> In the early 80's, after leaving grad school, I worked as a photochemist
> for a then small independant photochemical manufacturing company. One of
> the goals we had, and the company still has is to make the chemistries as
> user safe and hypo\allergenic as possible. The developers, for example,
> have no metol in their formulations because a number of people are metol
> sensitive, causing skin rashes, etc. They have a buffered stop bath
> which is vanilla scented reducing the amount of acetic acid going into
> the air and eliminating the vinegar smell in the darkroom. The fixer has
> a similar treatment, and I think this might be helpful to you, given the
> conditions you described in your post.
> The company is Sprint Systems of Photography, in Pawtucket, R.I.,
> and while they primarily servic educational accounts, they will sell to
> individuals. Their number is 1-800-356-5073 and the contact person is
> Marlaine Noel.
> Hope this helps keep you in the darkroom.
>
> John Rudiak
> Alchemy Printmaking and Photography
> Taos, N.M.
>
>
> P.S. Sprint also has by far the best reversal chemistry for black and
> white negative films on the market.
>
It's been a while since John and I taught up at the Maine Photo
Workshops, so I hope he won't mind my adding a bit to his message. For
those who have access to Sprint chemicals (they ship anywhere in the
US, and I assume Canada) do check them out. They are innovative and
make darkroom life easier.
There is one tradeoff which is worth noting as it does more to prove
the adage, "There is no such thing as a free lunch," than anything
else. The print developer, Quicksilver doesn't contain metol, so it
doesn't cause metol poisoning, true. But it does share a "trait" common
with most phenidone based developers in that it tends to cause the
areas of greatest density to have compressed tones. As a print developer
Quicksilver makes prints with dark, muddy shadows compared with a
typical MQ developer like Dektol.
Since Quicksilver is the basis of Sprint's reversal process, there is a
tendancy for the transparencies to have slightly veiled highlights.
This is easily cured by a final treatment with a dilute Potassium
Ferricyanide solution and refixing. In fact, it may be that the final
step of the process as recommended by Sprint includes this step, I
can't recall - it was standard at MPW where we used it all the time.
I might add that the Sprint reversal process also creates "warmer"
images than Kodak's FD-70 developer. That is a matter of taste though.
I'm not sure how Sprint's film developer (Sprint Standard) fares in
this regard, as after John described to me how Paul Krot "dreamed" up
the formula, I was never much interested in using it. (That and getting
a nose full of all the solvents the chemicals were dissolved in.)
Ob alt-photo note: Sprint also sells (or used to sell) a platinum
printing kit that I recall John had a hand in developing. Perhaps
John can confirm that this is still available.
Carson Graves
carson@ileaf.com