I use Ilford RC papers with dektol dev. and kodak fixer. I noticed the information sheet supplied with the paper says fix for only 30 sec. and wash for 2 min. Can this be right? My old habit from my bromide days is to fix for 5 min. and wash for at least 20 min. Will fixing RC for 5 min. require longer rinsing time? I don't want yellow prints 10 years down the road. Thanks. GA

-- Greg Augustine (wca@idt.net), April 19, 1999

Answers

I generally leave RC prints (usually Luminos Flexicon) in the fixer for closer to 5 minutes, but that's just my old fiber-paper habits. You can probably get by with 2 minutes in the fixer: certainly, you can turn the light on after a mere 20 or 30 seconds if the fixer is reasonably strong.

I generally wash RC prints for around 5 minutes too, but realistically, with good water flow, 2 minutes is probably sufficient. But I prefer to err on the side of too much rather than too little... Water and time are cheap compared to having to reprint stuff! (And I've only had a couple of prints out of hundreds show any fixer staining from inadequate washing in the last five years.)

-- Michael Goldfarb (mgoldfar@mobius-inc.com), April 20, 1999.

The Ilford instructions for minimum times require that you follow the process exactly. Longer fixing needs longer washing.

I generally give about 5 mins in the fixer, and 20-30 in the wash. In 25 years, I have never had a print go bad on me, and some have been framed on the wall for that time.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), April 20, 1999.

For RC, anything over a minute or so seems excessive to me. For RC prints, a fix of 30 seconds and a wash of 2-4 minutes (depending on water flow) is sufficient. Remember that with RC you have to keep "wet time" down to a minimum, otherwise the corners and edges start coming apart. I have used this method for almost 20 years without a print going bad.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), April 20, 1999.

If you use a paper-strength rapid fixer or plain old ordinary fixer, use a fix time of two minutes for RC paper. Fixing longer will do nothing except eventually bleach out the lightest highlights. If you use a film-strengh rapid fixer w/o hardener (the fixer Ilford refers to) fix 30 seconds to _no longer than_ one minute, and carefully follow the fixer capacity ratings. Wash time is the same, around five minutes in rapidly-flowing water. Using rapid fixer comes from Ilford's archival fixing/washing sequence for fiber papers and although using it won't harm RC papers there's no significant benefit either.

-- John Hicks / John's Camera Shop (jbh@magicnet.net), April 21, 1999.

Greg: I concur with Tony Rowlett. As does Ilford and Agfa (at least).

Mike

-- Mike World (mbworld@adan.kingston.net), April 24, 1999.