LED darkroom bulbs?

[Fragomeni]

I was just getting ready to order a new red darkroom bulb and saw that there are a lot of red LED bulbs coming up in search results. Is anyone using one of these? Just wondering if they are equally safe compared to a standard darkroom bulb. Most of the bulbs in our house are these newer LED bulbs because they supposedly last twenty-somthing years so if the red versions are darkroom compatible I’ll grab one of them. Anyone using one and can confirm they work safely?

[Ulophot]

I was just getting ready to order a new red darkroom bulb and saw that there are a lot of red LED bulbs coming up in search results. Is anyone using one of these? Just wondering if they are equally safe compared to a standard darkroom bulb. Most of the bulbs in our house are these newer LED bulbs because they supposedly last twenty-somthing years so if the red versions are darkroom compatible I’ll grab one of them. Anyone using one and can confirm they work safely?

Many folks here and over at Photrio use the red lamps from SuperBright LEDs, either the strips or single bulbs. I much prefer amber and have found that the little S11 globe bulb is one very bright 2-watt light -- enough that I prefer to dim it with diffusion for use. Ilford VC paper has tested fine for 5 minutes with it in my darkroom. In order to use Fomatone warmtone paper, it is necessary to aim the lights ("bullet"-style Kodak housings) away from the work area. It's a bit dim but I just don't like red light; it gives me a headache.

[Pieter]

I am suspicious of red LED bulbs, whether they are allowing me max contrast from Ilford VC papers. I use purpose-made amber LED fixture and a pretty ordinary safelight from Freestyle that I have refitted with a Kodak amber filter. Plenty of light in my darkroom, and it has passed the Kodak safelight test.

[John Kasaian]

I use a short string of red LED Christmas lights I bought on clearance a few years ago.
I tested them of course, and no problems presented themselves.
They do make the place look rather festive!

[koraks]

Red leds work magnificently; some straight out of the box,and some require additional filtering with e.g. rubylith to cut put the secondary green/yellow emissions. I've been using cheap Chinese strips this way for years. Lots of (red) light to comfortably work with; it's absolutely refreshing after having worked under the old style very dim darkroom conditions that used to be normal. There's no going back for me. Currently working on the light setup of my new darkroom, which of course will also be all led.

[ruilourosa]

Just paint a 3w 4000k led bulb with 2 or 3 coats of red car brake spray Paint... It works

[Drew Wiley]

Test, test, test. I don't take anything for granted.

[Pieter]

Test, test, test. I don't take anything for granted.

I can't agree more. It is amazing that folks are willing to risk hours of darkroom work for the sake of saving a few bucks on an iffy safelight.

[ruilourosa]

Testing would be the only way to know that works...
Tested with multigrade, foma vc and adox, fogged up to no density and then adding up to ten minutes of safelight... No density...

[Tin Can]

and don't expect miracles

I bounce my LED safelights off a 10 foot ceiling and only use them for paper and X-Ray for seconds

Never for 10 minutes!

I use paper safes also as X-Ray safes, especially if cutting it down

I am testing KODAK GBX-2 Medical X-Ray Filter safe lamps in OE KODAK Bullet fixtures

soon

I also have my shooting studio setup with RED LED

[John Layton]

The cheap "amber" (Delta brand, I think) globe safelights which I'm currently using are actually a bit on the red side of amber - and so far, so good...at least with Ilford papers.

[Fragomeni]

Thanks all. This is the one I decided on.

Amazon link (shorturl.at/dopCH)

It’s a 1 watt red led in standard socket size designed to replace ~7 watt bulbs. Most others that I found were 60 watt bulbs which seems far to bright. This one looks identical in brightness to any standard low watt darkroom bulb. I haven’t tested it yet but will soon and it seems promising.

[Edward Pierce]

I recently switched to using the S11 bulbs from superbrightleds. They’re very bright. I bounce them off the ceiling, which is white and rather low. First I tested two amber bulbs with Ilford MGFB Classic and got fog after 4 minutes. Switched to a pair of red ones; no fog after 7 minutes.

Then I tested the two red bulbs with Foma 111; fog after 1 minute. Now have to rig up a way to tone them down and test again.

[Ulophot]

Edward, in other posts I indicated my results with Ilford WTF and Fomatone. Foma seems more prone to fogging than Ilford, though I did not have the problem with the reds' I just don't like them. I tested the amber as safe but had to cut the output considerably. Not ideal, but if you can wait to see the print in the fixer and wash for making judgements, you may find it workable. It's takes a bit longer for eyes to adjust to teh lower light level, but once accustomed, mine seem to be ready to "open up" again when the inspection light goes off for the next print. Good luck!

[Tin Can]

Amazon now has a variety I have not tested yet

1 watt led light bulb red E26 (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=1+watt+led+light+bulb+red+e26&crid=2FLWQIM0SILWO&sprefix=1+watt+led+light+bulb+red+e26%2Caps%2C88&ref=nb_sb_noss)

[koraks]

Then I tested the two red bulbs with Foma 111; fog after 1 minute. Now have to rig up a way to tone them down and test again.
Try covering the bulbs with rubylith. Two layers generally does the trick. This cuts all but the red light, and dims the red light less than you'd have to do to get safe levels without the additional filtering. In other words, with the additional filtering you'll have much more (red) light to work with, which is very convenient indeed.

[ethics_gradient]

Typical LED's output a very narrow part of the light spectrum (in this case, the red bit that most darkroom papers aren't sensitive to) compared to a traditional bulb. I've been using cheap LED strip lights in my wet plate darkbox with no issues.

As other have said, definitely run tests before commiting to larger runs/prints.

[koraks]

Sure, leds have a narrow spectrum. But they also have secondary emissions outside their primary spectrum. That's where the problems stem from. Take your cheap strips and view their light reflected on the surface of a cd/DVD. I bet you'll see a nice rainbow that also shows some green and even blue which shouldn't be there if reality was as simple as the "narrow spectrum" statement suggests.

[ethics_gradient]

My unfogged plates suggest that it doesn't matter for my application. Hence, my suggestion to test.

[koraks]

Well, wet plate is extremely slow and has negligible sensitivity to green light, so pretty much any kind of red or yellow light would be ok for it. Paper is a whole different matter, and fast ortho film is yet another step up.