Here's a good, bright, cheap LED safelight

[vdonovan]

I installed and have been testing one of these from Super Bright LEDs:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...lfd-series-led-linear-light-bar-fixture/1310/
They really are bright, I bought two of the four-foot strips for my 10' x 10' darkroom, but really only need one.

Super Bright's specs show that the red version emits at 630nm, which I believe is right for variable contrast paper. I was told by Super Bright's customer rep that the LEDs are 335s, which emits a pretty narrow band, between 600 and 650nm:
http://www.snowdragonledhk.com/images/2013/id171/side-view-smd-335-led-red.pdf

Best of all, they've passed the Kodak test in my darkroom.
https://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/k4/k4TestSafelite.shtml

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

The referenced Kodak safelight test spans 7 minutes. For complex dodging and/or burning sequences this may not always be sufficient.

Consider visually testing your new red safelight by completely darkening your room, then observing the light from the red LEDs as it reflects off the recorded side of a standard CD or DVD disc. Look carefully for any faint blue and/or green bands of color embedded within the overwhelming red color. The effect can be quite subtle, often seemingly at or near the limits of visibility.

If you see any blue, this can fog your fixed contrast b&w papers. If you see any green, this can do the same to your variable contrast papers. While tested safe at 7 minutes, your lights may not be safe for longer periods, if you should ever need that.

In this case the solution is very simple. Cut a long strip of Rubylith and overlay the output side of the strip. A single layer is enough. This additional layer of filtration will remove any subtle blues and greens, while passing the vast majority of red.

Using this approach in my darkroom, my 635-nm red LEDs were tested safe out to at least 60 minutes, using the pre-fogged testing protocol with Ilford MGIV FB and RC papers. The safe period may have gone longer, but I terminated the test at that point.

Much nicer for those complex and difficult to reproduce dodging and burning sequences. No need to hurry.



Ken

 

[DWThomas]

A year or two back I bought some LED bulbs from SuperBright, but lately attempts to access their site with FireFox get me a decrepit and cryptic text-based display, and when I put the link above into Internet Explorer I get an "Ooops, there seems to be a problem ...".

So -- I'm curious what browser you're using?

The red units I bought failed my testing with Fuji HR-T X-ray film, so my next step is to filter the safelight with a sheet of Rubylith. (Which I need to do soon, as WPPD is sneaking up on me!)

 

[vdonovan]

A year or two back I bought some LED bulbs from SuperBright, but lately attempts to access their site with FireFox get me a decrepit and cryptic text-based display, and when I put the link above into Internet Explorer I get an "Ooops, there seems to be a problem ...".

So -- I'm curious what browser you're using?

The red units I bought failed my testing with Fuji HR-T X-ray film, so my next step is to filter the safelight with a sheet of Rubylith. (Which I need to do soon, as WPPD is sneaking up on me!)

Hi Dave, I'm using Chrome on a Mac. The link seems to work fine in Safari as well.

 

[DWThomas]

Hi Dave, I'm using Chrome on a Mac. The link seems to work fine in Safari as well.

Thanks, Vince. Interesting, I just tried getting there via my Christmas present Pad and it worked on that with Safari also. Methinks if I were in online retail I wouldn't want my site to get weird on one of the most popular browsers! But waddoIknow. Anyway I already have the little golf ball like red unit to use in my old Kodak bullet safelight if I can resolve the spectral issues. (Those bars would be neat for my next darkroom! )

 

[Wayne]

I remember your troubles Dave, but don't remember which ones you were using. These are the ones I just bought, which are a lot cheaper than the OP:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...g11-globe-bulb-360-degree/440/#/attributes/13

I think these are what you used but don't recall for sure

These are incredibly bright. I had two of them in my wet darkroom, one about 6 feet away and the other about 10 feet from my sink. I haven't tested them with x-ray yet but I had no fogging with an 18 minute lith print. However I turned off the closer one and just turned it on at intervals to inspect the print closer. I didn't really need it on all the time, the one 10 feet away was plenty bright for monitoring development coarsely. I just got them so that's the only time I've used them. Its worth mentioning again: they are SUPER bright!

