Your favorite, mostly harmless, stop & fix?

[Will Frostmill]

Hi all,

The last time I did darkroom work was in college, years ago, and I never gave any thought to chemical safety or even what kinds we were using.* I'm looking for a simple, safe, and foolproof set of chemistry to stop and fix x-ray film. I'm limiting myself to liquid concentrates - I'm not good with powders. (Spill, inhale, and clump!)

Skimming through my old texts** and poking around online, it seems like I could use a water stop, or kitchen vinegar, but I understand there are pros and cons. How do they compare to things like Ilfostop? Also, how do you like Ilford Rapid Fixer?

I'll be doing tray development of 5x7 or 8x10, and contact prints on whatever is cheap.

Will

*I still have my notes, and I know we were using D76, and at what dilutions & times, but those films don't exist anymore, so...
**gave away my Strobel & my Ilford Darkroom books, darn it.

[BarryS]

For stop bath, I mix a teaspoon of citric acid in water (1-2 liters). Simple and odorless, I wonder why I ever used acetic acid stop bath. You could make a concentrate with the citric acid, but it's very simple to use. My favorite fixer is Photo Formulary TF-4--it has a smell, but way less noxious than rapid fix, a very large capacity and long shelf life.

[Scott Davis]

Water for stop, and another vote for TF4.

[Ken Lee]

You might find this brief article helpful.

An alkaline fixer is better for many reasons (TF-3 and TF-4). They are both liquid concentrates and TF-4 smells less than TF-3 but you can mix your own TF-3 from scratch if you like.

You only need acid stop if you're trying to prolong the life of an acidic fixer and/or want development to stop instantaneously. If fast is enough, water or a modest amount of citric acid is should stop development quickly enough.

[BarryS]

Yes, plain water is good for film stop-I only use the citric acid for paper stop.

[sully75]

xtol/water/TF-4 is fairly benign chemical wise. I develop in the kitchen, don't feel too guilty about having that stuff around my roommates.

TF-4 smells like pee sometimes but it goes away pretty quickly.

I think my results are better since I stopped using Kodak stop bath. I wonder if maybe it was because the development was being stopped too quickly and maybe somewhat inconsistently. I feel like I get less streaking since I switched to water. All in all though I'm a hack. I just hope to get lucky with my negatives. Those three have given me good results.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Plain water with citric acid for stop bath. Ilford rapid fix. Bob's your uncle.

[SpeedGraphicMan]

Powder chems are great, but you should immerse the packet while emptying it to eliminate the chance of the powder going airborne.

(I learned this from experience, "Cough Cough Cough").

I think my results are better since I stopped using Kodak stop bath. I wonder if maybe it was because the development was being stopped too quickly and maybe somewhat inconsistently. I feel like I get less streaking since I switched to water.

If your Kodak stop bath is giving you problems, you are not mixing it properly (I.E. too strong a mix).

[Frank_E]

interesting….

with regard to using citric acid as a stop bath
how do you know when it is expired
being a relative dark room newbie
I found the colour change with Kodak indicator stop bath to be helpful

then again considering how cheap this is it might just be simplest to throw it out after every session anyways...

[Ken Lee]

considering how cheap this is it might just be simplest to throw it out after every session anyways...

Precisely