Kentmere Variable Contrast RC paper

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OmegaB600

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Im curiously out of wack on this paper,

the package of paper came with a sheet with the following information

for developing, follow the chemical directions or in general 60-90 seconds at 20C

Fix per chemical makers directions. but says "generally fix for 3 minutes"


Then at lunch at work, I found an Ilford PDF for the paper that says fix for 30 SECONDS in ilford rapid fixer mixed 1:4 like i had it mixed..

So what idiot is writing such screwy things..
 
30 seconds in an ammonium thiosulphate fixer like Ilford rapid fixer would be correct for RC paper. With sodium thiosulphate fixers, the time would be longer--Kodak used to recommend 2 minutes for their RC papers. Maybe AI produced these instructions and hallucinated?
 
OmegaB600 said:
Im curiously out of wack on this paper,

the package of paper came with a sheet with the following information

for developing, follow the chemical directions or in general 60-90 seconds at 20C

Fix per chemical makers directions. but says "generally fix for 3 minutes"


Then at lunch at work, I found an Ilford PDF for the paper that says fix for 30 SECONDS in ilford rapid fixer mixed 1:4 like i had it mixed..

So what idiot is writing such screwy things..
Click to expand...
I only mix fixer 1:4 for fixing film. For prints i've always mixed at 1:9.
 
38Deardorff said:
I only mix fixer 1:4 for fixing film. For prints i've always mixed at 1:9.
Click to expand...
1:4 gives you a faster fixing time but 1:9 will also work just fine. The community college where I have taught uses 1:9 for print fixer and we train students to use a 2 minute time instead of 30 seconds. Since timing is done by looking up at the second hand on a clock it made sense not to have an extremely short time that could lead to fading or staining if not done precisely.
 
Cascadilla said:
1:4 gives you a faster fixing time but 1:9 will also work just fine. The community college where I have taught uses 1:9 for print fixer and we train students to use a 2 minute time instead of 30 seconds. Since timing is done by looking up at the second hand on a clock it made sense not to have an extremely short time that could lead to fading or staining if not done precisely.
Click to expand...
1:9 is also much more economical if you're making big prints....
 
Cascadilla said:
1:4 gives you a faster fixing time but 1:9 will also work just fine. The community college where I have taught uses 1:9 for print fixer and we train students to use a 2 minute time instead of 30 seconds. Since timing is done by looking up at the second hand on a clock it made sense not to have an extremely short time that could lead to fading or staining if not done precisely.
Click to expand...

I have never used chemicals or paper that could go with 30 seconds of fixing..

IF i did go with ilford rapid fixer mixed 1:9 would it really be a 2 minute fixing time?


im a cranky man, and i do like things easy at times. Its like me and rodinal,, I started doing the 1:25 and 1:50 dilutions and clock watching that 12 min or 14 min developing times on my film, only to realize 1:100 with agitation every 30min was just as nice.
 
Double check with Ilford's instructions, but I think that 2 minutes at 1:9 will probably be OK. When I was making prints for my commercial work the shorter time made sense for me and I was the only one in the darkroom so I had a developing timer with a foot pedal. The community college darkroom with 10-12 people working at the same time made that kind of timer impossible--can you imagine a dozen electronic timers randomly beeping and trying to figure out if it was your print that was ready?
 
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