Improvements

First of all, let me tell you how I prepare my salt fixer solution:
I use 300 g salt per liter of water. But, for one single bath, I don't need to prepare one liter, 500 ml is enough.

1. Weight 150 g of kitchen salt, yes, the grainy one. it's cheaper than table salt.
2. Put the salt in a heat resistent beaker and add hot water until you reach 550 ml.
3. Stir for several minutes, 10-20, until most of the salt is dissolved
4. Filter the solution with coffee filter and you will have about 500 ml of a concentrated salt solution. Filtering is important to avoid impurities but also to filter very small salt grains that will induce recrystalization of salt that may harm the film to be fixed.

This salt solution may be used as fixer but takes some 24 hours to fix at room temperature for common films and 48 hours or more for T grain films like TMax.

I challenged myself to find some additive that could make salt a better fixer, working faster. 

The first additive I discovered by trial and error was Potassium Bromide. Small amounts like 3 g/l will prevent recrystallization of salt and speed up the solution to some hours less.

Next stuff that went under my tests was Sodium Hypochlorite, common household bleach, less than a 5% solution of Sodium Hypochlorite. I knew, because already tried that a small amount of this bleach in water would eat the silver completely. But I thought that, maybe in a very small concentration, it could help salt to fix better.

Tests with stripes of film showed me that the idea was not silly, the film was cleared faster when I added some ml/l to the salt solution. At 5ml/l of bleach I could clear a stripe of TMax in 1 hour. So, maybe in 2 hours it fixs completely.

First result:

5ml/liter, fixed in 2 hours

I didn't count on this side effect, some white (in positive) spots that were produced by some deposits of some unknown material. On the other hand, the silver started to be dissolved too and the spots may be of silver 'condensate'. The film base was completely clear, with a yellow/brown stain that came out by washing for more than half an hour.

In my last experiment I reduced the amount of bleach to only 2 ml/liter and the fixing time to 4 hours. Waiting for the film to wash and dry. I will post in some hours... Be patient. I don't know how it will scan but looks better.

... waiting!

A little more time because refixing for more 2 hours was needed. Some typical vertical marks showed bad fixing in 4 hours. But for normal films could be more than sufficient, perhaps 2 or 3 hours would be enough.

... and waiting!

Here is the result, after 6 hours fixing of TMax400, expired 1991. The next I will experiment with Ilford FP4 or similar. I think that even after 6 hours TMax is not completely fixed. But I was affraid that the image could be eaten like the one before. This time no artifacts like stars in the sky and I will see how long I may fix to have a total fix. The film base was still slightly cloudy. The stripe will return to the fixer for some hours more. Maybe 10-12 hours in total which represents 4 times less than with salt alone. 
.

Fixer used:

150 g salt
Hot Water to make 500 ml
2 g Potassium Bromide
1 ml of 5% solution of Sodium Hypochlorite

Still about using salt as fixer for films

Although salt has been used in the past to fix daguerreotypes, it became then a myth among photography hobbyists. People who tried it, didn't know were to start when preparing a salt bath that possibly could fix the films used today.

I like testing if myths are true or false. So, and because at the time I was experimenting with daguerreotypes too and reading how it worked, I decided to try whether salt was able to fix modern films.

I was using at the time Fomapan and Shangai GP3, the cheapest on the markt.

Intuitively, and after I tried a randomly dissolved salt solution, some grams per liter (don't know anymore), and this didn't work in a reasonable time span, I decided to make the more concentrated solution I could and wait the longest time I could consider reasonable, the whole night. If we develop films at night, this is a time that will not affect our patience because we are sleeping.

So, after some time shaking a PET bottle full with salt and water, I putted a stripe of virgin film in a bowl and poured the salt water on it and went to sleep.

Next day, the stripe of film was completely transparent, what showed me that salt as fixer is not a myth, but it does make the job.

Further investigation showed me that if the salt solution is enough concentrated and warm it will take less time to work. For films like Fomapan, Shangai GP3, Ilford FP4 or HP5, it is possible to completely fix with salt in 3 hours, using 300 g/l of salt and temperature above 30ºC.

All my tests and results were made publicly, at Flickr. This all happened 3 years ago, in 2012. Since then, nobody spoke about, as far as I know. Recently, at the forum of Filmasters.com there was a discussion about it were salt as fixer was not a myth anymore, meanwhile my results were spread, thanks to Reinhold and trough his fine blog Caffenol. 

