Re: red safe light

----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 11:38 PM
Subject: red safe light

>
> On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, jude.taylor@comcast.net wrote:
>
>> A photographic supply house would probably call the red
>> bulb a "safelight;" Home Depot calls it a night light
>> :-).
>
> Judy, odds are that "night light" from Home Depot is NOT
> the same as a photo red safelight.... I had a couple of
> students working with red "safelights" who mysteriously
> got fogged prints -- until the light so-to-
> speak dawned & I asked where they got the bulbs. Turned
> out it was the hardware store. When we substituted a red
> photo bulb, problem solved.
>
> However, those photo bulbs are expensive & now quite rare.
> If you can get a piece of rubylith, clip it around a
> regular bulb... works fine.
>
> (I've also had fogging when my red photo bulb got
> scratches -- most of them are made with a red lacquer
> sprayed on top of a regular plain bulb... which can
> scratch, flake or crack. I patched with red nail polish.)
>
> Judy
>
   There are a lot of Kodak "bee hive" safelights available
used for anywhere from $5 to $20 US. While safelight
filters can fade they are easy to test and seem to last many
years. Most of these lamps have OC filters but I've found
red and color (No.11 and No.13) filters used for very
little. Ruby lamps are questionable because the spectral
characteristic of the coating is not known. While they look
red they may have significant blue output and should IMO be
avoided. So called party lights are definitely dicey as far
as output colors.

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@ix.netcom.com