Will a GRA-LAB 300 fog film?

[jp]

Feel the force of the inverse square law and locate the timer a few feet away from the sensitive material.

Yep; mine is on the other side of the room (which isn't but 5 feet away from the trays).

Mine doesn't stay glowing bright forever. If I am in safelight or dark conditions, in 10-15 minutes, it's much less visible and is no longer a threat.

If I want to go in with light on, shut off the bright light and load some film holders, with no delay, I throw a dish/hand towel over the gralab as it will be glowing pretty good. That's plenty sufficient.

[Drew Wiley]

All these things will fog film under certain circumstances, even LED ones, even the dimmable ones, even at a reasonable distance. Tray dev of film is esp vunerable. I place my timers UNDER the sink, where I can see them but the film can't!

[bobherbst]

Thank you. This kind of response is the difference between real life experience and reading spectral sensitivity graphs in product specs. I have four large Gralab 300 timers hanging above my sink's backsplash about 2 feet from the trays where film is developed. After over 40 years working in numerous darkrooms and many thousands of 4x5, 8x10, and 12x20 negatives developed in trays, I have never seen fogging from the timers. I too have held unexposed film up to a timer and seen no exposure of the film whatsoever.

If you are talking about the big glow in the dark dial ones, I have found them very safe. I once took a sheet of unexposed tmax 100--it had been in the developer for several minutes without developing an image; must have forgot the darkslide--and stuck it emulsion-side first against the gralab for at least a couple seconds thinking it would make a contact print of the glowing dial. It literally developed nothing. I don't worry about my gralab timers anymore.

[Ken Lee]

"After over 40 years... I have never seen fogging from the timers."

Ditto

"Feel the force of the inverse square law and locate the timer a few feet away from the sensitive material."

Ditto

"I have found them very safe."

Ditto

[Curtis Nelson]

Thanks for all the replies. I found a new one for $40 that I just might grab.

[Kirk Gittings]

FWIW, I have definitely had fogging of tray developed TRI-X some years back from two Graylab timers at opposite ends of my 8 foot sink. This was determined after some testing to figure out where the slight fogging was coming from. To solve this I raised them up further from the sink and blanked out with black tape the hatch marks etc.

[Drew Wiley]

I've had TMax 100 fog (very sensitive in the shadow values); and even in my color
darkroom I placed several sheets of ND filter material over the dimmest setting on the
red LEDs. My old Gralab is only used as an emergency backup. But when you work with
very low contrast masks for color separation work, or anything comparable, an
exposed timer will ruin the film for any critical use. A few extra points of uninteneded fbf means you have to start over. So it just depends. Take your chances.