Some days ago, someone wanted to see pictures I made and fixed with salt. But because these pictures were at Flickr, where I closed my account, but I found this information at ipernity were I have an account now: http://www.ipernity.com/search/photo?w=303455&q=salt&view=2

Fixed with salt

Well, but the introduction took too long and what I wanted to bring you today are some more information on how to better use salt as fixer and this is particularly interesting for countries were travelling with chemical stuff is very illegal and old fashion photographers will have troubles with the law.

When preparing salt fixer, be aware to dissolve as much salt you can. 300 g/l, if you succeed, will do the job. Use warm water and try to get it all dissolved.

The next, pass the solution through a coffee filter. This step is important, as I found recently. Not only to retain some impurities of the salt but to prevent that small and invisible undissolved salt stay in the solution. These salt particles are, I think, responsible for the rapid formation of salt crystals that may affect your emulsion during fixing. They may produce holes in the emulsion. A filtered solution will not produce crystals for more than 24 hours, the time you may need to fix the film.

Another improvement is adding to the salt fixer some grams of Potassium Bromide which is a veterinary medicine easy to get. 5g/liter are enough. Potassium Bromide will speed up the fixer and it will also delay the crystallization of the salt as I observed now.

24 hours fixing

48 hours fixing

Testing with drops of pure Rodinal 

Legend:

Kodak TMax-400 stripes «fixed» with salt.

On the left side I used only salt, in the middle salt+potassium bromide and on the right salt+potassium metabisulfite.

I didn't use temperature in this experiment.

Results:

The bowl with just salt already started crystallizing. The others not. The stripe on right acquired a brownish stain and is not better fixed than with just salt, but metabisulfite also prevented crystallization. Maybe other salts will also do it.

It is clear that the stripe in the middle, with Potassium Bromide, is better fixed than the others, after 48 hours. But not completely fixed yet!!! If so, no stain would appear after droping Rodinal pure on it.

Note:

Kodak TMax and similar films (T grain), multicoated films, are more difficult to fix. Even using regular Rapid Fixer, you would better let it for 30 minutes instead of just 2 minutes. Once I had some drag marks with Rapid Fixer and refixing for 30 minutes solved the problem. The fixer was not that new.

I might try to improve the results. making it possible to fix completely TMax films with salt.

I think I have it now...

Since I found Dignan's 2.bath C-41 developing method I am using it but always trying to improve it in order to get better results. Well, my last but maybe not the ultimate and superb adjustment to the method lead to the following recipe for the 2 baths:

Bath A:

1 g/l Potassium Metabisulfite
9 g/l Sodium Sulfite
11 g/l CD4

Bath B:

25 g/l Potassium Carbonate
0,6 g/l Potassium Bromide

Bath A should be kept  in a dark bottle with little air volume. If it gets pink it is oxidized and will work very slow, it should be discarded then. But if kept in a dark bottle with little air volume it will last for months. This first bath is to be used as first and because of this it will decrease with time, some 10 ml each time. If you need 500 ml of it to fill the tank for 120 films, you should prepare 1000 ml and use it until you reach your minimum. And if the bath is still good (no color), prepare more 500 ml and mix with the remaining and so on.

Bath B is, IMMO, the key for good results. Trial and error showed me that 53 g/l of Carbonate is too much and will give green negatives, magenta positives, and you have to tweak a lot in software. A slight increase in Potassium Bromide from 0,5 to 0,6 g/l and a reduction of Carbonate to the half, from 53 to 25 g/l, gave me the best results. Even so, too much or too less agitation may produce spots and drag marks. Frequent and soft agitation is needed. I am using now 5 gentle rotations with the axe of the tank inclined each minute, after the first 30 seconds of constant agitation.

Generally I develop my C-41 films as follows:

Bath A - 10 minutes or more at room temperature
Bath B - 10 minutes or more at room temperature
Wash - I wash for several minutes, maybe 10 minutes too
Fix - I fix for 5 minutes with rapid fixer, the same I use for B&W
Bleach - until the base is clear and double the time.
Rinse 3 times
Refix for other 5 minutes
Wash very well for 30 minutes
Hang to dry

Normally I use Blix instead of the 3 steps bleach, rinse and refix.

After the first Fix you may open the tank and follow the process at light. This is the reason why I fix first, Exhausted Blix or not properly aerated may produce surge marks and it is annoying to rebleach and refix and wash and wait for drying.

