Darkrooms

[Evo]

I was very sad to find that my local darkroom on Wirral has now closed permanently. I paid a small monthly fee and then had access to a darkroom 7 days a week if booked in advance. There are a couple of darkrooms in Liverpool which I had found online but not yet tried. Does anyone know of any darkrooms elsewhere such as Chester for example?

 

[Rockmeister]

blackout your bathroom? I did this years back...there is even venting if you put a lighthood over an extractor fan?

 

[Evo]

blackout your bathroom? I did this years back...there is even venting if you put a lighthood over an extractor fan?

Thought of this but, for a couple of reasons, it isn’t going to work. I am thinking of building a darkroom in the garden. Anyone got a b&w enlarger? I use 35mm and medium format.

 

[Unregistered]

A grow tent could work (if you have the space for one).

 

[Barrymagrec]

In my formative years I used my parents loft. Temperature could be a bit up and down but there was a handy lighting circuit to tap into for power and I could leave everything set up. Bit of a pain when someone else needed the bathroom though as they had to move the ladder and rarely remembered to put it back.

 

[PaulMB]

Thought of this but, for a couple of reasons, it isn’t going to work. I am thinking of building a darkroom in the garden. Anyone got a b&w enlarger? I use 35mm and medium format.

Building your own sounds best, if you have the space in the garden. A 6' x 10' pre-fabricated shed would be enough, although a bit bigger would be more comfortable. There was someone on here selling a Gnome enlarger, in fact they might have been giving it away free. A good quality 6x6 enlarger should not be that expensive, although I've noticed that film is steadily coming back into vogue and prices are rising.

 

[Yank]

Can Omega B22 enlargers still be found? I had access to one in my youth and thought it was brilliant.

 

[Evo]

Building your own sounds best, if you have the space in the garden. A 6' x 10' pre-fabricated shed would be enough, although a bit bigger would be more comfortable. There was someone on here selling a Gnome enlarger, in fact they might have been giving it away free. A good quality 6x6 enlarger should not be that expensive, although I've noticed that film is steadily coming back into vogue and prices are rising.

I’ve decided that I will build a darkroom with plumbing as well as power. It will be in a large, garden shed or similar. Looks like I will be after an enlarger which will have to cope with 6x6 and 35mm but only b&w. Anyone got recommendations? I’d prefer to buy as good a quality instrument as possible. Previously I have used a De Veer 203. Once I narrow down what I’m after I can start looking for one - including on here.
Advice would be welcome.

 

[Rockmeister]

I'd be happy with any enlarger that gives a proper spread of even light across a 6x6 negative, provided the stand has the height/adjustments you need for the sizes you print to. The quality is ALL in the lenses. Save on the enlarger and spend on the lenses (I'm guessing you'll need a 75mm for 6x6 and a 50 for 35mm). Nikon did some very fine enlarger glass at less cost than the exotics.
Paterson are making a basic enlarger still but I have no experience of it.

I always used Kaiser, but the new 6005 B&W is 1200 quid odd, and then lenses so??

Older, I remember we used Durst, Kaiser and Gnome, but the latter's light pattern was 'interesting'.
Shed is a fine idea. Fit a vent with an internal light hood, no windows and it should be fine.

 

[Puggie]

I've just scrapped an LPL that no one wanted. Ask around on forums, someone will have something in the loft for buttons.

 

[cctaylor]

A quick search on eBay shows a good range of enlargers available and I'm sure that there will be lenses and other darkroom equipment available, if you have patience I'm sure there will be bargains out there as fewer people using darkrooms these days.

 

[PaulMB]

I’ve decided that I will build a darkroom with plumbing as well as power. It will be in a large, garden shed or similar. Looks like I will be after an enlarger which will have to cope with 6x6 and 35mm but only b&w. Anyone got recommendations? I’d prefer to buy as good a quality instrument as possible. Previously I have used a De Veer 203. Once I narrow down what I’m after I can start looking for one - including on here.
Advice would be welcome.

