I would like to develop 8x10 film at home, in my apartment bathroom. I am concerned about fumes, as we have a young child in the house. We have a window that I could put a fan into in the bathroom. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to do this safely? Any feedback would be welcome. Thanks

-- Jonathan Simmons (sumeyers@aol.com), July 08, 2000

Answers

The two most noxious smells come from the stop bath and fixer. My suggestion is to do what I do. Use a water rinse instead of stop bath and use an ordorless fixer. I get mine from 'The Formulary'. Not sure who else makes one. If you do this and just keep the fan on in the bathroom you should be fine. How are you planning to develop your 8x10 negatives?

-- Michael Wellman (mwellman@swbell.net), July 08, 2000.

It helps a lot to use an enclosed developing system like a Unicolor tank instead of sloshing around in open tanks or trays. Also keeps the spills down. Get a good funnel.

-- Erik Ryberg (ryberg@seanet.com), July 08, 2000.

Since you are doing this in your bathroom, which is where I first started doing it, you will need to block the bottom of the door with a towel to make it light tight,and maybe some weather stripping fro the door jam, you will have to block the window to make it light tight, once you are light tight you will be fume proof as far as the rest of the house goes, I was never bothered by the fumes, but it they get to you, you will have to remove your light seal from the window and get some air and reseal and start again, I think we are talking about 30 min. start to finish. Pat Pat

-- pat krentz (patwandakrentz@aol.com), July 09, 2000.

Clayton Chemicals lists odorless fixer and stop bath in their brochures, but I haven't tried them yet myself.

-- David Goldfarb (dgoldfarb@barnard.edu), July 09, 2000.

This fixer does not smell at all, and should not be used with stop bath.

TF-2, to make 1 liter Sodium thiosulfate 250g Sodium sulfite 15g Sodium metaborate 10g

-- William Marderness (wmarderness@hotmail.com), July 09, 2000.

I use Clayton odorless stop bath and Sprint odorless fixer. I believe Clayton sells an odorless fixer and Sprint sells a stop bath that smells like vanilla extract and maybe they make a completely odorless one too. I buy Clayton chemicals from The View Camera Store (formerly Darkroom Innovations) and Sprint chemicals from B&H.

-- Brian Ellis (bellis@tampabay.rr.com), July 09, 2000.

JOBO CPP2 is perfect.First, drums for 8x10 are the easiest way to process these sheets (amazing), secondly, you put your chemicals in bottles and you use them at last moment. No stink, no fume, and everything is at temperature When you go for JOBO, you never come back !

-- guillaume zuili (gzuili@cybercable.fr), July 11, 2000.

I agree with the previous responses concerning the use of tubes for processing. You can accomplish this a couple of ways. If you are serious about processing your own negs and probably contact prints, purchase a JOBO processor. They allow for daylight processing once the drum is loaded, agitation is automated and with the use of the drum lift, changing chemicals is easy with no mess. I purchased a used CPE2 with lift about 3 years ago and use it for all my film processing. Once you figure out your personal times and dilutions for your film, you will find the consistency of your negs well worth the cost. You use less chemistry, minimal smell, temperture of chemistry is controlled and it takes up a much smaller space then trays. Check B&H in Shutterbug Mag for new costs and check used sections of different retailers in Shutterbug or on E-Bay for used.

-- Jim Chinn (Jim68127@AOL.com), July 12, 2000.