It certainly doesn’t hurt to use a rinse or Stop process between the developer and fxer, however plenty of people don’t use one without any noticeable effects.
Just to review why people might use a rinse or stop process:
A water rinse only slows development, it does not completely stop development as developer remains in the emulsion, however it does remove a lot of the contamination so it does slow development, and reduces the effort required by the fixing stage.
A more effective technique would be to use a Stop, which neutralises developer and therefore is not carried over into the fixer, preserving the useful life of the fixer.
However a few considerations that you might want to pay attention to are - trying to extract as much developer as possible, using fresh fix each time, the amount of exposure as a darker print has less unused silver halide to be removed (that's not a exposure suggestion) , and/or increasing the duration of the fix process..
Using exhausted fixer can cause staining. If you were really worried about it use a two syringe process, where the second is a new batch and after a while rotate that forward to become your first fix.
If you are concerned about continued and uneven development, you can review the calculated time of development, more so for film, and how long it takes to remove/replace chemicals, and dilute/slow things down.
I don’t use a rinse or Stop including on 4x5 sheet film and 8x10 paper in the Pinsta, perhaps if I was reusing the fix, or a larger amount, I would consider it, but I do pay close attention to the amount of residual developer.
I'm a newbie to film photography, so I'm wondering ... Are you suggesting that it's okay to use only developer and fixer if we're careful. For example:
That we try to remove as much developer as possible for the camera; that we don't use spent or exhausted fixer, etc?
There's always a risk of the Dev affecting the Fix. I think less so for uneven development as even if you used a Stop, the flow of the liquid over the paper would be the same regardless of whether it was Stop or Fix. So if you were to get uneven development - perhaps if you were undeveloping for example, it would be uneven either way, so for me, it's just a consideration of the effiency of the Fix.
In all my years of developing, I've always used a Stop (and still do for roll film on a spool), however it does work - you can thank Oliver for coming up with the concept of using the least amount of chemicals possible. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I haven't noticed any undesireable results, I'll let you know in 50 years about archival storage.
If I was to be concerned about any steps, it would be to increase the final wash to either several syringes of water, and/or a wash baths.
If you are concerned about it, just do what you are comforable with. I did previously suggest to Oli to make some 4 dock (5 might be a bit too big) syringe holders for anyone that wanted to include extra processes, whether it was Stop, a 2 stage Fix, or 2 stage Wash or whatever. If enough people ask, perhaps he'll make one if there's enough demand.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to use a rinse or Stop process between the developer and fxer, however plenty of people don’t use one without any noticeable effects.
Just to review why people might use a rinse or stop process:
A water rinse only slows development, it does not completely stop development as developer remains in the emulsion, however it does remove a lot of the contamination so it does slow development, and reduces the effort required by the fixing stage.
A more effective technique would be to use a Stop, which neutralises developer and therefore is not carried over into the fixer, preserving the useful life of the fixer.
However a few considerations that you might want to pay attention to are - trying to extract as much developer as possible, using fresh fix each time, the amount of exposure as a darker print has less unused silver halide to be removed (that's not a exposure suggestion) , and/or increasing the duration of the fix process..
Using exhausted fixer can cause staining. If you were really worried about it use a two syringe process, where the second is a new batch and after a while rotate that forward to become your first fix.
If you are concerned about continued and uneven development, you can review the calculated time of development, more so for film, and how long it takes to remove/replace chemicals, and dilute/slow things down.
I don’t use a rinse or Stop including on 4x5 sheet film and 8x10 paper in the Pinsta, perhaps if I was reusing the fix, or a larger amount, I would consider it, but I do pay close attention to the amount of residual developer.