IR Night Vision Goggles and Photo Paper

[Henry Ambrose]

Ken,

I think if you used a good safelight you would never want to use IR goggles for printing. I wrote this in a past thread about my safelights which screw into a standard US household socket and cost about $30.00:

"LEDs make great safelights as they can be manufactured to emit only certain wavelengths of light so filters aren't needed. The red OptiLED is listed as 627 nm with a spectral half-width of 20nm. Which translates to very red and very far away from anything that would expose photo paper which is sensitive down in the blue and green range at 450 to 500 nm.

You can find them here: www.optiled.biz/products/products.html "

[Ken Lee]

What kind of "base" is the ordinary light bulb socket for the US ?

The item you mention is listed under "Festoon" lighting, and there are several choices of base/color combinations.

[David Van Gosen]

Ken,

The Festival bulb with the threaded (medium) base is normal in the USA for household use; the others are commercial. I got mine from eBay for $25 plus shipping. Let me know if you need the part # from it.

Still wouldn't mind having the details of a fifty cent safelight, though. Maybe John's using the nightlights with the tiny neon bulbs?

[Henry Ambrose]

Ken,

When you view the .pdf, the lamp base you want is the one on the left of the page - threaded - the other is a bayonet with pins sticking out the sides.

Either the red/orange or red will work, I have both. In testing I found no fogging from either one out to seven minutes with several different VC papers. The red/orange will/might give a bit more normal look to your surroundings. With the red everything in my darkroom is very much black & white - I have no sensation of color in the room at all. These lamps are very bright and you might think at first they're way too bright and will fog your paper, but that's not the case. You will find working in a very well lit darkroom to be a great experience. Sounds silly though - "well lit darkroom".

I bought a cheap up-light accent fixure from Home Depot. I aim the light into the upper corner of my darkroom and let it bounce off the white ceiling and walls opposite my sink. I have a small Kodak bullet with a 7W lamp and OC filter over the sink for a little fill on that side of the room.

The other thing I suggest in darkroom lighting is a 40-60 watt lamp in a reflector fixture for viewing prints. I bounce mine off the ceiling as well. The idea is to get a white light level that helps you translate/simulate the wet print view into the subsequent dry print appearance. Not too bright and not too dim, experiment a little.

[John Kasaian]

David, don, Ken,

Hello everyone. I fished one of my little GE Guide lamps out of the box where I keep my darkroom stuff in between printing sessions (hey, my darkroom is also my 7 year old's "Barbie" bathroom)and theres no model number on the lamp itself, but a UL in a cirlce, one other mark with a " SA" in a big "C" and " 1/4 watt 125v" These have worked very well for me. It would be a shame if they stopped making them. I'll be going by a Walgreen's later tonight and I'll stop in to see if they have any on a card and get the model # if available. I've bought my last set within the past four or five years----they don't burn out----either my kids appropriate them as night lights or I loose the tiny little things.

Cheers!

[John Kasaian]

I talked to the manager at the local walgreens and was told that GE stopped making them, however there are cards propbably still around at retailers who don't turn stock over as fast as the big chains. You might try an independent drug grocery or hardware store. :-(

[Ken Lee]

By the way, the IR monocular worked just fine.

Finally figured out how to make a Pt/Pd contact print with the dMax of a Silver print. Of course what I made is a Silver print. (With apologies to Carl and Oren). And don't flame me, but I'm not so sure that the Pt/Pd version shows any more separation among midtones, high-values, or low-values either.

In thet vein,. can anyone recommend a nice paper/developer combination that will give a slight warm color, similar to Pt/Pd on Silver paper ? I'm happy to mix my own developer. The color I like is not too different from selenium-toned images, just a little wamer. Is there such a thing as Palladium toning ?

[David Van Gosen]

John,

Thanks for the update. The "1/4 watt" tells me it's a neon bulb. Even if GE doesn't make them, I bet a few will still turn up. I might try the dollar store, small local hardware store, etc.