B&W Photo darkroom safe LEDs?

D

**DONOTDELETE**

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Dont know if any of you CPFers are also photo junkies, but I'm currently in the process of building/explanding a darkroom and have been curious about the lightsafeness of various LEDs.. We have a safelight, but it doesnt reach a few of the enlarging stations where a single LED with a diffuser would be perfect. This could be a much better solution than getting another $100+ safelight just for a small area.
Now, I know that photographic paper is sensitive to all light, but there are a few wavelengths it can tolerate in small doses, somewhere in the red/orange area. Maybe either a red or orange with a small filter would work?
any ideas?
 
I'm not a photo junkies but I have developed black and white photos of x-ray diffraction patterns during university days. We used a lamp with red filter on it without problems, of course the red light was relatively dim. So I guess a red coloured led should be safe. To be extra safe, you can add a potentiometer to adjust the brightness of the led such that the bare minimum brightness is used.
 
Roithner Laser has some 700nm ruby-red LEDs that may be appropriate. Unlike regular red LEDs, these should have virtually no "leakage" into the orange and yellow portion of the spectrum.

Alternately, you could use "regular" red LEDs if you put a safelight filter in front of them.
 
I am a photo Junkie, with a AA in Photography, We have amber safe lights that are really bright, and do not effect the paper at school. I guess the best thing is to get a RED led and try to expose the paper...
 
I have had some black and white darkroom experience. A definitive way to test if any given LED is 'leaking' the wrong wavelengths; put a sheet of paper with a few coins on it under the light and leave it for a half an hour, then develop it. If you can see where the coins were, it leaked...
 
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