Is a stop bath necessary for film developing?

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I've always used a stop bath for processing sheet film. I recently read Ilford's Data Guide and they do not mention using a stop bath for film processing. Do I really need to continue to use a stop bath? Thanks, Bryan

-- Bryan (photoville@yahoo.com), March 05, 2001

Answers

No. You can use a water bath with at least three complete changes of water. This will guard against pinholes, and the tiny amount of developer in the first water bath can help out your shadows a little, too.

-- Brian Hinther (BrianH@sd314.k12.id.us), March 05, 2001.

A stop bath isn't necessary.

However, it's been noted that developer carryover into the fixer can cause dichroic fog with some films. I can't think of any reason to not use a stop bath other than when using a high-carbonate developer.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), March 05, 2001.


Stop bath can decrease the amount of stain you get with a staining developer (pmk).It can cause pin holes and its just one more chemical to mix and deal with.-J

-- Josh (devil_music@usa.net), March 06, 2001.

It is sometimes recommended not to have a stop bath, especially for staining developers. The question, is how many changes of water are necessary. If using only one change of water, in addition to killing your fix quickly, does that have any negative consequences? I have gone directly from PMK to a water bath to the fix, and so far there have been no problems, just a few times a little pinkish negatives which I attribute to insufficient fixing.

-- Raja A. Adal (d60w0635@ip.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp), March 06, 2001.

I got pinholes when using a stop bath, so I stopped stopping. I use water rinse instead. Results are fine.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), March 08, 2001.


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