Can I use Flexicolor Final Rinse inplace of Wetting Agent

[MingMingPhoto]

Hi guys, I'm having trouble. I'm trying to get perfect - near perfectly clean negatives. I have questionable results using wetting agent. for my c41 process I always get CLEAN - almost perfect negatives... Or at least it feels so, maybe the Digital ICE on my scanner removes some of the drip (but I almost never see any with my natural eye).

Since Final Rinse seems to work so well with color negatives, does anyone with a background in chemistry know if it's archival for me to use Final Rinse on my Black and white negatives?

 

[Anon Ymous]

Final rinse is basically wetting agent with the addition of a fungicide. BW negatives don't really need a fungicide, because of the metallic silver on them, but it won't hurt. It's more of an overkill than anything else. If you think it will give you better results, then why not...

 

[mnemosyne]

I would agree with Anon Ymous. Or you might just try to fine tune the dilution for your b&w wetting agent by doing some comparative tests. The manufacturers recommendations are only a starting point, as the dilution required for perfect results really depends on the hardness of your tap water. The optimum dilution has to be tested and determined individually. If your tap water is very hard, it helps to use demineralized water instead of tap water. You can then reduce the concentration of the wetting agent considerably.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I've been using Flexicolor Final Rinse for both C-41 and B&W negatives for several months, and haven't seen any problems. As @Anon Ymous pointed out, the C-41 Final Rinse contains stuff the B&W film doesn't need -- apparently because fungus likes dyes, but not so much silver (not sure why it doesn't attack the gelatin, which is nearly pure protein, however) -- but unless something in the fungicide attacks metallic silver, it shouldn't have any bad effects on B&W film.

The other advantage of the fungicide in C-41 Final Rinse is that the stuff won't mold the way PhotoFlo working solution will, so you can reuse it -- I'm still using the first two liters I mixed when I got my Cs41 kit back in May, and I've used up the capacity of that kit and I'm now about 18-20 rolls into Flexicolor replenished, plus a similar (if not greater) number of black and white rolls. No mold in the solution, and my negatives are still drying clean, so I'll let it run at least until it's time to mix fresh bleach and fixer for my Flexicolor.

 

[MingMingPhoto]

Thank you everyone. I'm going to try to do more research on this before trying it.