TF-2 vs TF-3 vs ?

[JWMster]

Given I seem to run through fixer and the chemistry is simple for TF-2 and TF3, folks at artcraft told me a year ago that they were having a hard time stocking the ammonium thiosulfate (didn't have any at the time) and I bought PF TF-4 instead. So I'm back on a re-order... or thoughts to go with the home brews TF-2 or TF-3. Look to operate fairly similarly... you can use the Water Stop (OMG the discussion of water stop here at 34 pages is mind boggling), and TF-2 is odorless. I'm thinking TF-2 might be easier to source longer term (though artcraft has it again - new supplier I guess).

I didn't know of either of these until recently. And yes, I'm a water stop dude - though I use 3 very quick baths of the stuff. Think a little about a citric acid stop bath 'cause I have some on hand, but don't think much about it.

Thoughts? Comments? Recommendations? Why bother "when the commercial stuff is cheap"? I think it's just having stuff on hand that appeals... and few ingredients makes that work.

 

[Donald Qualls]

If I mix my own fixer, I make plain hypo, like what Ansel Adams called out in the appendix to The Negative fifty years or more ago. Sodium thiosulfate crystals, 240 g/L plus (IIRC) 30 g/L of sodium sulfite if I plan to keep and reuse it, as little as 30 g/L with no sulfite if I'll one-shot.

Not recommended for modern color materials or tabular grain films, though; at a minimum, you have to use a two-bath approach to fully fix T-grain with plain hypo.

 

[relistan]

When I buy fixer I use Ilford Rapid Fixer.

When I mix it, lately I've been using @Rudeofus 's fixer, which works great, has a long life, and seems to have quite reasonable capacity: https://www.photrio.com/forum/resources/a-neutral-quick-fixer-formula.357/

No smell at all, works great in trays. Cheap and easy. "Rapid", but no ammonium thiosulfate.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use Kodak Fixer, Ilford Rapid Fixer, TF4 and TF5.