Out of Stop, switch to water?

[AdamD]

Hi.

I have been using Ilford Ilfostop when developing PF4Plus. But I'm just about out.

Should I just switch to using water for the Stop process and save the money?

Thoughts?

Adam

[Tin Can]

I always use fresh water stop with film

Paper I use citric acid

[Eric Woodbury]

Same here. After years of water only, I've found Ilford Multigrade paper likes a good stop or I risk some weird marks and colors on my prints. Film is still water. Paper is citric acid, as Tin Can noted. Buy a 5# bag from Amazon. No stink.

[reddesert]

Stop is the least expensive of the chemicals because it is diluted so much and keeps well. It's basically just acetic acid (pus a dye for indicator stop).

People do forgo stop - if you know what you are doing and are prepared to deal with process changes. But it may shorten the life of the fixer due to developer carryover. That can negate the minor cost savings anyway.

[chuck461]

Water stop for film. Acid stop for paper. I use citric acid like the others. About half tablespoon per liter of water. White vinegar is also an option. I've not used that so I can't recommend a dilution. Do a search or maybe someone will chime in here with that info.

CW

[Tin Can]

I use plain fresh water with my TF-5 fixer per spec. Fixer lasts plenty long

Read this http://stores.photoformulary.com/tf-5-archival-fix/



Stop is the least expensive of the chemicals because it is diluted so much and keeps well. It's basically just acetic acid (pus a dye for indicator stop).

People do forgo stop - if you know what you are doing and are prepared to deal with process changes. But it may shorten the life of the fixer due to developer carryover. That can negate the minor cost savings anyway.

[Bob Salomon]

In the USAF photo school at Lowry they sent us to the chow hall for vinegar that we diluted.

[Two23]

I've always used plain water, two rinses.


Kent in SD

[Jim Noel]

Water for film, diluted vinegar for paper

[Drew Wiley]

White vinegar. It's acetic acid just like stop bath; but you want something colorless that won't stain.

[AdamD]

I've always used plain water, two rinses.


Kent in SD

Two rinses each for how long? Any agitation?

[Gord Robinson]

For film water. For paper Kodak Indicator Stop Bath

[Two23]

Two rinses each for how long? Any agitation?

Oh, myabe 15-30 seconds for the first rinse, 5-10 seconds for the second. I flip the tank over a few times, the idea being to wash the developer off the film.


Kent in SD

[Tin Can]

When processing film with Rodinol 1/100 in trays, my I" deep water stop is 60 seconds with no agitation

[LabRat]

When I started using Foma 100 (and my remaining stock of Efke 25), I would occasionally get pinholes on these films when using acid stop bath... I actually then read the instructions and they said plain water stop or a 1 or 3% acid stop... Still got pinholes even with a weak stop, but vanished using plain water... I think they said 3 mins, but I don't remember the details now... Look at their tech sheet...

I recently have been using just one bath of water for 5 min (as I'm using packaged hypo based fix now cuz I don't have access to my ammonium thiosulfate right now)... I figure that developing might continue through this bath, so I'm waiting for developer exhaustion...

One interesting thing I noticed was when developing 30 35mm rolls of APX100 in dilute DK-50 recently was that this combination produces great edge effects, but it seemed slightly enhanced when using a long water stop... Have not enlarged these, but when viewing the negs by reflection, the "etch" of the image seem slightly more pronounced (but I could be mistaken)... So maybe something to explore and test...

Steve K