Cutting paper in the dark.

Thanks for the reply, koraks. All I can say is that the DUKA didn't fog paper used at the right angle, right intensity and distance from the paper. It would appear that your LED operating at 600nm is at a slightly different wavelength from the DUKA which as I understand it is 598nm

I cannot say that 2nm makes any difference as I don't know enough about the science of wavelengths to do so . All I can say is that I never noticed any problem with fogging.

I do wonder how DUKA managed to sell its light if the fogging problem was as inevitable and obvious as your experience with an LED at 600nm suggests

DUKAs were never cheap and I presume that DUKA carried out tests on its sodium lamp but that's a presumption on my part

Crohnsie seems to have bought a DUKA but then thought better of it and has not used it as he cannot quite reconcile its use with colour paper

What he bases this on I don't know but if I had an unused DUKA and had struggled with cutting paper in the total darkness, I'd be tempted to try it before leaving an expensive purchase languishing in a box

If you had the same Durst light as I did then I agree it was as good as useless. I used the deep green filter that was for colour paper prints and after a full 15 mins I still couldn't see my hand waving in front of my face

It's pity that we have so few DUKA users here whose experience would be helpful. The problem as always is that with few actual users and a general feeling that RA4 = total darkness we will always tend to suggest that total darkness is the only way to process colour paper


pentaxuser

Eh, if you cut your fingers off using a paper guillotine, you deserved it.

pentaxuser said:

It would appear that your LED operating at 600nm is at a slightly different wavelength from the DUKA which as I understand it is 598nm

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I don't think that's a meaningful difference.

Did you run color tests with and without the Duka? Like I said, fog starts subtle. If it didn't bother you somehow, that's all the better.

pentaxuser said:

If you had the same Durst light as I did then I agree it was as good as useless. I used the deep green filter that was for colour paper prints and after a full 15 mins I still couldn't see my hand waving in front of my face

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Might have been the same, yeah. A filter like that is always, well, crap to put it simply. As you said, the device was useless. I no longer have it and I never actually used it beyond brief testing.

pentaxuser said:

a general feeling that RA4 = total darkness we will always tend to suggest that total darkness is the only way to process colour paper

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I'd gladly be proven different but the problem like you said is a lack of people who try it and if they do, the only thing they say is "I had no problem" without it even being clear if they actually tested anything or just printed away and didn't look for any issues. FYI that particular method worked OK for me for a few sessions with the LED safelight; everything seems nice and dandy until I actually scrutinized the prints and did some systematic side by side testing. Now my Ektar prints look like Ektar again instead of like Pro400H.

koraks said:

I don't think that's a meaningful difference.

FYI that particular method worked OK for me for a few sessions with the LED safelight; everything seems nice and dandy until I actually scrutinized the prints and did some systematic side by side testing. Now my Ektar prints look like Ektar again instead of like Pro400H.

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I admit I am not sure that I would see the difference unless I had 2 prints side by side and even then and assuming I did see the difference I doubt if it would matter enough to me or certainly not enough to make me wish I had struggled in the total darkness

I have never printed from Ektar but have done so from Fuji Pro400H and Fuji Superia and both prints look equally good

My criterion is simply based on does the print look right to me or others who view it

pentaxuser

Well... Prints from Ektar should look different (higher contrast, distinctly more saturated hues), or something is definitely off....