Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/10

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: photo papers and fixer
From: Mark Rabiner <mrabiner@concentric.net>
Date: Mon, 10 May 1999 10:23:28 -0700

apbc wrote:
> 
> whilst we are on the offbeat and almost off topic subject of making
> photographs with our Leica negatives :) I would like to ask if anyone
> knows of a powder form of rapid fixer: does it exist and if so what are
> the options. I ask since I am going to New York this weekend largely to
> stock uo on darkroom materials and carrying powder chemicals is
> preferable to liquids. I cannot use the local fixer here in Shanghai
> which though cheap and effective is almost incredibly slow - 30minutes
> full strength when fresh! A good selection of Kodak developr formulas are
> concoted here locally (from D72 to D76 and D163) but fixer seems beyond
> the local chemical industry which have evidently concentrated on
> polluting rivers and changing the colour of the sky for the last few
> decades...
> 
> Bests
> 
> Adrian Bradshaw
> Editorial and Corporate Photography
> Shanghai, China

Kodak makes the "Kodak Fixer" in one gallon packets but is not Rapid
fixer it is take your time fixer and it has hardener in it. Rapid Fixer
is Ammonium Thiosulfate and take your time regular fixer is Sodium
Thiosulfate. Or someting along those lines. The new Anchell/Troop book
says Sodium Thiosulfate is no longer recommended for modern films and
probably "will not do the job"!! So you have more than one reason to
score a cubetainer of Rapid Fixer A! I weighs a ton so you will have to
put it on a tanker! Or hire a tanker filled with Rapid Fixer A and make
sure it doesn't hit an Iceburg and ruin someones Bay!
Mark Rabiner