Re: [Leica] Darkroom help

[Daniel Bowdoin <danlb@mindspring.com>]

Johnny Deadman wrote

>on 7/29/01 12:00 AM, onetreehillclw at onetreehillclw@compaq.net wrote:
>
>> Being in New Orleans, the water here is terrible.
>> Sometimes when I am drying the negatives, I get water spots on the film(b&w
>> film).And I do use Zone IV photo-flo to eliminate this problem. Any
>> suggestions for properly wiping or drying negatives?
>
>I finally killed drying marks for ever using the following method
>has not failed yet
>wash as normal
>
>THEN soak for 1 min in Anionic (steam distilled) water with EXACTLY 1 drop
>of photo-flo per liter added. Available from your local pharmacist or
>pharmacy dept of the bit grocery store for next to nothing. . . . .

I've been using Edwal LFN (Low-Foam Wetting Agent) for this purpose for
about a bazillion years and I've had extraordinarily good luck with it. I
have never--ever--had a water spot dry onto a negative (35mm, 120, 4x5)
I've rinsed with LFN. Part of that has been, I'm sure, just pure dumb
luck. But I've always held the conviction that a lot of it has had to do
with the way that LFN is packaged. It comes already mixed, in a small
plastic dropper bottle that allows you to squeeze out exactly one drop at
a time, every time. So there's no screwing around with dilutions or
finding a suitable way to dispense the stuff without using too much or
too little of it. A single small bottle seems to last forever. I use
traditional steel developing tanks and one drop in a standard 2x35mm-reel
tank or 2 drops in a 4-reel tank, added to the final rinse and allowed to
sit still for one minute, is all that it's ever taken. The film comes out
of the water with no bubbles, without respect of water hardness or
softness. I've considered using distilled water, just because it seems
like t would probably be a good idea, but in fact I've had so much luck
with simple filtered tap water and LFN that I've never felt compelled to
switch. Now that I've written this, my next fifty reels will all be
covered with water spots and unspeakably ugly crud, but the above does
accurately describe my experience up  to now. 

Regards

Daniel Bowdoin