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  #1  
Old 13th November 2010, 11:46 AM
youngrichard youngrichard is offline
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Default Is a Stop Bath really necessary?

Many years ago I gave up using stop baths, firstly because there wasn't room for one on a small kitchen draining board in East Finchley after the children had gone to bed, and a secondary benefit is that it saves time.
It seemed to me that my fixer might not last as long (I pour it back into storage bottles at the end of each session and test activity on a piece of gash film before starting next time, renew when clearing gets to 30 seconds) but I could cope with that. And fixer should stop development as well if not better than a stop bath, I thought.
Two houses later I have my own darkroom in the cellar, but have found no reason to change my method.
I use only RC - don't know if that makes a difference. Nor can I tell you if I get through a lot more fixer than I would if I used a stop bath.
Any other heretics like me?
Richard
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Old 13th November 2010, 12:04 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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I gave up stop bath for film some time ago without apparent ill effects but continue to use it for prints. As I have a Nova slotty thing then it may as well be filled with stop as with water.

It is very cheap to use and does make fixer last longer.

Mike
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Old 13th November 2010, 12:05 PM
Dave miller Dave miller is offline
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One here.
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Old 13th November 2010, 12:17 PM
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I have missed out using stop or water and just poured the fix in without any ill affects by mistake.
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Old 13th November 2010, 02:31 PM
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Trevor Crone Trevor Crone is offline
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I use just plain water for film but use a very weak stop bath when printing, this is then totally discarded after the session.
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Old 13th November 2010, 04:29 PM
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Steve Smith Steve Smith is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photomi7ch View Post
I have missed out using stop or water and just poured the fix in without any ill affects by mistake.
That's what I do if I don't intend to keep the fix any longer. Usually I just use water.


Steve.
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Old 13th November 2010, 06:44 PM
youngrichard youngrichard is offline
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Why use water?
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Old 13th November 2010, 07:03 PM
DavidH DavidH is offline
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I use a weak stop bath when printing, but not having any wouldn't stop me, I'd just use water. If you use water in a developing dish, I'd suggest you change it before many prints have been through it to avoid carrying over developer into the fixer.
If you happen to print a lot of pictures in a session stop bath will avoid fixer being prematurely exhausted by contamination with developer. No point in allowing prints to be spoilt by being underfixed. Underfixing isn't always immediately obvious. Equally important is to wash your prints properly after fixing, particularly if you use fibre based paper any time.
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Old 13th November 2010, 07:12 PM
Paulographic Paulographic is offline
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I use water rinses for film.
For paper I use yesterdays fix with a dollop of acetic acid, aka non brewed condiment in catering size containers.
This has some residual fixing strength which means I can switch the light on to examine test strips.
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Old 13th November 2010, 10:09 PM
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Adrian Twiss Adrian Twiss is offline
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I use a water rinse for film as I use a staining developer. For prints its a commercial acetic acid stop bath. On the rare occasions I use an amidol developer I use a citric acid stop bath. I tend to throw away the acetic bath after 3 printing sessions even if the indicator has not changed colour. The citric acid bath is disposed of after each printing session.
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