Dark room

• Lovelife

  Participant

  February 6, 2011 at 1:10 pm

  Hey Everyone

  I have a DSLR and a film SLR, and just LOVE My film camera. I love my digital too but there is just something about the film that i love, the noise it makes and everything – i just love it.

  I have always been interested in having a dark room and developing = only as a hobby of course. In my course they touched on developing in a dark room but not aload of information where you could say i know exactly what to do. I have read books too but want to get someones ideas on here of what exactly to do.

  First id love if someone could list all the equipment required for colour and B+W prints.

  Thanks :)
  Martin

  Participant

  February 6, 2011 at 10:01 pm

  I only do B&W printing so would not be the best to give advice on colour equipment.
  Im presuming at the start you will get someone else to dev your negs so i’ll only talk about printing

  Below is the absolute minimum required for B&W:

  – An enlarger for 35mm film complete with lens (around 50mm). I would recommend though getting an enlarger that can print up to 6×6 negatives though. The enlarger should be able to accept coloured filters or else has a multigrade or colour head.

  – Four plastic trays that can take paper up to 12 x 9.5 inches in size (1 for dev, 1 for stop, 1 for fix and 1 full of water to store your prints till the end of the darkroom session)

  – A darkroom red light

  – One bottle of paper developer and one bottle of fixer (i dont use an acid stop bath…)

  – Buy a box of paper, something like Ilford Multigrade resin paper to get started with

  Thats basically it to get started not a whole lot…

  If you buy an enlarger second hand you can sometimes get lots of other things like tray thrown in….

  Have fun
  M
  Dermot1

  Participant

  February 6, 2011 at 10:26 pm

  well first off there’s these pdf’s which is a good start from Kodak
  http://www3.telus.net/drkrm/pdf/kodak_design.pdf” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
  http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/aj3/aj3.pdf” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  good list of stuff
  http://www.darkroomsource.net/equipment-wet.shtml” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  a must is good thermometer(s)
  http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/cart/Thermometers-p-1-c-380.html” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  storage bottles
  http://www.digitaltruth.com/store/cart/Bottles-Containers-p-1-c-36.html” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  for developing
  http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/aj3/aj3.pdf” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; check ilford website for good info also

  also handy when you mess up a development although I’ve never had to do it :D
  http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/pdf/ae31.pdf” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  where to buy
  http://www.ag-photographic.co.uk/darkroom-equipment–accessories-67-c.asp” onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
  http://www.novadarkroom.com/&#8221; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; <-- also sells second hand
  http://www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk/products/946/nova-fp-film-processor&#8221; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; <---- a great site with great gear
  http://www.miniphoto.com/darkroom.asp&#8221; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false; <--- they be Irish as always shop around and you’ll find deals to be had, check the flea bay and adverts sites, also shouldn’t share these gems but what the hey, both American so don’t always ship to Ireland but a little begging and crying goes a long way
  http://www.propertyroom.com/Catalog.aspx?Category=Cameras&CategoryId=421&#8243; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;
  http://www.shopgoodwill.com/listings/listByCat.asp?catID=170&ending=Items&orderby=itemEndTime&page=2&#8243; onclick=”window.open(this.href);return false;

  I’m sure there’s more I’m leaving out but it’ll take you a while to look at all this, if I’m not mistaken there’s one of the guys on here who runs workshops maybe ask mark our glorious leader and he’ll point you in right direction, would be worth doing as you’ll learn how not to make silly mistakes that might otherwise put you off continuing

  and good luck, ask more specifics if none of this helps.
  BarkerPhotographic

  Participant

  February 13, 2011 at 10:03 pm

  We (Barker Photographic), stock everything you need for a Darkroom, We have Meopta and Paterson Enlargers (Kaiser to order), Paterson equipment, Fotospeed chemistry, Ilford paper & Film, Nova processors, and even a few “special” bits and pieces!