Bulb choice for development by inspection

I've just bought this bulb off eBay to use for development by inspection of large sheet film. Even though it's a green bulb it gives off a yellow light. A pretty strong one at that. Is this suitable for DBI? I'm going to give it a go with some 4x5" first to check.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=130306736077

Then there's also this

http://www.firstlightdirect.com/scp/Dark_Room_Light_Bulbs/Green_Yellow_Finish.html

Are they the same bulbs do you think? They both have the same reference number but one is called yellow-green the other is called green-yellow. Hmm :confused:

You need a green bulb, not yellow/green or green/yellow. Best bet is a safelight with a dark green filter.

I'm finding it pretty hard to source a green bulb. Any ideas?

I'd be VERY careful about developing any panchromatic film by inspection. I've tried it a couple of times and it really doesn't work. You can't really use the safelight until processing is at least half complete. Using a strong restrainer in the developer is also sometimes recommended. The restrainer itself imposes a penalty of film speed and may not completely supress any fogging anyway. If the lamp is bright enough to see the film, it's too bright and will fog the film. If it is dim enough to be "safe" then you pretty much can't see anything other than the lamp itself. Even then, it can fog the film. Either way, it's a waste of time and money. The only films that I've ever been able to successfully develope by inspection are ortho films that are red blind. Those can be done under a deep red (Kodak #1 or #2 or equivalent) safelight.

As Frank said; not worth the trouble. I tried a couple of times. If you know your film and developer, totally unnecessary.

When developing by inspection, the film was given a bath in Pinacryptol Green solution to desensitize it to green safelight.
Sam H.

Isn't this what Smith and Chamlee do and there's an article on it in their website. So it seems it can be done but I wonder how long it took them to master the knack of recognising when the film is developed to their liking. The article gives the impression that it is fairly straight forward but having once worked with a dark green filter for RA4 I hate to imagine how difficult it must be to have any chance of recognising correctly developed film. I suspect that the film is literally held up to be examined for a few seconds only and maybe after a long apprenticeship you'd get to know enough from the briefest glimpse at the film but I suspect the emphasis is on the word "long". Maybe just maybe some people's eyes are better adapted for such tasks and Smith and Chamlee are two such people who assume that the rest of us have such ability.

I could barely see a hand in front of my face after about 15 mins let alone decipher the development status of film. Based on my dark green experience I'd say that if a bulb appears "bright" it's probably too bright.

Best of luck

pentaxuser

I don't do development by inspection, but if I were going to try it, I think I would try the infrared route.

Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee have an excellent article on their website about DBI. I've been following their instructions for a couple of years and, while it is hard at first, I'm getting the hang of things and am able to produce reasonably consistent negatives. There are a few important points, though:

Safelight. Not green bulb, as you're after a very specific, very dim shade of green. The filters aren't the easiest thing to track down, but they aren't the hardest. You can still get them new if you want. The color is #3 Dark Green. Use a 5w bulb.

Your eyes produce a chemical in dim light that makes them more receptive to small light sources. It takes a good ten minutes for this chemical to build up enough to become effective for DBI, and some people's eyes don't do as well as others.

Panchromatic film. I use it, and haven't had any problem. Don't start your attempts with T-Max films or Delta films, as they're harder to judge by the light. Only turn the light on for a few seconds at a time, and only when you're near the point you think you want to be at, time-wise. Don't just keep the thing on the whole time and assume you'll be right.

Only look at the base side of the film.

If you can't get it to work for you, don't sweat it and go on to something else. It isn't the end-all, be-all of development techniques, as much as some people would like to think so. Weston did it, Adams didn't. So what?

Jarvman said:

I'm finding it pretty hard to source a green bulb. Any ideas?

Click to expand...

I have one like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200346098060

They pop up on ebay every so often. Like others are saying, I found it worthless. The infrared probably is the way to go if you must process by inspection.

Good Luck.

Interesting to hear the mixed reviews, mostly negative hmm. I suppose its something still worth trying even if it doesn't really work out for me. Cheers.

For what its worth, I've been doing DBI for a fairly long time now.
Its a very intuitive and comfortable means of developing large sheets of film for me (8x10 and larger)
It does take some time to become used to when you are "done" and the negs look good, but it comes fairly easily with a little bit of time.

It works very well for me.
Given that most people have replied negatively to the DBI process, I just wanted to chime in to say that some of us are comfortable with it and often times semi-successful with it.

I've been using the same small 7watt Kodak Brownie dome safelight for all the DBI I've done over the last 4yrs or so.