Photographic chemicals in the Frugal Photographer catalog

Liquid Light^® photographic emulsion for prints on wood, glass, ceramics, plastics, china, fabrics, metal, stone, paper, artist's canvas, walls — even an egg. Printing with Liquid Light is the same as with black-and-white enlargement paper. Under amber or red safelight, brush the emulsion onto a surface. Expose with an enlarger or slide projector, or make contact prints from full-size negatives. Process with any standard paper developer and fixer. Prints are archivally-permanent with a full range of tones and transparent highlights that reveal the color and texture of the material underneath. Contrast is medium-high (approximately #3).	Coverage is approximately 1½ square feet per ounce, or about 12 sq ft from this 8-ounce bottle. No fumes, odors or VOC's — Liquid Light is completely darkroom-safe. Item: RO-LLE/8 per 8-oz bottle Use this Add To Cart button to buy:

Sometimes called the Life Magazine developer, it dates from the 1940's. For decades it was the favorite developer of many of the most recognizable names in photojournalism, including W. Eugene Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Andre Kertesz. It was the developer of choice at the Magnum and Black Star agencies. It is characterized by clear highlights, bright, open shadows, and a full, rich tonal range with a tight grain structure. It is well suited to both older style and modern tabular-grain films. Because it has never been distributed as a mass-market product, it has a reputation as a difficult, cult developer, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is a dependable workhorse that gives outstanding results, roll after roll after roll. It is a solid, beautifully crafted tool for working photographers who cannot afford to waste time on unpredictable, fussy developers. It richly deserves to be more widely known. Click here to download full instructions, including time/temperature suggestions, and replenishment quantities for all common film sizes. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you can download it at no charge from the Adobe web site. Just click the Get Reader icon:	Panthermic 777 Developer "Panthermic" refers to the fact that this developer can be used successfully over a wide range of temperatures, between 60 and 90 degrees F, and you can develop to a wide range of contrast, without noticeable change to film speed or grain. Once mixed, it has extremely long life, and is meant to be used for months (or years) with replenishment. We recommend you mix one gallon, then divide it into two half-gallon containers. Use one as your developer and replenish from the other, removing old developer and replacing it with fresh developer after each use. Your first half-gallon of replenisher is enough for 42 36-exp rolls of 35mm film (about 60 cents per roll). Every subsequent gallon will process 84 rolls (about 30 cents per roll). Click here to download instructions for using this developer. (Dry powder, mix with water to make one US gallon (approx. 3.8 litres) Product HA777 To order on-line, click the Add To Cart button. When you finish shopping, you can choose from several shipping methods. You can pay on-line with VISA/MasterCard, or PayPal. Or you can print out your order and mail it to us with your personal check or money order.

