Alternative fixers

<p>Hi,<br>

I have just become interested in 'Caffenol' developing for B&W film considering that this developer uses household chemicals. So I also wanted to know whether their was an alternative fixer to thiosulfate ones. I have read in many places that saltwater will do the trick, but this is a myth, isnt it? I have also read that a derivitive of onions (water?) can also be used? Do any of these alternatives work, are there others, or do I have to stick to ordinary fixer for this type of developing?<br>

Thanks Mick</p>

<p>Never heard about onions. Salt water, sea water specifically, can be used for part of the final wash sequence, but you still need to finish with fresh water. No, I don't think there is any substitute for thiosulfate fixers.</p>

<p>Thiosulphate, of course, is a sulphur containing substance, and there are in onions some sulphur containing componds, including, i think, thiosulphate. Because of this, onions can be dangerous if eaten by dogs, and it was suspected that our dog, who wants to eat whatever we eat, became quite sick for no apparent reason attributed eventually to onions. Whatever process might be necessary to extract the active fixing ingredient from onions would be an exercise in futility (more than the coffee developer, I mean).</p>

 

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>Coffee developer is a joke, right? I mix my own MQ developers and don't see any reason to change, as they work very well.</p>

<p>Coffee developer is perfectly reasonable as is a wine developer and a urine developer. They all contain hydroquinone like compounds that will develop film or paper.</p>

<p>There is no real natural substitute for Hypo though! All substitutes are either synthetic or difficult to get in quantity through natural processes. Sorry.</p>

<p>And, sea water will not work as a fixing agent, only as a wash aid.</p>

<p>Ron Mowrey</p>

<p>Seawater IS a myth. I spent half a day desperately trying to fix with it. Pure myth. Ignore the idea.</p>

<p>Hi, salt is not a mith! I can assure you that you may use salt as fixer, I already did it. Besides, if you read about earlier photography, daguerreotypes for instance, salt was used as fixer but...<br>

1- It was used a very concentrated solution of salt and<br>

2- warm<br>

3- The silver halide surface was very thin and salt could work better<br>

But I am an sceptic about all myths, I must try myself until I believe. So I made the test, I exposed a 120 film Fomapan 100 with a Holga 120GN and developed in selfmade parodinal 1:100 for 1 hour. Then I poured a very concentrated solution of salt and waited until it looked like fixed with thiosulfate. Well, I waited 24 hours and the film was really like fixed with thiosulfate. Now, since yesterday I putted two negatives at sun and I am waiting to see if the fixing is good enough. One of the negatives was fixed with thiosulfate and the other with salt.</p>

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