A darkroom safe light form?

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Dylanlewis2000

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Dylan
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Hi all

For Christmas last year the girlfriend bought me a small pinhole camera kit with a DIY processing pack. Now i really want to do this but need a safe light and from what i have seen online they vary greatly in price

Can anyone recommend a cheap one that will just do the job. I dont want to go spending silly money on it as the photos may turn out to be total cack and i may never use the camera again.

Any help or processing advice is appreciated!
 
You could try a red pygmy bulb (15w) a reasonable distance away they may be safe-ish (always test any safe light you buy first) I have used them in the past with ilford muiligrage, but that was a good few years ago.
To test the safe light take out a sheet of paper in the dark, expose it to some light from the enlarger (just enough to turn it light grey when developed) then put a few coins on it and give it 10 minutes under the safe light, then develop it, if you can see where the coins were it's not safe as it's fogging the paper. The reason you expose it a bit first is to get over the papers threshold.
 
Is this for loading the film? If so then it is not a normal red safe light that you need. As far as i was led to believe an undeveloped film safe light is very dim dark green if I remember. I have a safe light somewhere with different coloured tops fir that purpose (unless I just gave it away with a camera I sold, can't remember which one I gave away)
 
I'd love to know why you need a safe light though? Will you be printing from the negatives... since you don't mention enlargers and so on?

Maybe this should have been posted in the Film section...
 
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I think the OP might be wanting to load the camera with film using a safe light. When I started I thought that that was what you did.
 
Ah. But now you know better Darren - hence my point. If the camera is 120 film then subdued light is fine, if 35mm then the same though really not necessary, no special lighting needed until much further down the process.
 
Ahh I may have mis-read this, I thought it was for the printing?
Modern film is panchromatic (sensitive to all visible colour light) so really you can't use a "safelight" as such, even a very dim dark green may affect the film and cause base fogging.
 
I think we need to clarify what the OP considers he needs a safelight for. Some wierd pinhole cameras work with a sheet of photographic paper in the back of the camera. Others actually use clipped sections of film (either 35mm or 120) or sheet film (i've seen 5x4" and 10x8" - but i'm sure there's others) If it's loading B&W paper into the camera, then, yes, a safelights not a bad idea, although probably do-able without. For the rest, I'd just practice in daylight, then do it in a darkroom/darkbag when I was proficient.

If the "DIY processing pack" is for processing the film - again - it's a darkroom/darkbag to load the film into whatever processing tank is supplied - or - working in darkroom with trays if it's sheet film. If however the processing pack covers print processing, then a safelight would be a very useful addition.
 
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