how to mix Kodak Photo-Flo 200 Photographic Wetting Agent

[jaimeb82]

I am trying to put together my dev, fixer, and wetting agent. I am doing Diafine + Kodak rapid fix (with hardener) + Photo-Flo 200. Last night I master to divide my dev and my fixer. Tonight is Photo-Flo. I was reading the instructions and it says 1 part of Photo-Flo and 200 parts of water. I got confuse there about the quantities. How can I get this, I bought a large bottle of Photo-Flo thinking I needed to make 1/2 a gallon or so.

Do I mix this in a temporally container just for every time I need to develop some film? and How can I measure such a small part of wetting agent?

Thanks.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Use 2 ml of Photo Flo 200 in 400 ml of water and this should fill most tanks for film development. Your bottle will last you probably your entire life.

(This is one of those cases that is not that critical)

Mixed Photo Flo can go bad due to growth of bateria and fungi.

PE

 

[zesbaugh]

I am trying to put together my dev, fixer, and wetting agent. I am doing Diafine + Kodak rapid fix (with hardener) + Photo-Flo 200. Last night I master to divide my dev and my fixer. Tonight is Photo-Flo. I was reading the instructions and it says 1 part of Photo-Flo and 200 parts of water. I got confuse there about the quantities. How can I get this, I bought a large bottle of Photo-Flo thinking I needed to make 1/2 a gallon or so.

Do I mix this in a temporally container just for every time I need to develop some film? and How can I measure such a small part of wetting agent?

Thanks.

Mix as you use, one bottle should last you almost a lifetime. I find easiest way to measure is with a syringe (CC and ML are different ways of saying the same thing). I dilute a bit more, but that is my preference. And be sure to use distiled water for best results.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Or if you are using a quart of water and 4.7ml of PhotoFlo [good luck to you measuring 0.016 ounces]

Steve

 

[sun of sand]

Use 2 ml of Photo Flo 200 in 400 ml of water and this should fill most tanks for film development. Your bottle will last you probably your entire life.

(This is one of those cases that is not that critical)

Mixed Photo Flo can go bad due to growth of bateria and fungi.

PE

I mix in distilled water and reuse for a certain amount of time before it goes "bad"
filtering along the way
I made up some up in a rinsed mouthwash bottle to keep upstairs for rinsing practice/test/unimportant film in ..without the flo the film dries horribly so can't go without it even on test film
In summertime room temp 70-75 the flo stayed clean for a long while
LONG WHILE
It had faint smell of leftover mouthwash so alcohol or whatever maybe kept growths down
If it messed with the cleanliness of the flo/negatives I didn't notice it
maybe the film is coated with trace amounts of things you wouldn't want on it
I dunno


With photo-flo I bathe the negative for a bit
drain
pour flo straight from bottle onto film
let drain/dry

 

[Denis K]

I use Photo-Flo one-shot and toss away the bath at days end. I think Kodak calls for too much. Kodaks directions for Photo-Flo 200 is 1+200 and Photo-Flo 600 is 1+600. I have two techniques that work for me:

1) Wet the end of a Q-Tip in photo-Flo and swish it around in just enough distilled water to make a bath.

-or-

2) Wet the end of my index, middle, and ring finger and swish them around in the same amount of distilled water.

I like the informality of these techniques and so long as they work for me I'll keep doing it.

As careless as I am, I do keep Photo-Flo out of my developer tanks and reels, as I'm one to believe residual wetting agent can have an effect on development times.

Denis K

 

[Photo Engineer]

The residual thymol in the Listerine is a good bacteriostat or fungistat. Some other mouthwashes may act the same way. IDK.

If you wash the reels and tanks with hot water after use, there will be no carryover of photo flo to cause problems next time you use your equipment. I have been using reels and photo flo for over 50 years with no problem.

PE

 

[dancqu]

Half an eyedropper, about 10 drops, in 500ml
of distilled water. Approximately half strength.
After hanging I quickly wet an eight blade film
squeegee in the PhotoFlo then slowly draw it
down the film's length. A quick dry. Dan

Use once the dump. Dan

 

[Sirius Glass]

After washing the film to remove the hypo, I empty the tank and pour the PhotoFlow solution in the open tank. I remove the reels and hang the film to dry. I do not wipe or squeegee the film since I found it best to let the solution flow off the film. This way I get neither streaks nor spots on the film.

Steve

 

[BradS]

I always mix fresh, use once and dump it.

5ml Photo-flo in 1 liter of water.

As it is Kodak, I assume that there is no need or benefit to mixing with distilled. I mix all Kodak products with plain old tap water. They are designed to be robust against differences in water quality....and here in the US, the water quality is pretty darned good!

 

[zesbaugh]

As it is Kodak, I assume that there is no need or benefit to mixing with distilled. I mix all Kodak products with plain old tap water. They are designed to be robust against differences in water quality....and here in the US, the water quality is pretty darned good!

Why take any chances when distilled water costs next to nothing? Photo Flo will reduce precipitates, but depending on water quality may not be able to completely eliminate them. Just not worth the risk to save 5 cents - at least that's my 2 cents.

 

[BradS]

Why take any chances when distilled water costs next to nothing? Photo Flo will reduce precipitates, but depending on water quality may not be able to completely eliminate them. Just not worth the risk to save 5 cents - at least that's my 2 cents.