Bluefire™ HR An ultra-soft developer for long, soft pictorial gradation with ultra-fine grain films like Bluefire Police, Kodak Tech Pan, and microfilms. To learn more about this developer, go to the Bluefire catalog page (click here).	1-litre size Bluefire HR. Packaged in 2-part dry powder form. Mix with tap water to make 1 litre (1 quart) of concentrate. Dilute concentrate 1:16 to make one-time-use working solution (add 15 ml concentrate to 235 ml water to process one roll of 35mm). Sufficient to develop 66 rolls of 35mm film. Product BHR-1L
Bluefire HR 30-ml sample size. Will develop two rolls of 35mm film. Pre-mixed liquid.	Product BHR30
Bluefire™ Micro A high-contrast microfilm-style developer for hard blacks, hard whites, and little if any gray scale from ultra-fine grain films like Bluefire Police, Kodak Tech Pan, and microfilms. To learn more about this developer, go to the Bluefire catalog page (click here).	1 litre size Bluefire Micro, 2-part dry developer powder to be mixed with tap water. Long shelf life and excellent working capacity. Product BMI-1L
Super-76 film developer Concentrated liquid film developer, an improved formula of the Kodak D-76 type. However, Super-76 contains no Metol. Process your film using the same time, temperature, and agitation you would use with Kodak D-76 or Ilford ID-11, for the same excellent grain and tonal characteristics. You get the benefit of D-76 without the metol and the complication of mixing up powdered chemicals.	For standard D-76-type development, dilute 1:1 with water. For development equivalent to D-76 1:1, dilute 1:4 with water. For high contrast, use full strength. Product NA-129 1 quart of Super-76 concentrate Note: The Metol in ordinary D-76 type formulas can cause dermatitis in some people and is no longer widely used. Super-76 contains no Metol.
Hardening fixer, dry powder mix. Makes 1 US gallon. This is packaged and labeled as an industrial product, but it is also an ideal formula for fixing all modern black and white films. This is standard F-5 type sodium thiosulfate fixer, not ammonium "rapid" fixer, so be sure to give your film adequate time in the fixer, at least five minutes. Washes out in three to five minutes if you use a sodium sulfite wash aid, but if no wash aid is available, a fifteen minute wash will be adequate.	Product NA-423, Standard Sodium thiosulfate hardening Fixer powder, 1-gallon size Note: many modern films are hardened during manufacture, and can be fixed in plain sodium thiosulfate, which is available from swimming pool supply companies. However, some films and most papers should be fixed in a harding fixer.
Streak Free rinse aid, 1 oz. bottle Ultra concentrated (1:2000) film drying agent. This is 3 times more concentrated than Kodak Photo-Flo®. Rapid drying, anti-static, anti-streaking. A rinse aid is essential to reduce or eliminate water spots on negatives, even if you rinse in distilled water, and this product is not only economical, it's extremely effective.	NOTE: This product has been discontinued, and is being replaced with a custom formulation that has antistatic qualities. The replacement is expected to be available in June, 2009. Product NA-369

These AP tanks can be used to process black and white, color, or infrared film. Interchangeable with Patterson processing tanks and reels. But there is a good reason to prefer these to Patterson products.

Here's the reason. The spiral reels included with these tanks feature extra-large, thumb-sized tabs where the film-feed entry is located. There is a tab on top, and a larger tab on the bottom. They're dead easy to locate in the dark, and make it very unlikely you'll be trying to feed the film in backwards.

Note: if you prefer the standard reel with narrow loading flanges, please purchase them here:

Standard spiral reel only. These fit standard Patterson tanks as well as AP tanks, and feature the standard narrow loading flange. The narrow-flange reels work well for 35mm and reasonably well for 127 film, but less well for 120/220.
Product REEL-GR ea.

Film loading bag

Elastic sleeves (above) and strong double zipper (below) exclude all light

This is a well-made double-layer fabric bag for handling light-sensitive materials, such as film, in daylight. It features a large double-zippered opening on one end, and elastic-lined wrist holes on the other. Totally light-proof.

Use it, for example, to load film onto spiral reels, and then into your processing tank. Makes it possible to develop film at home, with no darkroom, or while traveling.

AP Compact Developing tank with two easy-load spiral reels. Chemical-resistant plastic. Process color or black and white film, 35mm, 126, 127, 120, 620, and 220.

Product APTAN

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AP Compact style spiral reels only. These fit standard Patterson tanks as well as AP tanks, but feature greatly improved film-loading flanges which considerably simplify film loading in the dark. The only quirk is that to remove processed film conveniently, you should pull the reel apart rather than simply pull the film out.
Product REEL
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Personal note: my experience makes it clear that these Compact style (wide-flange) reels are significantly easier to load in the dark than Patterson and Jobo reels. A roll of curly 120 can take me ten minutes with a Patterson reel, and I worry about kinking it. It rarely takes even 30 seconds with one of these.
David Foy

Precision
Darkroom thermometer
LCD readout and long moisture-proof probe. Essential for control and repeatability in your darkroom.

You can spend less for a breakable liquid-column thermometer, or more for a bimetal dial thermometer, but neither will be as accurate as this quality electronic device.

Item: DLL-0559
each
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Small bag, 17 inches square. More than adequate for the 35mm photographer. Product BAG1717

Medium and large format film bag, 27 x 30 inches. Truly a portable darkroom. Product DL-0188