Safelight & Contrast filters

I just got my first delivery of Ilford MG fiber paper, and the thought just occured to me that I better make sure that my Kodak OC safelights and Kodak polymax contrast filters will work with Ilford stuff (despite what the package says).

I think I've heard from other places on these boards that they do cross over, but just in case......

Thanks!

I wouldn't think the enlarger or paper would care about the manufacturer of the safelight or the contrast filters.
I think the worst that would happen is that you might have to do some test prints and make a chart to show how each contrast filter affects exposure and how much extra time (and or stops) are needed for correct exposure. Heck, the chart would be a handy thing to have anyway!
But for the safelight...OC amber should be OC amber and should not make a difference!
Jeanette

OC filter SHOULD be safe, but ALWAYS test!. Pull out a sheet in total darkness, and do the usual tests: expose a print as normal (without safelight), then block off half of it and turn on the safelight and leave it for the usual amount of time it takes to trim, expose, develop, stop (or rinse) and get into the fixer. Turn off the safelight, and process normally in total darkness. When done, look for any detectable variation between the blocked & unblocked sides.

Personally, I switched to a red safelight a few years ago and have NO problems with it even with very sensitive papers.

The poly max filter's aren't ideal for Ilford, but you can try them & decide for yourself if they give you what you want.

The paper doesn't "know" which filters are used, but the transmission colors & neutral density values are different between Kodak & Ilford, so that the grade steps & printing times won't exactly match when cross-using the products.

Charlie

As the man said, you must test. One big variable is the light level you need/want. I have resorted to red also, at a high light level. It's not the easiest colour for the eyes, but it's great for the paper. I have a little yellow-orange LED hand held torch when I need to look closely at some thing in the darkroom (not VC paper!)

I've found through experience for good illumination with red safelight to take a fairly strong one and bounce it off a white ceiling for a very even lighting. By then time it gets to the paper its a fairly low level but you can see very well with it even so. I have a second one over the tray for inspection. No problems!

BWGirl said:

I wouldn't think the enlarger or paper would care about the manufacturer of the safelight or the contrast filters.
But for the safelight...OC amber should be OC amber and should not make a difference!
Jeanette

Click to expand...

The safelight can make a big differance to getting the full contrast range from particularly multigrade papers.

Ilford recommend Amber which works fine, however I remember from experience that the Paterson red safelight was incompatible and they introduced an amber filter specifically for multigrade. It did make a big differance to the quality, I had done tests which showed the red safelight was effectively pre-exposing the paper, in a similar way to pre-flashing.

Ian

You need the Ilford 902 amber filter with Ilford paper otherwise there is a strong chance that you will fog paper. As has already been said you must carry out a safelight test and do it at least once every year for filters do fade and becaome less effective. I have several safelights with Ilford 902 filters in them but I also have two safelights with red filters in them to be used when I am printing with some other papers, the only Kodak paper I use is a dwindling stock of the now discontinued Ektalure and I use a red filter for that.

I ran a load of Ilford RC last night with no obvious problems. I use an OC light near the enlarger and a red light bulb at the sink.

Ilford902 /Kodak OC

Les McLean said:

You need the Ilford 902 amber filter with Ilford paper .

Click to expand...

Since I now use Kodak OC filter's in their bullet style safelights, I'm just guessing that Ilfords 902 filter doesn't necessarily come to fit this style of safelight right?

I was planning on doing tests anyway, I guess I was just trying to figure out if someone already knew that the OC lights didn't work. Since I'm getting contradictory information, I'll really have to test now!! Thanks all.