Can the luminous timer dials fog paper?

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Hi,

Can the luminous surfaces (dial) from the timer fog paper? Because of the limited space in my darkroom, my Time-O-Lite M72 is about 6-8 inches from the easel. I haven't had a chance to experiment, but was looking for anyone with experience in this matter.

Thanks

-- Andrew Vera (averacpa@bellsouth.net), February 27, 2000

Answers

yes they can. it's generally not too much of a problem if you keep them far a part, but if they're close together, fogging will definitely occur. if you want to test, leave a piece of paper on your easel for a couple of minutes with a portion exposed to the light from your timer and a portion covered. then develop it and see how much fogging you get. it might not be too bad, depending on the angles, etc.

still, you really ought to do your best to get that timer away from your easel. i realize that may be difficult if you have a small darkroom. could you perhaps build a small barrier--like a wall--out of cardboard to go between the easel and the timer, if you can't get it up on the wall or otherwise out of the way?

--brad

-- brad daly (bwdaly@hiwaay.net), February 27, 2000.


I attached a "flap" of black material, like flannel or felt, to my timer with velcro strips. That way, I can pick up the bottom edge and set the timer, then cover it up again. This works great also with light leaks around the joint between the head and negative carrier of my Omega D2.

-- Alec Jones (alecj@bellsouth.net), February 27, 2000.

Brad, that is not an adequate way to test possible safelight etc. fogging. You have to pre-expose the paper to get very light gray after developing. The light tones of the print are affected more easily than pure white unexposed paper. The amount of light that has clearly visible effect in light gray tones does not necessarily have any effect in unexposed paper.

Sakari

-- Sakari Makela (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), February 29, 2000.


Sakari is correct in his method of testing for safe light fog. But if the timer is your only concern, then close down the safe light while testing to ensure that it is not effecting the paper.I doubt that you will find that the timer is effecting the paper unless your print exposures are extremely long.

-- jim megargee (mvjim@interport.net), February 29, 2000.

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