 

[Ljós]

Salad spinners are not created equal

Salad spinners are not created equal

If you want to try the spinner method, I recommend avoiding those with a pull-string: the direction of rotation alternates. Since the water will be "thrown" off the film outwards no matter what direction, it still works: but using one with a crank-mechanism makes for a smoother ride 🙂

Another caveat: the construction of salad spinners tends to be without us film geeks in mind 🙂 Before buying, take a look at the "bearing" of the mechanism. If it is metal on plastic, or hard plastic on soft plastic, you might have to deal with plastic shavings on your film at some point.

But, yes, it works. However, for my work flow, after long trial and error, I gave up on it (problem with the plastic shavings, and also occasional dust problems).
What now reliably works for me is Paterson filter (thanks to Roger for the tip!) for the water supply, final rinse in distilled water, Ilford Ilfotol (3 ml to 1 liter works for my water supply), and hang to dry after steaming up the bathroom.

Finding a reliable method of getting negatives with minimal dust and streaks can be a pain, but rest assured, you WILL find something that works in your home, with your water... and once found, chances are you will not need to worry about it anymore. Good luck!

 

[wgerrard]

I suppose you ought to be able to get a feel for the amount of actual physical particles in your tap water by letting a pan of cold tap water boil away.

I'm lucky in that my tap water is very clean. I rinse in it and follow up with a speck of PhotoFlo in tap water. I see few water spots. I dry in a small walk-in closet. Lessons about that: Dust will stir if you open the closet door when you need to hang the film, so I open the door before I start processing. Don't open the door to peek. Don't open the door until well beyond the recommend drying time, 'cause dust will stick to an almost dry negative almost as readily as a wet negative.

Frankly, i suspect most damage to my negatives comes from the often klutzy way I get them off the reel.

 

[sersi]

I just developed a film again, and I have a lot of specs and dust, so I guess I better try to rins with distilled water.

Question is: is it sufficient to only usedistilled water for the last rinsing with some Agepon or do I have to use distilled water for everything (so: for diluting the developer, stopbad, fixer, rinsing, and the last one with some Agepon) ?

Any suggestions on a film dryer (Jobo Mistral 2 or Durst UT100) ?

Thanks,
Stefan.

Hi,

As a previous user posted before, I also use Tetenal Mirasol antistatic agent (just one dot into the opened tank containing the film full of plain water, for about 1 minute). After this, I use my wet fingers (wet in the water with the Mirasol that where in the tank to avoid scratching the film emulsion) passing them by the film lenght to get off the excess of liquid , and just hang the film in the shower (as someone pointed before too). Using this method (learned at the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya, in Barcelona) I've never had dust or specs on emulsions in 20 years developing films.
By the way, I just use distilled water to prepare the developer solution, all the rest of the process can be done with plain water (never had watermarks problems, and you will save money and distilled water). In fact, I use plain water too as a stop bath instead of acetic acid (1 minute constant agitation, you will save money and chemicals again).

Hope this helps,
Sergi

 

[Joao]

Spin it

Spin it

You can dry it very efficiently with a home-made spinning device
http://public.fotki.com/BlueWind/drying-film/
For 120 films a larger CD plastic box can be used
Regards
Joao

 

[Ljós]

Spin it... Sputnik-style

Spin it... Sputnik-style

Joao, interesting, thanks for the info and the accompanying pictures.

I propose the moniker "Sputnik" for this method. 🙂 So, don't exceed surface escape velocity with this setup... 🙂