Well you have inspired me to test again, because it sure would be nice to have that much light. Possible the paper I used was aged. I am too short to pee in my sink.Rich, that's interesting - I'm getting no fog with even 40 minutes of lith developing. I have one over the tray that I bounce off the ceiling, but point it down as I near completion. I also use an LED penlight with rubylith glued to the lens with black silicone. Also use them for coating canvas with Foma emulsion, 2 coats, and I angle the light very close to watch for bubbles and stray brush hairs. I haven't done a "formal" test, but I get pure white borders with lith. I overlaid the bulb's spectrum with an ilford paper spectrum in Photoshop and looked like plenty of safe area (of course, is their spectrum honest and is their manufacturing totally uniform)? I guess with long lith sessions any safelight gets dicey, but no trouble for me yet (and bright safelights are nice for lith and half-hour plus development, makes it easier to pee in the sink!)
Instead of rubylith, could i just use one of those red filters that swings under enlarger lens?Here is one Canadian source, who may be able to direct you to a source for retail quantities: http://www.stanleyssigns.com/RubylithPositiveFilm
And there is some on eBay that will ship to Canada at moderate cost: http://www.ebay.ca/sch/Printing-Graphic-Arts/26238/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=rubylith&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1&_trksid=p2045573.m1684&_clu=2&_fcid=2&_localstpos=V4K 2Z9&_stpos=V4K 2Z9&gbr=1
It is hard to say. It depends on the light source.Instead of rubylith, could i just use one of those red filters that swings under enlarger lens?
Well you have inspired me to test again, because it sure would be nice to have that much light. Possible the paper I used was aged. I am too short to pee in my sink.
Well i was thinking of getting an enclosure and putting a few red leds in it and making a hole in the enclosure for the filter.It is hard to say. It depends on the light source.
I'm not sure how useful such a small source of safe light would be.
You would still end up with a fairly small cone of light, rather than the more preferable larger source that can be effectively bounced off a ceiling.Well i was thinking of getting an enclosure and putting a few red leds in it and making a hole in the enclosure for the filter.
You would still end up with a fairly small cone of light, rather than the more preferable larger source that can be effectively bounced off a ceiling.
Here is a source in Toronto: https://www.abovegroundartsupplies....tore.php?mode=showproductdetail&product=13167This Rubylith stuff is so hard to find... that ebay listing would be great if the shipping wasn't 1/10 the cost of the item. If anyone has some rubylith, I'd be willing to buy a small amount of it.
Which led's did you use?I started with a clamp-light (the cheap clip-on lights with the big silver bowl) with a red "party" spiral flo, and a layer of cinema lighting gel in deep red taped onto it. It tested fine, but all of the solutions with rubylith and so on have the problems mentioned above (fading, price of rubylith, and tape issues). The little single LED globe mentioned in this thread is pretty killer - stick it in a cheap fixture and aim it at the ceiling. I have three in my darkroom and one in my dark-dark room (film loading) over the paper cutter for cutting paper down. No fog problems at all, and I do lith printing with some very long dev times (and some priceless old papers). I get it that some of us really enjoy soldering stuff up and having a unique solution - but I enjoy a remarkably bright darkroom that's still just-right for focusing (I tend to print pretty big so I use a corner-friendly grain scope to fine tune, but I have no adjustment issues other than you really have to stop down with the dang scope sometimes, or spend 5 minutes waiting for your eyes to recover. Finally cut a sheet of ND gel to lay over the mirror to focus at my printing stop.)
Guys... screw all the DIY and soldering guns and sheets of ruby lith and lighting gels. Go easy on yourself. Get a couple clamp lights and a few of these bulbs and your darkroom can seem like near-daylight. These have become very popular with many APUGers, their spectral output doesn't overlap photo paper. Dirt cheap and one of the best finds out there.
Awesome...but which one is it? 3100K, amber, red?
I see amber is mentioned above...
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