Adorama LED safelight

Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?

Not with Adorama's, but my red LED safelight went trough a 5min safety test
(coin on a pre-exposed piece of paper) with flying colors.

Jorge

(Richard Swanson) wrote in
om:

Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?

"Richard Swanson" wrote in message
om...
Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?

Haven't tried it, but the laws of physics lead me to expect that LED
safelights will be *very* safe. They emit absolutely no light outside the
intended band of wavelengths. Filters can fade and become unsafe. LEDs can
become dim, but they are still safe -- they don't start emitting unsafe
wavelengths.

Jorge Omar wrote in message . 4...
Not with Adorama's, but my red LED safelight went trough a 5min safety test
(coin on a pre-exposed piece of paper) with flying colors.

Jorge

Red and yellow LED safelights are different beasts. Do a search here
for led safelight and you'll get some opinions, some of them
contradictory. FWIW, I have made several led afelights and I've
settled on red because of foggng with VC papers. My orange led
safelight has been made safe with a sheet of rubylith.

From what I've read about:
- Leds are not so narrow band (mfg curves are linear, so they can fool
the eye); that's why amber ones are not safe (the limit seems to be red-
orange);
- Do not overdrive them, or the bandwidth will incrase and they will not
be safe anymore.

Jorge


"Michael A. Covington" wrote in
:


Haven't tried it, but the laws of physics lead me to expect that LED
safelights will be *very* safe. They emit absolutely no light outside
the intended band of wavelengths. Filters can fade and become unsafe.
LEDs can become dim, but they are still safe -- they don't start
emitting unsafe wavelengths.

"John Stockdale" wrote in message
om...
Jorge Omar wrote in message
. 4...
Not with Adorama's, but my red LED safelight went trough a 5min safety
test
(coin on a pre-exposed piece of paper) with flying colors.

Jorge

Red and yellow LED safelights are different beasts. Do a search here
for led safelight and you'll get some opinions, some of them
contradictory. FWIW, I have made several led afelights and I've
settled on red because of foggng with VC papers. My orange led
safelight has been made safe with a sheet of rubylith.

Right, every LED emits only in the intended band of wavelengths -- BUT is
that band of wavelengths safe? With a yellow or orange one and a fast
multicontrast paper, possibly not. Red LEDs should be very safe with all
papers.

On 23 Jun 2004 15:55:02 -0700, (Richard
Swanson) wrote:

Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?


Reading this thread makes me curious: I'm relatively new at
developing B+W, and would like to know if safelights can be used at
the developing stage? I tend to fumble a bit with the tail-end of the
roll that has allot of curl to it, and seeing what I'm doing would be
helpful!

Thanks in advance...



jim h


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.jamesphotography.ca

-free downloads
-scanning service
-home of the scanner bake-off

Even a bit of humour...

Jim Hutchison wrote:
On 23 Jun 2004 15:55:02 -0700, (Richard
Swanson) wrote:


Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?



Reading this thread makes me curious: I'm relatively new at
developing B+W, and would like to know if safelights can be used at
the developing stage? I tend to fumble a bit with the tail-end of the
roll that has allot of curl to it, and seeing what I'm doing would be
helpful!

Thanks in advance...



jim h


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.jamesphotography.ca

-free downloads
-scanning service
-home of the scanner bake-off

Even a bit of humour...
No safelight for B+W film. The best way to load those reels
is to practice, practice and more practice. You'll get it.

Good luck,
Rich

"Michael A. Covington" wrote in message news:

........
Haven't tried it, but the laws of physics lead me to expect that LED
safelights will be *very* safe. They emit absolutely no light outside the
intended band of wavelengths. Filters can fade and become unsafe. LEDs can
become dim, but they are still safe -- they don't start emitting unsafe
wavelengths.

Michael, I have never been in a position to contradict you before.
This is my big chance!

This is something that I first read in a post by Paul Butzi. You can
examine the spectrum of the LED by viewing the reflections in a CD at
the angle that gives the "rainbow" effect that we're all familiar
with. I was amazed that my orange leds gave a spectrum right into
blue-green. And that explained the fogging problems that I was having
with VC paper.

LED manufacturers often publish a graph of the spectral distribution,
but the units of intensity are arithmetic, not logarithmic as are
photographic data generally. Therefor what appears to be a low
emission at a certain wavelength is not nearly as low as it appears as
far as photographic exposure is concerned.

With very red LEDs, you can have a bright darkroom, but the light is
not easy on the eyes.

Just to stress the point - safelights are used only in the enlargement
stage - unless you are adept of some unusual alternative techniques.

Jorge

Jim Hutchison wrote in
:

On 23 Jun 2004 15:55:02 -0700, (Richard
Swanson) wrote:

Does anyone have experience with the Adorama LED safelight?


Reading this thread makes me curious: I'm relatively new at
developing B+W, and would like to know if safelights can be used at
the developing stage? I tend to fumble a bit with the tail-end of the
roll that has allot of curl to it, and seeing what I'm doing would be
helpful!

Thanks in advance...



jim h


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.jamesphotography.ca

-free downloads
-scanning service
-home of the scanner bake-off

Even a bit of humour...