I'm curious...do you use a stop bath when developing film?

[moira@mastodon.murkworks.net]

@kaiser_franz It has been a minute. But I answered with what I did, when I was doing it.

[panchromaholic@mastodon.art]

@kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove I go from one chemical to another and use the stop bath about 10 times (20 35mm films). Worked for the last 500 times

[rustoleumlove@mastodon.online]

@kaiser_franz

yes, the stop bath gets reused.
it all gets reused.

he keeps track of the number of uses, and i think also the date that the chemicals were made, and only reuses the stuff X number of times...

i dont know how many, but i will ask

[tmcfarlane@toot.community]

@kaiser_franz mostly just water rinse. If the dev time is short (< 5 mins), I'll use a stop bath, but that's rare for me now.

[marchyman@sfba.social]

@kaiser_franz Flush with running water for about a minute then fix.

[wishy@tooter.wishy.co.uk]

@kaiser_franz I've done both with water and with stop. No quality difference I can see, but without stop will likely affect the effective life of your stop.

And stop is cheap

[hrprmd@mastodon.social]

@kaiser_franz I use Zone Ecofix, which says a stop bath is unnecessary. So I just do a thorough water rinse before fixing. Haven’t had issues thus far. I went to this straight from my introduction to dev as a monobath user, so I’ve never used stop baths before

[raymaccarthy@mastodon.ie]

@kaiser_franz
I still have a film tank, but it's so long since I developed film that I can't remember. I only ever did B&W and last time I was using a slide projector adapted to take film strips to print enlargements.
Then in later 1/2 1990s used PhotoCDs (not Picture CDs which were rubbish). The lab closed & I did little till I got a Canon EOS70D. Still have the Olympus OM10 kit in the attic.

[tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social]

@carusb @kaiser_franz I do the same, Photo-Flo is in a separate container and the film goes in loose.

[tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social]

@kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove I will reuse stop bath for all the rolls in one batch but I don’t store it between developing sessions. I use hypo-check with fixer before each dev session. If the fixer is off I pour it into a jug and then take it to our local hazardous waste facility when the jug gets full.

[tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social]

@carusb @kaiser_franz I use the Ilford wash method. This saves a lot of time and water use.

[tmcfarlane@toot.community]

@kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove I'm not sure what your volume of fixer you are mixing is, but 65-70 rolls is an awful lot for say 1lt of fix. I generally get around 12-15. I change it once the total fix time goes > 6 min (given total fix time as twice the time to clear, so if clear time for a regular non-tgrain film goes > 3 min). I use the zone image eco-fix, but capacity wise, ilford rapid fix was very similar.

[tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social]

@carusb @kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove What I’ve read says it’s best to treat fixer as hazardous waste, at least where we live. All other chems go down the drain.

[tomnorthfilm@mastoart.social]

@tmcfarlane @kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove I also get around 12-15 rolls per liter of fixer. I trust hypo-check.

[tmcfarlane@toot.community]

@tomnorthfilm @carusb @kaiser_franz @rustoleumlove
Apparently most of the recovery methods result in the liquid being worse than the original fixer (especially electrolysis). I did read that raw salt can be used, but also read that, in home quantities, the sulphur in sewage systems is enough to reduce the hazardous content of the fixer. I engage my brain in Confirmation Bias mode and poor it down the sink.

[shom@gts.shom.dev]

@carusb why photo-flo is a separate container? Does it leave residue in the tank that doesn't come off with a wash? I end up with photo flow in a separate jug if I'm doing more than one run anyway for reuse but curious.
I switched to distilled water for photo-flo step and that's been great for not worrying about drying spots.
@kaiser_franz

[coldkennels@mastodon.social]

@shom @carusb @kaiser_franz Yeah, photo-flo is notorious for leaving a film on everything. It can gum up reels and contaminate the next development if not washed off properly.

[bosak@flx.masto.host]

@kaiser_franz Since you ask... I just follow the old directions from Kodak: pour out dev, pour in stop bath, agitate 30 seconds, pour out stop bath, pour in fixer. Nowadays my stop bath is 2 ounces of cheap white vinegar + water to make 16 (or 4 in 32), used as a one-shot (because why not).

Like some others, I check fixer by pouring it over a piece of undeveloped film and seeing how long it takes to clear. That piece of film then serves to visually confirm the beaker with the fixer.

[shom@gts.shom.dev]

@coldkennels cheers for that! I do some vigorous scrubbing of my reels and now I know the culprit.
@carusb @kaiser_franz

[shom@gts.shom.dev]

@carusb @coldkennels good shout, thanks!
@kaiser_franz