Odorless chemicals for begginer

zozur · Nov 16, 2015

Hello
I'm looking for odorless chemicals for film and paper. I have small electronic weigh scale so I want mix it myself. They need to be cheap and preferable to one use. Ingredients should have long shelf live. I want use it with 135 and 120 film, rc and fiber paper and maybe x-ray film. I'm thinking about D-23 and Parodinal or Kalogen as developers, sodium thiosulfate as fixer and vinegar as stop bath. Vinegar smell is not unpleasant to me.
Do I need something else? Or maybe you have other suggestions?
All the best
Zbigniew

Terry Christian · Nov 16, 2015

Nearly every developer is odorless. The only developer I can smell is Kodak XTOL, and of course caffenol.
Citric acid stop bath has no odor. You can make it yourself, or use Ilford's Ilfostop.
Sodium thiosulfate fixer is low in odor, or you can try an alkaline fixer such as Photographers' Formulary TF-4 or TF-5. They have much less odor than rapid fixers -- nearly no smell at all at working strength.

MattKrull · Nov 16, 2015

Not a "roll-your-own" solution, but LegacyPro sell a ful line of chemicals under the name "Eco-Pro". Most , if not all, of these are low/no odour.
I've purchased a coupel of these, but haven't used them yet (still got a bit of Ilford chemicals to finish up first).

MartinP · Nov 16, 2015

I think the OP is in Poland so a US range of chemicals is probably sub-optimal

If using a sodium thiosulphate fixer remember that it is relatively slow working, and can need a LOT of water during washing FB paper because it gets far in to the paper-base during the extended fixing time, plus the resulting by-products are themselves less water-soluble. I'd recommend a wash-aid to help reduce the wash time -- that would be a 2% sodium sulfite solution, which should be fairly easy to find as it is a food-preservative.

Paul Howell · Nov 16, 2015

Clayton makes stop and fixer that is low odor, as I recall developed for the Navy for use on board ships including submarines, I'm not sure of the latter, never heard of a darkroom on a sub, maybe some Navy types know. Clayton is still available though Freestyle.

Gerald C Koch · Nov 16, 2015

Any fixer whether based on ammonium thiosulfate or sodium thiosulfate will have some smell. While it is possible to use darkroom chemicals with lower odors it is impossible to completely eliminate all smells. Any smell is an inherent property of many chemicals so it really does not matter whether you mix your own or use commercial products. Both sets of darkroom chemicals use the same ingredients.

Wayne · Nov 16, 2015

I can smell developer but its unlikely to bother anyone and apparently some can't smell it. I 2nd the recommendation for citric acid stop as it is quite odorless, cheap and easy to mix yourself from powder or prepared stock..

Brian L · Nov 16, 2015

D-23 is great to mix yourself, so is a citric acid stop bath:

750ml water (room temp)
Citric Acid 15g
Water to make 1.0 liter

All the Best,
Brian

jeffreyg · Nov 16, 2015

Since the odor of photographic chemicals is subjective remember they are most often used in a relatively small closed room. You should have an exhaust system. If your session is long, you can get used to the odor and not notice it. After finishing a printing session and being out of the darkroom for a while and re-entering I can notice some odor even though my exhaust fan has been running.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

Odorless chemicals for begginer

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