Around these parts, distilled water costs about $1.20 per gallon...that's definitely not "next to nothing" in my book. Especially, for something I'm going to use once and throw down the drain. Besides, in over twenty years of using Photo-flo 200, I've never diluted it with distilled water and have never found any real reason to.

 

[Rick Jones]

I fill a 4 once brown glass container with eye dropper cap from my 16oz bottle of Photo-Flo 200. 1 eye dropper to 28oz of tap water makes a one shot mix which gives me streak free negatives.

 

[jaimeb82]

I am going to use a plastic paterson tank with a 35mm reel, that needs about 300ml to cover the area with liquid for one 35ml reel, so I will try 2ml mixed with 400ml of the rest of the water I have left. One last question, do I have to agitate the tank with the Photo-Flo and the film for certain amount of time? Or it is just a matter of letting it seat there for a minute?

Thanks for all the responses.

 

[Photo Engineer]

I agitate either normally for any other solution or continuously. I've found that it makes no difference except for the foam that you get. I love the shiny bubbles.

PE

 

[zesbaugh]

Around these parts, distilled water costs about $1.20 per gallon...that's definitely not "next to nothing" in my book. Especially, for something I'm going to use once and throw down the drain. Besides, in over twenty years of using Photo-flo 200, I've never diluted it with distilled water and have never found any real reason to.

Maybe I do go a bit overboard on my precautions, and I apologize if this sounded like an attack. I lean more towards the "better safe.." model and am happy to spend and extra $0.19 to get the cleanest result possible. To each his own.

 

[2F/2F]

The way I do it is as follows:

Decide how much volume I need.

Put that much water into a graduate.

For every 200 mL of water in the graduate, pull 1 mL of Photo-Flo 200 concentrate out of the bottle with a syringe (sans needle).

Put the concentrate into the graduate, stir.

Cover the graduate and dunk film into it on a dunk rod. For sheet film, I put it in a tray. The rod is not necessary, but I have it, so I use it.

I throw it out after wrapping everything up each day.

I usually mix up a 600 mL graduate full of it. It will hold one roll of 120/220 or two rolls of 35mm.

 

[c.w.]

I found that using a syringe was a pain, and my eye droppers weren't long enough to reach down in the bottle, but if you stick a straw in and put your thumb on the end you can get enough. I suppose you could mark the straw as to how far up the solution should come, but I just eyeball it.

 

[brian steinberger]

Wow, I've never measured when using photo-flo. After the wash I simply fill the tank with distilled water take the photo flo, pour the tiniest bit into the cap and dump in the tank. Never had any problems, although I'm sure I use a bit more than the recommended dilution, but not by much at all.

 

[removed account4]

wow ...
all this exactness i guess i do it, like most things, by the seat of mypants.
after the last fill and dump (¡ tap water ¡ ) of my last wash,
i don't dump it .. if it do, then i just fill up whatever container i am using to
wash my film ... maybe it my automated film washer? maybe it is a graduate/small or big cylinder
and then ...
i take the bottle of photo flo, and a few drops into the cap ...
and watch as 2 or 3 or 4 drops of dribbles off into the vessel i am using ..
if i have the reels on the weird coathanger thing then i go up and down a few times
rap the containment vessel a few times to dislodge the bubbles, then barely flow some water
do the hokey pokey ... blow off the foamy head, and hang the film.
if it is in the automated thing, then i lift the rack and flow off the "head" and hang the film
and lastly, if it in the tray, i take a sheet and then hang it.
i have never had a problem ( knock wood ) ...

oh, i am stlll using a bottle from the 1980s

 

[clayne]

I use 1ml of pflo for every 500ml of water. As mentioned 100s of times here and other places, 1:200 is too aggressive.

1ml eye droppers are commonly available.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Around these parts, distilled water costs about $1.20 per gallon...that's definitely not "next to nothing" in my book. Especially, for something I'm going to use once and throw down the drain. Besides, in over twenty years of using Photo-flo 200, I've never diluted it with distilled water and have never found any real reason to.

Ditto.

Water in Southern California is very hard and I use it with all the chemicals. No problem. I have talked to a number of photographers here and they do the same thing.

I reuse the PhotoFlo until I have to mix a new set of chemicals, then I make a new batch of PhotoFlo.

Steve

 

[mike c]

The water here in LA is very hard, I have to squeegee and wipe down the sink after each use. Distilled water is a must.

 

[BradS]

The water here in LA is very hard, I have to squeegee and wipe down the sink after each use. Distilled water is a must.

no. it is not. The water here in the bay area is also very hard. The water in areas of Arizona looks so bad coming out of the tap that you would probably refuse to drink it. As was the well water where I grew up in Minnesota. I can say they all work fine for Kodak chemistry.

There is simply no need to use distilled water to mix up prepackaged Kodak chemistry. Kodak puts much effort into this very problem and they have it solved.

 

[clayne]

no. it is not. The water here in the bay area is also very hard. The water in areas of Arizona looks so bad coming out of the tap that you would probably refuse to drink it. As was the well water where I grew up in Minnesota. I can say they all work fine for Kodak chemistry.

There is simply no need to use distilled water to mix up prepackaged Kodak chemistry. Kodak puts much effort into this very problem and they have it solved.

Considering that it's usually just a gallon or so needed which costs less than 2$, and 5L or so of developer lasts quite a decent time at 1+1, aside from the cost, it's not exactly a big deal to use distilled water either (especially with more "sensitive" developers like XTOL).