Old thread, and not a lot posted on the topic. I gave my night vision goggles a go the other night while doing some 11x14 tray development. Some notes here in case someone wants to give it a go:
I used the el cheapo night vision monocular you can get on Amazon.com that comes with a head mount for around $200 new. Getting the head mount set up was a PITA, but once done it's pretty easy to take on and off. Everything was prepped in regular room light prior to development. Once the lights were out, I flipped the switch and it was damned bright in that room! Made unloading the filmholders a breeze.
After pre-wash, negs went in the developer. All three negs I was developing were shot without a shutter and with "guesstimated" apertures. The first two were clearly more exposed than the third, as development progressed noticeably faster. I pulled them early, while the third neg continued to develop. Timing was a bit of a nuisance - the monocular does not have a great amount of depth of field, so you need to constantly adjust the focus to look at different things.....like trays versus your watch.
Fixed, rinsed, good to go. Couple post-development observations:
--The focusing (again) is somewhat of a nuisance, but you can get used to that.
--Developing film is slightly different than paper - all three negs came out equally under-developed, but printable. I think it will take some time to get used to what I'm looking for in the neg and be able to consistently tell it's "done".
--Fixing with the goggles is pretty awesome - you can really see how fast it clears and thus, to some extent, how potent the remaining fixer is.
--If you're like me, you tried writing down your exposures and notes in the field and you're just not that organized or disciplined enough to maintain it. Development by inspection will make it so that differences in exposure won't be that important anyway!
--This is also a MUST if you're "winging it" with aperture and shutter calculations.
All in all, really impressed and excited to hone my skills! The purchase seems well worth it!
--A
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