Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/28

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Subject: [Leica] darkroom update...
From: "Francesco (Glossymedia)" <fls@san.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 01:15:20 -0800

Contact prints......my latest project.

The facts:

amber safelight......2 feet from printer
100W soft tungsten bulb.......1 foot from printer
Ilford MG Paper Developer at 20C for 60 seconds
Kodak Indicator Stop Bath at 20C for 30 seconds
Ilford Rapid Fixer at 20C for 60 seconds
Ilford MG Glossy Paper RC
Kodak Glossy Paper RC
wash under running water for 2 minutes
hang dry

Well, I got the TMax 400 negs developed perfectly, but when
I tried to folow Hedgecoe's instructions on contact prints, I 
messed up a few times.  In his book he explained how to run
a test to determine proper exposure time for contact prints.
Since I do not have an enlarger yet, I improvised.
Under safelight,  I placed the neg strip over the paper, then 
placed the combo under the contact printer glass sheet.  I exposed
with the tungsten desk lamp for 5 second increments, as Hedgecoe
recommended.  I then ran through the chemicals and times
stated above.  Jet black paper.  No images at all.  Hedgecoe said
there would be a gradient strip on the paper from light grey to black
and the proper exposure would be the one where the paper just turned
black, but my entire strip was black!  After some more testing, I assumed
the safelight was not really safe, or that the Ilford paper was not safe
under that light, since the Ilford paper insert said the light had to be
a special one.  I switched to Kodak paper, and tried again.  Under the 
safelight, I got black paper again, even at 5 seconds.
Now I thought the safelight was certainly not safe, so I removed it.
This time I tried the same thing in the dark.  This time I got the faintest
of images to appear, but very very faint!  I deduced the light was on 
too long, so I knocked it down to 5 seconds.  Still too long.....I got
images, but very faint and dark.  I then decided that the tungsten bulb
was too strong, so I changed the setup and I exposed with the amber
safelight at a 2 foot distance from the paper, and used no tungsten light.
At 5 seconds, same thing....faint images.  At 3 seconds, I was getting
tired and when better, but still faint, images appeared, I was relieved 
and figured I was on the right track.  But I quit for the night.
I remain confused.

I know all of you darkroom veterans are ROTFL right now, and that's OK,
but what I am doing wrong here?  A million things are going through my head
as to what the problem is:  light source too close, time is supposed to
be very short (under 2 seconds), light source is too strong, etc.
Am I on the right track?  Can someone tell me the proper timings for 
making standard contact prints?  Is it posible to do without an enlarger
or am I wasting my time, paper, and chemicals?

Francesco

PS......what is the difference between a developer such as HC-110 and 
XTOL?  Is XTOL a paper developer?