120 Drip Dry ?

dancqu · Feb 19, 2005

I thought I'd set my Jobo squeegee aside. Can I
expect spotless results using a few drops of Photo
Flo in distilled water as a last rinse then drip dry?

This roll of Pan F+ 120 to be processed in Ansco/
Beers A at 1:19 dilution is a TEST of new/used
equipment and the film's processing. Dan

david b · Feb 19, 2005

I normally drip dry after about 30 seconds in photo flo....no problems for me.

Konical · Feb 19, 2005

Good Afternoon, Dancqu,

I agree with david b. No squeegee ever, and dilute the Photo-Flo a lot more than Kodak recommends.

Konical

Ole · Feb 19, 2005

My routine now is a good soak in clean water - distilled if necessary. Then just hang up to dry. I haven't had a single drying mark after I stopped using Photo-Flo or similar.

jim appleyard · Feb 19, 2005

NEVER a squeegee! I did it once and it ripped the emulsion of the film in nice, long strips. A few drops of Photo-Flo and I hang to dry. No marks.

Mongo · Feb 19, 2005

As long as I've been developing film (I think I started back when dinosaurs roamed the earth...) I've taken it from the final rinse, put it into a dish pan with tap water and a few drops of PhotoFlo, pulled it out by one end, and hung it up to dry. I've never had a single mark from drying. (For 35mm I still give it a gentle "snap" to get some of the water out of the sprocket holes, but 120 comes straight out of the water and onto a clip.)

These days I dry my film in a bag that's designed to hand in a closet to protect clothes. It's about 2' square by 6' tall, and has a zipper up the front. No dust problems with this arrangement

Jon Shiu · Feb 19, 2005

I recently stopped using LFN and distilled water. Instead, I squeegee with an absorbent photo wipe (the green kind). I cut the photo wipe down to 2 or 3in. piece and then wrap it front and back around the top of the film, which is pinned to a line in the shower. Then holding the edges of the green thing on each side of the film, very slowly squeegee down the length of the film. Has worked fine. I stopped using wetting agent because I didn't like how it gunks up my Patterson reel and may also contribute to foaming. Also don't need distilled water or LFN any more.

gchpaco · Feb 19, 2005

I soak in Photo-Flo and distilled water. Photo-Flo sometimes likes to form these enormous bubbles that annoy me, so I sometimes run my fingers down the film to clear them, but I probably shouldn't and it's really unnecessary. You should be fine.

Tom Hoskinson · Feb 19, 2005

I never squeegee rollfilm - or sheet film either. I rinse in distilled or deionized water with a few drops of LFN and hang to dry (for rollfilm I sometimes use a Honeywell Kleen Dry dryer).

No drying marks.

moose10101 · Feb 19, 2005

Mongo said:
These days I dry my film in a bag that's designed to hand in a closet to protect clothes. It's about 2' square by 6' tall, and has a zipper up the front. No dust problems with this arrangement

I use the same "high-tech" film dryer after a 30-second soak in distilled water + Photo-Flo at half the amount recommended by Kodak. The negatives are spotless.

fschifano · Feb 20, 2005

I use Photoflo and don't bother with distilled water. Filtered tap water in my area is plenty good enough. Never used a squeegee on my film either, and my films dry clear and clean. I learned many years ago that Photoflo at 1+200 with my water is far too strong, and produces lots of foam. You don't want that. You want only enough Photoflow to prevent the water from beading up, but not enough to make foam. My standard dilution for Photoflo is somewhere between 1+400 and 1+500; it's not at all critical to be more precise than that. Another thing you might want to try is the substitution of plain old clear drugstore rubbing alcohol for about 20% to 25% of the volume of water. Your negatives will dry a little faster and the working solution of Photoflo will last a long time without those nasty, ugly floating things growing in it.

rbarker · Feb 20, 2005

I've used Photoflo at relatively high dillution with good success (i.e. no water spots). To speed the drying process, however, I usually use a strip of chamois leather as a squeegee. I fold the strip in half, so it surrounds the roll film, pull the ends taught, and gently pull it down the length of the film. By pre-wetting the chamois in the Photoflo solution and then squeazing it "dry", it readily absorbs most of the remaining Photoflo solution from the film surface, and doesn't scratch the film.

The alternative, of course, is to Dead Link Removed your film.

120 Drip Dry ?

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