Do not hesitate to ask me for more details. I do not use Stabilizer because modern film s already have it in emulsion. A drop of dish washer in the last washing water will help to avoid water spots.

Some pictures using the last improvements:

 

Recovering cameras

I don't know which of these activities I like better, photographing, tinkering, processing, experimenting new recipes, viewing others pictures, etc., all about photography.

The camera above was almost unrecoverable. Very damaged by exposure to sun, many parts cracked, like lens holder and back and a broken film rewind button. It was an acquisition of my youngest daughter at a flee market at the place where she was studying arts, The piece must be exposed at sun for many time because it started falling apart a short time after she bought it. She gave me the camera and said, «have fun recovering it».

I started dismantling the camera 2 years ago but only in the last days I finally had time to finish the work. The back is now covered with an opaque material, the lens holder was replaced with PVC 50mm tube black painted and with an adapter 43-52 mm allows me to use filters. The single lens is the original but the aperture is now fixed and the focus too. Pictures are sharp in the centre but out of focus at the edges, the left side more than the right side. Last tree pictures were made with this piece.

The pictures were made with B&W film, TMax 400 long expired, developed with the Parodinal 645. The film came up with a brown stain at the bottom (inverse of the positive), I think it was the fixer saying goodbye. Neverthless I scanned the film as color and... I liked what I got!

Hi! Just more pictures...

This time I used my Parodinal 645 with an expired 400 ISO film, Kodak TMax 400. It would normally have huge grain and fog. Yes, 'honest' grain but no terrible fog and nice range of greys...

How I prepare my 645-Parodinal

As you know, Parodinal is the generic name for clones of the famous Agfa universal B&W developer Rodinal.

I tried a new formula and called it 645-Parodinal, because its recipe has following ingredients, for 500 ml of concentrate:

60 g Potassium Metabisulfite
40 g Paracetamol
50 g Sodium Hydroxide

First of all I transform the Paracetamol pills in powder with a pestle and mortar. I am not sure whether it is possible to jump this step and use directly the pills without all that work. But ok, next time I try it.

Then I use two 1L beakers, at least one must be heat-resistant. In both beakers I put about 180 ml of water, but in one of them warm water and in the other cold water. In the one with warm water I put the 60 g Metabisulfite and the 40 g Paracetamol and stir. It will not dissolve but never mind. In the other beaker I disolve 50 g of Sodium Hydroxide, it will become very hot. While hot I pour it on the other beaker, stir and complete with water to make 500 ml. The next I put the beaker with all the stuff in a warm bath at fire and stir for several minutes until I get an homogeneous soup, looking translucent. When finished, I switch off the stove and let the mixture cool down.

Finally I store the 645 in a 500 ml amber bottle well closed.

The last film I developed was a Shangai GP3 at box speed and I used the dilution 1:100 and 30 minutes. It could be less time, I think it respects Rodinal times, but I prefer the 'steak' well done.

Some recent photos of a 120 film exposed with a Topcon Horeseman 980, format 6x7 and developed with 645-Parodinal.

I'm speechless

Some days ago I started testing thyme as a possible developer agent. I had a rest of it in my spices shelf, only 5 g of it. I made a tee with this amount of thyme, add some Potassium Carbonate and developed a stripe of B&W film, an expired TMax400 I bought at ebay. Although I gave one hour of development time, only a very faint image was to be seen:

I scanned it in color mode because the negative had the base color of a color film after development. I even thought the image could be in color.

Yesterday I brought 30 g of thyme from the supermarket and made a very concentrade tee, only 300 ml of it, enough to develop a 35mm film in a tank. I added about 15 g Potassium Carbonate to the tee and developed 2 hours long a 3 pictures-stripe of TMax400 exposed at 50 ISO. The result was the contrary of the first, a very dense and fogged film from which I could extract the pics, among them this one:

I underestimated the power of thyme, it was not necessary to develop so long an overexposed film. So, again to the work, 3.rd attempt to get the stuff working like it should. Reduction of the developing time to one hour, using 1g Potassium Bromide as antifoggant and leaving the rest as before, 50 ISO for TMax400.

I was not counting on this result, but that is what I get: almost COLOR photos!!!

P.S. - If you want to take part on a «pear-revue» and replicate the experiment, please write me in private, I will be pleased to give you the recipe you should use and other details.