Agfa A-3 Green Safelight Filter, same as a#3 kodak?

[Daniel Stone]

hey all,

got this along with some other things the other day, but upon closer inspection, I'm starting to think that these are meant for developing by inspection.

here's some pics of the filter, its a tissue sandwiched between two pieces of glass.






thanks

-Dan

[Peter K]

got this along with some other things the other day, but upon closer inspection, I'm starting to think that these are meant for developing by inspection.

Dan, such filters are much too dark for developing by inspection. You can only see the dark shadows of the tray, tank or so.

For developing by inspection the film needs first a kind of "anaesthesia" by special dyes like "Pinawhite". After a bath in such a dye-solution one can switch on a safety-light with a filter normaly used for paper developing to develope the film by inspection.

Peter

[Daniel Stone]

peter,

I beg to differ. Although I've only being developing "by inspection" with a green safelight(although in my case, a 5" round Kodak No.3), I haven't needed such dyes. After 8-10 minutes in the developer bath, and 5 min in a tray of water as a pre-soak, so 13-15min of PITCH BLACKNESS, I've been able to see my negatives(in pyro developer, or in standard dev's, such as D-76) quite well with just the bounced green safelight quite fine, even to eyes when the lights are on, it seems deathly dim. It's actually quite bright, even with a 15w bulb.

I'm still learning, but so far, my negatives, and prints, look pretty good. I haven't done a densitometer test to check for added base fog of a d.b.i.'d negative, or a tray developed(all in the dark, through 2min of fixing, no safelight(any color) whatsoever, just like if it was in a rotary tank, no light). But from negatives(both roll and sheet) that I've processed, in the same developer(pyro for me in most cases) as I have in trays in the dark, I can't tell them apart to be quite honest.

but I love having the control over the density of each individual negative, and actually being able "inspect" it during the final stages of development to judge when its reached its desired density(highlight's density that is).

I got turned on to this method by Michael A. Smith(who develops by inspection, with a green safelight, just like I do), and he's been doing it for many, many years. His wife, Paula, develops the same way. Edward Weston developed by inspection as well(with a green safelight too), and no one questioned his results. Now, I'm not likening myself to the quality of Edward Weston(he has many more years of experience with this process than I, hell, I've only been doing it for about 3 months now total), but even with newer films(in my case, Efke 25 and 100, in rollfilm(120) and sheets, 4x5/8x10), and even with other films, such as ilford fp4+.

check out a little intro writing that M.A.S. did, explaining the process. Very thorough description.

http://www.michaelandpaula.com/mp/devinsp.html

I could see where you're coming from in terms of graphic-arts films, which might be orthochromatic, where you'd need a red safelight, and could develop them "by inspection", as I've done before as well. Its very liberating, having complete control over the entire development process, and being able to fine-tune each negative's density, all in the same tray, at the same time.

just my $.02

-Dan

[Peter K]

Dan,

Michael A. Smith mentions also the desensitizing of films with Pina dyes. If you use this method you can also use two developers, a soft and slow one for the shadows together with a hard one for the highlights. So also high contrasts can be mastered and one gets negatives easy to print.

Peter

[Daniel Stone]

Peter,

very true, but he also states that he's never used it(at least at the time of writing). So yes, one way is to use the de-sensitizing dyes, but primarily due to cost, most people don't use these dyes.

the other method now would be to use an infrared monocle(or goggles), allowing you to see the entire developing process from start to finish.

being a college student, and almost broke , I can't afford a nice set of infrared goggles, I'd certainly like to try this method to see what it's like, but for right now, 2-3 second bursts of light after approx 80% of the developing time(or after the "N" time has been reached if I know for sure that all the sheets need N+ development, I turn on the light, and look at the first sheet. Repeating thusly for each sheet until I have the desired density.

I've never used the dual-developer method for film, but I've used the selectol-soft, then Dektol method(just like Adams did on some prints) to adjust for print tonality.
I'll keep that in my mind for when I can afford to shoot a few test sheets of film to try this out with.

cheers!

-Dan

[Peter K]

very true, but he also states that he's never used it(at least at the time of writing). So yes, one way is to use the de-sensitizing dyes, but primarily due to cost, most people don't use these dyes.

Pinakryptol-yellow is used diluted 1:2000 and Pinakryptol-green 1:10000 so the costs are small. Also with 500 cm^3 solution one can desensitize 30 sheets 4x5". If stored in brown bottles the solution is stable too.

I've never used infrared goggles but desensitizers and the two developer method. With a metol-developer after Andresen and glycin-developer after Hübl.

Have fun

Peter

[Daniel Stone]

these(5) of them are for sale here:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=62691

cheers!

-Dan

[D. Bryant]

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[BetterSense]

Infrared goggles work great. You can see the whole time. I use Eyeclops monocles ($50) with a lens from +3 diopter dollar store reading glasses taped over the lens (to correct the fixed focus to closer)

[Michael Jones]

At the workshop I took with Michael Smith, we did not use a desensitizing process. We used green safelights to develop by inspection.

As to the original poster's question, if the safelight filter looks like the posted picture on my computer, I would not use it. It needs to be solid green. Assuming it is my computer, looking in a Morgan & Morgan Darkroom Guide will list comparable filter grades from the past.

Good luck.

Mike