Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/01/29

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Subject: [Leica] Re: @#&$$& Watermarks!!
From: Al Edwards <alwards@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 17:48:53 -0800 (PST)

My local tap water is a high-mineral disaster. Beyond
watermarks -- the suitable term is 'scale'.
   Ted Grant put up a good post -- search 'Ted Grant
drying marks' in the LUGchive. While his post did not
solve my problem, it reduced the size and number of
the
marks.
   I dug around on the Internet and asked around, and
the
best I could conclude was that this is a
highly-variable
local problem that requires a local solution, a YMMV
issue, depending on your local water together with
more
mysterious factors.
   I solved it for my location: kept using the sludge
from
the tap for mixing chemicals, but use distilled water
for 2 final rinses -- 2x250 ml per reel at $.30/liter
is
$.15 per reel. And I quit using Photo-Flo. No
squeegie,
no thumb-and-forefinger, and no heat. Just hang
them up sopping wet and come back in 3 hours.
  This sounds stupid, but make sure you're
buying real distilled water, not mineral water,
mountain spring water, or other classy water. It
should
have that classic strange distilled water taste.
   Results: No drying marks for about 80 rolls. (I
sure have other problems, e.g. HP5 negatives that
are grainy in the zone of focus but smooth elsewhere.
My greatest strength as a photographer is my mark-free
negatives. If you saw my work, you would agree.)

- -Al


>From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
>Subject: [Leica] @#&$$& Watermarks!!

>References: I'm sick and **** tired of watermarks on
my >negs.  I use a condenser
>enlarger and the crap just shows up in every print. 
>AFAIK, I'm using
>every trick in the book when I process my film:

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