Fotodyne DNA transfer lamp as cheap UV source.

[digital_archivist]

This is going to sound silly, but I've had good luck using an old Fotodyne DNA transfer lamp as a UV source for cyanotypes. It came with multiple germicidal fluorescent bulbs, which I've replaced with BLB. It even has a built-in timer!

There's one on eBay (not mine) for forty dollars, plus $40 shipping. You can see what it looks like here.

Just curious if anyone else has tried this?

 

[nmp]

I dunno, I will be worried about my DNA getting transferred....

Can you give some more details - how big, how many lamps, etc. Does it have any ventilation?

:Niranjan.

 

[Alan9940]

Silly? Bill Schwab of NorthLight Photographic Workshops recently posted a YT video where he made a pt/pd using a UV flashlight which you can buy from Amazon for $27! If it works...it works.

 

[nmp]

Silly? Bill Schwab of NorthLight Photographic Workshops recently posted a YT video where he made a pt/pd using a UV flashlight which you can buy from Amazon for $27! If it works...it works.

I saw that. I immediately wondered if you can light-painting a larger print or even light-paint a still life object and make in-camera exposures of some kind. I think I am getting me one.

:Niranjan.

 

[Alan9940]

I saw that. I immediately wondered if you can light-painting a larger print or even light-paint a still life object and make in-camera exposures of some kind. I think I am getting me one.

:Niranjan.

Since I have a UV lightbox large enough for any size I'd ever print, I'm not in the market for something like this flashlight but I did wonder how large of a print could one make with reasonable exposures. If you get one, please report back with your experiences.

 

[nmp]

Since I have a UV lightbox large enough for any size I'd ever print, I'm not in the market for something like this flashlight but I did wonder how large of a print could one make with reasonable exposures. If you get one, please report back with your experiences.

WIll do.

 

[digital_archivist]

I dunno, I will be worried about my DNA getting transferred....

Can you give some more details - how big, how many lamps, etc. Does it have any ventilation?

:Niranjan.

Four bulbs, no forced ventilation, big enough to put my 8x10 contact printing frame inside.

That said, I just ordered a UV flashlight.

 

[nmp]

Four bulbs, no forced ventilation, big enough to put my 8x10 contact printing frame inside.

That said, I just ordered a UV flashlight.

Thanks for the details.

:Niranjan.

 

[Rolleiflexible]

I wrote this up in another thread: Check out the Onforu 96w LED "black light bars," product #CTB96UV. They sell on Amazon for US$59 for two fixtures, each 5"x15", that butted together are more than big enough to cover an 8x10 print frame with no falloff. They are really powerful: using a vacuum frame, my kallitype exposure times are 23 seconds. I included a photo of how I mounted the lights in the earlier thread:

Do exposure times affect print quality?

I just built a UV LED light box, using inexpensive (but well-built) self-contained fixtures from Onforu (Amazon). They dramatically shorten my exposure times from eight minutes to 30 seconds. An unexpected bonus: The prints I am pulling with them also seem to have darker blacks, clearer...

www.photrio.com