what water to use for mixing chemicals & RA4 papers and chemistry...

[Dimitris Tzortzakakis]

I personally use reverse osmosis filtered water to mix chemistry & to
wash films, for prints I use plain faucet water.
I was buying my Ra 4 papers and chemistry from macodirect.de, now I got
an email telling me Fuji discontinued the Crystal Archive paper, the
last RA 4 paper that came in sheets (and not in rolls).Of course I was a
bit sad as I had ordered a colourhead enlarger and paraphernalia from
the UK, which almost cost me an arm and a leg, and they would be
useless. and then I thought, what the heck! there must be a solution and
of course I did a google search. and pronto! I can use RA 4 paper from
minilabs, and the only drawback would be I would have to cut it in total
darkness. and even if Tetenal does discontinue the chemical set I used
to buy, I can use minilab colour developer/blix replenisher (not
starter) and develop for one minute in 37,8 C!!!
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the argus beer is necessary for developing good photos!

[Ken Hart]

I haven't bought cut sheet RA-4 paper in years.
I have an arrangement in my darkroom for cutting roll paper down: the
paper cutter is fastened to the table top, and I built a holder and
carefully lined it up with the paper cutter.
Keep in mind that roll paper will have a curl to it, that gets worse the
closer you get to the core of the roll. Cut a lot of paper and package
it tightly. Store it flat or slightly curved the other way.

--
Ken Hart
kwh...@centurylink.net

[Abandoned_Trolley]

>
> I haven't bought cut sheet RA-4 paper in years.
> I have an arrangement in my darkroom for cutting roll paper down: the
> paper cutter is fastened to the table top, and I built a holder and
> carefully lined it up with the paper cutter.
> Keep in mind that roll paper will have a curl to it, that gets worse the
> closer you get to the core of the roll. Cut a lot of paper and package
> it tightly. Store it flat or slightly curved the other way.
>

Is it still possible to buy a "paper safe" or whatever they used to call
it ? - I got one in Jessops years ago.

Might be a useful place to put bits of paper cut from a roll so that
they can uncurl themself.

Alternatively ... get a heavy enlarging mask ?




--
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[Ken Hart]

You know those black plastic bags that the enlarging paper came in? I
never threw any of them away! Every box of cut photo paper I bought for
the last forty years- I still have the plastic bag!
Cut your paper from the roll, stack the sheets evenly, then put them in
one of those plastic bags (actually put one bag inside another, just in
case.) Then seal them up, and put them in the freezer. Set a half gallon
of ice cream on top to hold them flat.

As for new paper safes (Yes, that is the name for them): I have every
one of those I ever bought, also! I haven't seen one new lately, but I
haven't looked. In fact, it's been a long time since I've been in a
store that sells darkroom stuff. Try eBay.

--
Ken Hart
kwh...@centurylink.net

[Dimitris Tzortzakakis]

thnaks a lot for the answers, we had a darkroom shop here in Iraklion,
Crete, Greece and not 500 m away from my home!! We had also close the
Fuji store, and also Drosos who would develop slide film also in large
format!! All this is gone, alas. I look upon the stuff, see if I can
have some paper cut for trials or if I have to buy a whole roll.
As for processing B&W film in a heat wave-I just put the developer
bottle in the fridge with a thermometer in it, and wait until it hits 20
C!!!No developer formula has a 30 C developing time, they were designed
for middle Europe, and not for Crete in a heatwave. the fix & stop
temperature is not so "mission critical". The good thing is with such a
hot weather the RA 4 process is much easier!! I just use solar heater
water"heliothermo" (which is plenty and free) for the purpose. I still
remember back in the day where I could buy slide film in bulk lengths
and TMax 100 in good prices, now there's no bulk lenght slide film and I
get either Foma in bulk length or Rollei, from macodirect. I also
recommend secondhanddarkroom (which popped up in a google search) which
is practically the only option in specialized equipment.

[Dimitris Tzortzakakis]

update: bought a box of 8X10" papers from the UK, cost was about 120
euros with taxes etc. They're made in the UK that means the germans who
were buying from a Holland factory and were out of stock was a different
kettle of fish. It seems the UK factory won't sell to the germans!!!
anyway had good results the good thing is my camera produces good
negatives that means once I have found the right filtration for a given
film I can print practically any negative from this film with this
setting. Here you can see I trasferred the cocentrates to smaller, 200
ml bottles, the set cost 1,20 euros. I have bought another set of
bottles for 100 ml when I prepare the next batch of chemicals.
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