I'd go for Durst. They had a cheap series of honest but toy-like enlargers, and a professional line like the 7 and 8 series (I can't remember the model numbers, they were like 707 or 805 and so on). There was also the very good M601 and later the M605 (there was more metal and less plastic in the 601, but both good). You will also have to decide if you want a colour head, which is a diffused light system with colours that you can dial in for B&W variable contrast paper, or a condenser head with which you use the Ilford contrast filters in a drawer between the light bulb and the condensers. I would prefer the condenser system, and today you can substitute the old tungsten bulbs with an LED equivalent. The trouble with the colour heads is that they require special "dichroic" halogen bulbs which often burn out, are hard to find and expensive, and also the colour filters may have faded after 40 odd years.
A plus of Durst is that it was the most widespread enlarger back in the day, both the "amateur" models and the "professional" ones, so you can easily find parts and accessories on the SH market.

 

[Puggie]

Actually I have some bits to get shot of AudioAl has first dibs, but there may be some bits that might be of use that he doesn't want.

 

[Evo]

I'd go for Durst. They had a cheap series of honest but toy-like enlargers, and a professional line like the 7 and 8 series (I can't remember the model numbers, they were like 707 or 805 and so on). There was also the very good M601 and later the M605 (there was more metal and less plastic in the 601, but both good). You will also have to decide if you want a colour head, which is a diffused light system with colours that you can dial in for B&W variable contrast paper, or a condenser head with which you use the Ilford contrast filters in a drawer between the light bulb and the condensers. I would prefer the condenser system, and today you can substitute the old tungsten bulbs with an LED equivalent. The trouble with the colour heads is that they require special "dichroic" halogen bulbs which often burn out, are hard to find and expensive, and also the colour filters may have faded after 40 odd years.
A plus of Durst is that it was the most widespread enlarger back in the day, both the "amateur" models and the "professional" ones, so you can easily find parts and accessories on the SH market.

great info, thanks. I will have a look at Durst.

 

[Evo]

Actually I have some bits to get shot of AudioAl has first dibs, but there may be some bits that might be of use that he doesn't want.

yes, please let me know if you have anything I might need and Al doesn’t want it.

 

[PaulMB]

Just a thought: If your local darkroom has closed down, maybe you could buy some of their equipment. Even bits and pieces like safelights, trays, focus finders, masking frames, etc.

 

[Evo]

Just a thought: If your local darkroom has closed down, maybe you could buy some of their equipment. Even bits and pieces like safelights, trays, focus finders, masking frames, etc.

Ive sent him a message but his enlargers have gone already. I have asked him about any other equipment that I’ll need. I think he will have loads of trays etc and perhaps a couple of lenses

 

[Yank]

great info, thanks. I will have a look at Durst.

Be warned, their amateur enlargers like the M301 and F60 are not very good. I had an M301 and didn't like it. In particular, it was a little too easy to scratch negatives on its stamped film carrier. I was never quite sure that the head was parallel to the base either. Their pro and semi-pro enlargers may be better, they seemed to be ubiquitous in Europe in the '70s. But any of the ones with a round column, run away.

In America the most common semi-pro enlargers were the Omega B22/B22XL and Beseler 23-C. Both seem pretty stable but the Omega, in my opinion, was nicer to use.

 

[eternumviti]

At the moment I use a hybrid method with film, home processing B&W and scanning into the digital workflow. I've been thinking (fantasising) about getting back into wet printing, though I was never that good at it. I recently found some old negs and piles of associated prints from the late 1970s, and have been doing some back to back comparisons with prints on good quality baryta papers from an Epson 3880. The results are interesting, and almost indistinguishably close. I felt at the time that the wet prints had more 'feel', but after a couple of weeks I have some trouble working out which is which.

I mainly used Dursts with Nikon lenses back in the day, indeed I still have one, though it isn't usable. I notice that Paul Hart uses Pro Dursts with colour heads.

 

[AudioAl]

Actually I have some bits to get shot of AudioAl has first dibs, but there may be some bits that might be of use that he doesn't want.

Hi Puggie , Any update on this please ?