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Using water as stop
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Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone can supply some info. Will be developing a couple of Ilford FP4 35mm films but i don’t have any stop chemicals.
Can i use tap water at 20 degrees? If so how long do you keep the film in the stop and do you agitate the tank?
Thanks,
HillyHi Hilly, welcome to the site !
I use water only to stop the development. I fill the tank, agitate for 10 secs approx, empty and repeat another 4 times.
Works for me so far.Mark’s method sounds grand, you don’t need an acid stop for film and some experts even recommend against using it.
Its well known that water works fine as a stop bath, I’ve been using it for 15 years without ever having a problem. So long as you are not using ridiculously fast developing times you will be fine with water.
The Film Developing Cookbook by Anchell and Troop recommends water as does Bernhard Suess in his book, Mastering Black & White Photography.
Peter
Imho, the extra few seconds it might take for the water to act on stopping the develpment is tiny in % terms when
you look at how long the film has been in the developer. Say 660 second in development and lets say 10 seconds for the water
to fully act (guesswork…) is ~1.5% at worst as the water will start acting upon contact. I don’t think anyone would notice
that small amount extra development.Only time I would use an acid stop bath is if the dev time was under around 6 minutes for the film. 30 seconds of stopping in water at short dev times can effect the outcome of the neg. Id use a weak stop bath though… however I try to always keep my dev times in the teens so that I never have to use an acid stop and get more consistent results… For paper development I have stopped using acid stop baths altogether…
Just to let you know i tried Mark’s suggestion and there were no problems as far as i could tell.The negative looked grand after it was dried.
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