 

[DWThomas]

I remember your troubles Dave, but don't remember which ones you were using. These are the ones I just bought, which are a lot cheaper than the OP:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/mor...g11-globe-bulb-360-degree/440/#/attributes/13

I think these are what you used but don't recall for sure ...

Yup, those are the ones (good thing I bought this iPad!). I notice toward the bottom of that page there is a spectral graph and the red appears to show a little bump at about 565 nm. I'm not sure what the film (Fuji HR-T green) I have looks like in spectral sensitivity (I should look further into that), but 550 nm or so is essentially green, so that bump could be a problem. I've cut an acrylic disk and a hunk of Rubylith to create a "filter" for use in the bullet safelight, just haven't gotten around to testing it. (Low priority, as I know the Wratten #2 dark red works, but if I could get brighter light without fogging it would be nice.)

Ah well, I have until April 24th -- Pinhole Day!

 

[Roger Cole]

Thanks, Vince. Interesting, I just tried getting there via my Christmas present Pad and it worked on that with Safari also. Methinks if I were in online retail I wouldn't want my site to get weird on one of the most popular browsers! But waddoIknow. Anyway I already have the little golf ball like red unit to use in my old Kodak bullet safelight if I can resolve the spectral issues. (Those bars would be neat for my next darkroom! )

Just tried it in Firefox and it works fine for me.

 

[Wayne]

Yup, those are the ones (good thing I bought this iPad!). I notice toward the bottom of that page there is a spectral graph and the red appears to show a little bump at about 565 nm. I'm not sure what the film (Fuji HR-T green) I have looks like in spectral sensitivity (I should look further into that), but 550 nm or so is essentially green, so that bump could be a problem. I've cut an acrylic disk and a hunk of Rubylith to create a "filter" for use in the bullet safelight, just haven't gotten around to testing it. (Low priority, as I know the Wratten #2 dark red works, but if I could get brighter light without fogging it would be nice.)

Ah well, I have until April 24th -- Pinhole Day!

I have some HR-T so maybe I'll test it eventually. That's an awfully small spike there in the curve, I can't imagine that would fog it but who knows

 

[DWThomas]

Just tried it in Firefox and it works fine for me.

Hmmm -- thanks -- mayhaps it's an ad blocker problem or the like. I regularly use all sorts of other sites without difficulty, and my system is up to the latest updates. (grumble grumble technology -- almost embarrassing I made my living in the stuff!)

Edit: Yepper, that was it. Disabled ADP on superbrightleds.com and there we are -- ha!

Edit2: I already bought two of those bulbs -- if they truly last 30K hours, I may never need to buy another anyway!

 

[scheimfluger_77]

A year or two back I bought some LED bulbs from SuperBright, but lately attempts to access their site with FireFox get me a decrepit and cryptic text-based display, and when I put the link above into Internet Explorer I get an "Ooops, there seems to be a problem ...".

So -- I'm curious what browser you're using?

The red units I bought failed my testing with Fuji HR-T X-ray film, so my next step is to filter the safelight with a sheet of Rubylith. (Which I need to do soon, as WPPD is sneaking up on me!)

Dave if you haven't already, try clearing your browsers cache, and browsing history.

 

[DWThomas]

Dave if you haven't already, try clearing your browsers cache, and browsing history.

Thanks Steve, that's my normal first response. As noted in my edit in post #10, it was the Ad Block Plus. Weird, for a number of years I've managed my banking and investments, paid most of my monthly bills, and done much of my shopping online and this is the first time I encountered this behavior. In days of yore some occasional browser incompatibility would result in a fragmented display or some missing elements, but this site becomes a huge column of text hotlinks on a white background that don't seem to work. Apparently they are making themselves look like an ad pop-up on their own site -- oh well!