Stop Bath.. How important?

[chuckroast]

Oh good. Now this thread has at least another year of life

Just so long as there is no 100 Year War Thirty Years War. (My history was consubstantiated.)

 

[Fuji_Bro]

There have been recommendations to not use stop bath if you use a neutral / alkaline fixer as you would be introducing an acid to the workflow that will affect the neutrality of the fixer. It is a step that would still be recommended for acidic fixers.

I switched last year to near-alkaline fixer and have eliminated stop bath. It was uncomfortable at first but I transitioned. It is like when I learned RA-4 does not require heating the chemicals and modern color films don’t need stabilizer. It feels uncomfortable but the evidence is and science is there.

 

[Don_ih]

There have been recommendations to not use stop bath if you use a neutral / alkaline fixer as you would be introducing an acid to the workflow that will affect the neutrality of the fixer.

It'll stain paper if any developer gets a chance to soak in. You can always use acid stop then a rinse.