New one-shot, two bath fixing method - comments?

cliveh said:

You fix in one bath. Job done. End of story.

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If you're not at all worried about economy, one-bath, one-shot is by far the simplest method. PE did this, fixing film in a single bath, which was used to a low capacity and then discarding the fix after the session. Nothing wrong with this as far as the film is concerned

Doremus

Interesting... I'll have to try it to see if there are any benefits. Thanks Richard.

Doremus Scudder said:

Richard,

Kodak's FT-1 is likely exactly the same as the Hypo-Check product you referred to earlier. I don't think it is going to be nearly sensitive enough for real testing of your workflow.

And, I'll be a wet blanket again here too: I realize your desire to use fixer one-shot. I do essentially the same thing. I'm just not as economical as you. I think my way is simpler.

If I only have, say six sheet of film to develop, then I'll mix 600ml of fixer (Ilford Hypam or Rapid Fixer) at the 1+9 dilution and use that two-bath (300ml per 5x7 tray being the minimum volume I like to work with) and fixing for at least a total of 3x the clearing time. Usually, I just fix for three minutes in each bath, for a total of six minutes (I like longer film fixing times; film's not paper and the base doesn't absorb fixer. A bit more time in the fix harms nothing).

Yes, that 600ml of fixer would have fixed more film, but unless I have more, I'll just discard it.

If I have more film to develop, I'll use the fixer to capacity. Even more film, I'll increase the volume to 1000ml total at 1+9 dilution. More film that that? I'll switch to the 1+4 dilution and use two-bath fixing, swapping out bath one with bath two when the capacity of bath one has been reached. I'll do this for as many cycles as I have film. I have a table that I've made up that tells me which amount of fixer I need to mix, and at what dilution (1+9 or 1+4) for the amount of film I have to develop in a "session" (the session might be two or three days of developing when I have lots of film to process).

Regardless of how much film I have to develop, from six (or fewer) sheets to 100 or more, all fixer is discarded at the end of a developing session. I never store a working solution of fixer for future use.

Best,

Doremus

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Yes, I used to do something similar. Went to two baths, then more dilute two-bath. I was using 1+14 for each bath for a while, that worked well, and dumping the first bath after use. I just wanted to push the method a bit to see if I could do it and get about the same overall capacity as Ilford recommends for the re-usable one-bath approach, and yet do it one-shot so I never have to worry about exhaustion. I realize most folks think what I'm doing is too "complicated," and perhaps don't see any advantages to doing it this way, but I don't mind. It works for me and I'm happy with it, I do see the advantages. I'm quite happy to get all of these comments, it helps me see if there are any holes in my reasoning or areas to improve.

Also, in terms of simplicity and one shot, I mentioned above (perhaps you missed it) that when I was both developing film and making prints regularly, in the '60s and '70s, I always did film fixing one-shot at full strength. After using fixer once for film, I poured it into the "Paper Fixer" jug, and used it from then on for paper (in a two-bath system). If I was still wet printing instead of scanning, I'd probably still do it that way. You mentioned PE did it that way too.

On the FT-1, I think I may buy those test strips I referenced above instead. It sounds like they would be much simpler than a traditional wet-chemical quantitative chemistry approach like I used to do in the lab.

Thanks again for your comments. - Richard.

cliveh said:

You fix in one bath. Job done. End of story.

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Sometimes if you put a little more effort into it, you can get further advantages. But this is not for everyone. To each his own. Thanks for your comment.

Andrew O'Neill said:

Interesting... I'll have to try it to see if there are any benefits. Thanks Richard.

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Thanks for your comment. If you do try it, please let me know what you think. Thanks - Richard.

Doremus Scudder said:

Regardless of how much film I have to develop, from six (or fewer) sheets to 100 or more, all fixer is discarded at the end of a developing session. I never store a working solution of fixer for future use.

Best,
Doremus

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Hi Doremus, I assume you do the same when printing with fibre paper?

thefizz said:

Hi Doremus, I assume you do the same when printing with fibre paper?

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Roughly the same thing for both film and fiber-base paper: one "session" use of two-bath fixer. In both cases, if I'm developing film or printing over several days, I'll keep the working solution for the next day if the capacity hasn't been reached. For film, that happens less often, since a liter divided into two 500ml baths at film-strength fixes a lot of 4x5 sheets and I rarely have that many to process at once (except after extended road trips, where I might have 100-150 negatives to develop over several days).

For prints, however, I work more slowly. I may only get a total of the equivalent of 10 8x10s per liter done in a day's session (including test strips, etc.). I usually print 11x14-inch prints to start with, but use two liters of fixer per tray, so have two liters of fix one sitting there with a capacity of 36 prints (that's my capacity number based on testing plus a safety factor and, coincidentally, 36 prints is exactly three washer loads). Anyway, it may take me two or three days of printing to reach that 36-print capacity before I replace the fix with fresh.

If you've followed my posts on printing, you'll know that I divide my printing into printing and toning sessions. I use just one tray of fixer (Ilford Rapid Fixer/Hypam) at 1+9 and work till I have 30-36 "keepers." I develop, stop and give fix one, then wash the prints thoroughly at the end of the days session (maybe only 3-5 keepers a day, maybe more on good days). Then I start again the next day, printing. It may take me a few days to get enough "keepers" to warrant a toning session. If my fix reaches capacity during that time, I'll replace it with freshly-mixed fixer.

When I do a toning session, I mix a fresh fix that becomes fix two. Then I soak the prints, give fix two, tone, hypo-clear and wash. If I have more prints to make, the fix two that I just ran 30-36 prints through becomes fix one for the next printing session.

Note that I never keep fixer for more that a few days, well withing the 7-day lifespan of fixer in an open tray (often, I'll bottle it up if I'm going to use it the next day anyway).

Hope that helps,

Doremus

Thanks Doremus, makes a lot of sense.