Re: Dry Plate Speed & Shelflife

From: MARTINM <martinm@SoftHome.net>
Subject: Re: Dry Plate Speed & Shelflife
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2005 11:33:30 +0100

> No doubt, the bathing method is unlikely to replace those
> professional emulsions (specially designed, full of tons of any kind
> of dopants & epitaxies). Having said that, it might still be fun to
> try.

It doesn't take a professional emulsion to beat plates made by bathing
method. A mug cup in hot water jacket, good muscle to stir the mug
for some time, good gelatin, KBr, KI, AgNO3, pure water, thiosulfate,
benzotriazole are the minimal ingredients needed to make emulsions of
ASA single digits that can be kept for several months. ASA single
digits are no brainer with such a low tech setup. (It is just that
with better techniques the same speed can be obtained with finer
grains, better reciprocity character, better shelf life, faster
processing time, richer black with less silver, etc. Of course there
are lots of ways to improve such an emulsion but the point is that
such a simple emulsion is easy to make, very practical and faster than
those made by bathing method.)

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"Well, believing is all right, just don't let the wrong people know
what it's all about." (Bob Dylan, Need a Woman, 1982)