Building a darkroom and camera

zewrak · Joined: 12 Apr 2008 Posts: 1212

I have not set my foot in a darkroom the past 16 years. Before that I did some work in school with darkroom equipement. And it was indeed fun. Years went past and I started taking up photography again when I got a digital compact. Few months back I went into the DSRL buisness and thats where I am now.

I have often thought about getting a darkroom, because I thought it was fun. And last year me and the wife bought a house and now I acctually have room to build one. Last week I went to a fleemarket and found some used equipment, including an enlarger. I still need to get some running water and ventilation into the room (its in the basement) and some minor stuff like timers, light, thermometers etc.

The room itself is all concrete so I can basically control the temprature 24/7. There is no windows and 2 doors. You have to open one door to be able to open the other. So it is indeed completly lightproof as it is.

The current ventilation is a hole in the wall that has a pipe that goes above ground level. I will be putting in a fan in that hole that can both suck in fresh air and blow out bad, alternativly I'll make another hole and have two fans that work together, one blowing and one sucking. Would not be that much of a hassle.

As stated, I will be pulling in pipes for both hot and cold water.

Anyways, for others that have built proper darkrooms, what other tips do you have?

And for the second matter. I have a spotmatic that is in working condition and also a pile of Praktica cameras. But I feel that they are not enough. What camera should I get? ;D I am completly lost, but since I use Pentax DSLR it would be nice with something that either have PK or M42. On the other hand Id love to get into the bigger cameras aswell, such as the 645.

Rob Leslie · Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 1103 Location: UK Swindon

I really envy you. I am not into film anymore and hate scanning.
I would however love to do some real BW work with film and chemical prints.
I have no real tips for you. It is all pretty simple and that is the way you should try and keep it.
I�m sure you know all the basics. Two benches Wet and Dry, set them out L shape working left to right. So you have Paper store, Enlarger. Then a half turn to your Dev dish, stop bath, fixer, wash. Try to keep everything nicely spaced and get the level of light as high as you can, but do have a switch by your enlarger to turn the lights off or down for critical focusing.
Forget silly things like enlarging exposure meters. Practice doing test strips. Practice burning and dodging, try all the effects you can find about like soft focus, selective soft focus, correcting perspective with the baseboard and hundreds more. Just get a few �Old� books from the library and have fun as you turn out those 10x8 master pieces.

What camera you have to do your BW master pieces with all depends on what you are going to do?
If studio and landscapes then perhaps medium format. Always consider the disadvantages of MF as well as the advantage of the bigger negative.
I would be looking for a Bessa or even a Leica. These rangfinder cameras are a very different experience to shooting SLR.
A S/H Bessa is usually a good buy.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Yes, I'm envious too. I don't have the facility for a darkroom in my house so I can't think about prints. I use a bag for exchanging the film to the tank and then scan the negs.

I think maybe you should do some work with 135 film from the Spotmatic first and if all goes well you can think about MF cameras later. I've never regretted buying the Yashica-Mat TLR for 6x6 negs, but in time I'd like to try an SLR.

zewrak · Joined: 12 Apr 2008 Posts: 1212

Well I will obviously use the Spotmatic. Afterall, it is a spotmatic. And it is black and I got some nice Super Taks for it Wink

.

But at some point i'd like to try the bigger boys. And keeping that in mind now, might save me something if I see a good deal. And ofcourse, it helps to check out the market before I get into it so that I know what to pay for stuff.

Is there any special enlargers that I should look for? This one feels quite weak in construction and is probably a real budget version. It only seem to take 35mm and 126. Its a Paterson 35. Also, lenses for it, it has a Leica screwmount it seem, how important is it on a enlarger? I mean as long as it seem sharp? ;p Is it standard on enlargers to have Leica mount? Should I look for something special, that might fit a new enlarger at a later point (mind you this one cost 5$).

Farside · Expire: 2013-12-27

zewrak · Joined: 12 Apr 2008 Posts: 1212