Headlamp Safelight?

[Harlan Chapman]

Is anyone using something like a red LED headlight as a safelight?
If so, what?
I need safelights in my darkroom.
If the headlamp is a viable safelight that would certainly simplify things.
Thank you.
-Harlan

[Leigh]

The Thomas Duplex safelight uses a sodium vapor (yellow) lamp that's bright enough to read tiny print on bottle labels anywhere in the darkroom.

A headlight with red or yellow LEDs would probably work, but I don't know if you can find one, white being the commonly-used color for such devices.

Graded photo paper emulsions are sensitive to blue light, while variable-contrast papers are sensitive to blue and green.

I assume you're not looking for anything that would be safe with panchromatic film.

- Leigh

[Brian C. Miller]

I use a Princeton Tec headlamp. It fits onto a headband, and the red LED is bright. I bought it quite a while ago, and I don't know if it's currently made. There are other red LED headlamps, though. The Princeton Tec Byte data says it has a red LED light.

[ac12]

I had a WHITE painted darkroom, and all I needed was 2 safelights with 7-1/2 watt bulbs. The white walls and floor made that small bulb work just fine and there wasn't a spot in the darkroom that wasn't illuminated by direct or reflected light. And with the safelights only a few feet above the chemical trays, I could not use a 60 watt bulb.

[Leigh]

My darkroom is also solid white, except for the tiled floor which is light colored. Even the cabinets are white.

My single Thomas Duplex safelight is at the right-hand end of the 8-foot sink, about four feet from the entrance. It easily illuminates the entire room.

- Leigh

[domaz]

You could find a cheap one watt headlamp and swap out the white LED for a red one watt LED.

[gnuyork]

Many of the head lamps out now come with the red led as an option. Not sure if it would be a safe light though. I've never used anything other than darkroom safelights designed for the task. Is any spectrum of red light considered safe?

[Leigh]

Is any spectrum of red light considered safe?
Photographic papers are only sensitive to green and blue light.

LEDs are monochromatic by definition, so red is red with no spill-over. I expect they would be unconditionally safe.


- Leigh

[MIke Sherck]

Every once in a while someone from the local astronomy club will pop excitedly into a meeting with news that they've found red headlamps at Harbor Freight or elsewhere. The last lot they found had dimmable LEDs and the mad rush of amateur astronomers bought all of them within a couple of days.

So they're out there, you might want to ask local astronomers whether they have a source.

Mike

[bobwysiwyg]

How about this?

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=red+headlamps&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=60862549745238864&ei=UKEkTcvILdOhnQe_4Yn4AQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDsQ8wIwAg#ps-sellers

[Jim Graves]

Harlan ... I just use a small piece of Rubylith (a red plastic filtering paper used in printing to mask ...we use it in carbon printing) taped over my regular backpacking headlamp.
Here are a couple of links to discussions about its use (among other things ... including red LEDs) in safelights:
Link 1 (http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/80784-safelight-filters-cheap.html)
Link 2 (http://www.photokb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/photo-darkroom/3481/Can-i-Make-a-makeshift-darkroom-safelight-please-help)

I have a large supply of rubylith and amberlith and would be happy to send you some free pieces to try if you want. Just send me your address by PM and the size piece you think you'll need.

Jim in Sacramento

[Harlan Chapman]

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. And good to hear from you Jim!
Based on your feed back it sounds like this is worth experimenting with.
I have a good supply of rubylith and will try that on an LED headlamp. And will also be in touch with an astronomer friend to find out about his resources.

-Harlan

[ac12]

I just picked up a combo kit of LED headlamp + LED flashlight at Home Depot.
BUT...the headlamp has both RED and WHITE lights. In the darkroom would be afraid that I would accidentally switch it to the white light position. I figure if a mistake can be made, it WILL be made. So following the KISS rule, I would want it to be RED ONLY. If I used it for darkroom work, I would do some surgery to deactivate the white light.

[BetterSense]

I have homemade LED safelights. Since they are very 'red' and narrow-band, I thought I would be able to make them arbitrarily bright without effecting photo paper. I was wrong. If you turn them up ridiculously bright it will still fog the poper. You can still have them very bright, though.

[chy]

As other posters have said, many headlamps have a red light setting. However, some do not turn on in the red light mode when you first press the switch and might turn on in the high, white light mode, which might be disastrous in the dark room.

I recently bought a Black Diamond Spot headlamp and it can be turned on in the red mode by holding the switch down for a few seconds, bypassing the white light mode. Should the red light mode be too bright in the dark room, you can always put on an extra layer or two of rubylith to cut the light.

BD has a range of headlamps, but I'm not sure if the switching sequence is the same. I bought mine at Eastern Mountain Sports, but they are available in many similar stores.

[Pavel+]

I bought 3 led red bulbs from Lowes, expecting to do tests and rejecting hopefully not all of them. On is a large (4"?) diameter 2.5 watt bulb, another is a 1.5" bulb at 1.5 watt and finally the last one is a long oval rated at 1 watt which is noticeably more red than the other two.

I was pleasantly surprised that my test showed NO fogging up to 11 minutes plus developement at 1 meter away. All of the bulbs passed with flying colors. The only one I could get manufacturers spec on had a sharp spike at 620 and like I said no fogging after 11 minutes even with varycon graded papers.

Now I have all three on at the same time in corners of the room and while it is not brig like a sodium vapor lamp it is pretty amazing. I could read book in the middle of the room if I wanted to.

The LED's are one of the best semi-secrets out there! Love mine!