Fixer

[oriecat]

I need fixer help. I've never bought any, always just used whatever was available where I was, so never had to think about it... so now I'm looking and there's fixer and rapid fixer and non-hardening and hardeners, and all kinds of crazy stuff. And this one says it contains "no sodium thiosulphate (hypo)", so if you use that then do you not need to use hypo clear?

[ksmattfish]

I wouldn't worry about hardeners. Just get regular or rapid fixer. Rapid fixer is more costly, but takes less time. I've used Kodak, Ilford, and Sprint fixers; they've all worked well for me. Ilford packages film and paper fixer seperately.

I use hypo clear or some sort of wash aid to reduce the washing time of film and fiber paper, but it isn't absolutely necessary as long as you wash thoughly according to the manufacturers' instructions.

Definately pick up some hypo-check; you can use it to determine when your fixer is exhausted.

[oriecat]

Thanks for your thoughts, Matt. :)

[motcon]

i use tf4 exclusively for both film and prints:

http://adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=details&sid=1066617177752316&sku=PYTF44L


you need only use a water bath and it takes a mere 30 seconds to fix prints. using tf4 as a fix means that you have an entirely alkaline process; this sets up the print for very easy toning if you should have that desire.

[oriecat]

you need only use a water bath

As opposed to... ?? You lost me here.

Edit - Nevermind! I recall now that you said you don't use stop bath but just use water instead...