XTOL developer and Water as Stop

[Ron Bose]

How effective is water as a Stop for sheet film development, especially when using XTOL ?

Thanks,
Ron

[Alan Davenport]

Effective enough, I'd say (without having done the exact thing described.) Once the film is dunked into water, the remaining developer is almost instantly diluted so much that it's not going to have much effect beyond what is already there.

The main justification for using an acid stop bath is not because the process needs it, but to prevent alkaline developers from contaminating fixers that are generally reused for a while.

[Darren Kruger]

How effective is water as a Stop for sheet film development, especially when using XTOL ?

I haven't used XTOL on sheets but I regularly use a water stop bath for FP4+ 4x5 sheets with D76 with no problems.

-Darren

[Sheldon N]

I've always used a water stop bath with XTol, no problems here.

[Ed Richards]

I use Xtol 1:3 and just got directly to fixer, which I use as a one shot.

[cotdt]

use tap water. the tap water in my area has a acidic pH of about 3, which is perfect as a stop bath.

i've found that water stop bath works wonderfully with sheet film and papers, but does not work so well with 35mm film like TMAX 35mm version. Even Hypo clearing agent does not work well with these 35mm films, they come out purple-tinted no matter what.

[butterflydream]

The point is consistency of the process. Just don't switch between different chemicals too often. If you have used chemical stop bath and now you're changing to water, you may want to reduce the development time a little bit. Check the fixer life carefully as it will be shorter - you can check it by putting small piece of scrap film in it before developing exposed films.

[Bruce Watson]

I use Xtol 1:3 and just got directly to fixer, which I use as a one shot.

Now that's a thought. I may have to give that a try.

[Ron Marshall]

I use XTOL. I do five ten second rinses in tap water after the developer. Works great.

[Gregg Cook]

a double or triple rinse works well too. Change water often. Or use it as a water bath developer. Or something.

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

use tap water. the tap water in my area has a acidic pH of about 3, which is perfect as a stop bath.


Wow! Tap water pH of 3 - that would be neat vinegar. I guess you never need to descale anything in the household. What is the pipework made of? Can you cook with it? Can you shower or take baths? That kind of reminds me of those Bruce Lee movies and things they did with acid... If you don't mind asking, which part of the world do you live in?

[Murray]

Yow, I was going to say the same thing - Acid Flats, WV? (made up name).

COTDT - is your pH meter healthy?

4 whole pH units from neutral 7 is 10^4 ratio, 10000 x as acidic (if that's proper jargon).

If that's correct, there's something seriously wrong.

[Clyde Rogers]

I've used a 30 second water rinse after Xtol followed by forumlary TF-4 fixer for several years without issues.

Later,

--clyde

[PViapiano]

Clyde...you beat me to it. Yep, TF-4 fixer is alkaline so no pH problems!

I use it for paper mostly...