[Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?

[lea at whinydogpress.com (lea)]

I still have a darkroom with a Saunders 7600, a ProAnalyzer from
RHDesigns and a Beseler 23CII (which I use for making contact sheets). I
love the darkroom when I get down there but it isn't often these days as
I do most all my shooting digitally and print to my Epson 2200.

I'm so interested by those who develop negs and scan them...I find
scanning negs to be torture but probably my equipment isn't what it
should be to scan negs at any sort of volume.

Lea

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jorg Willems" <jorg@mindspring.com>
To: "'Leica Users Group'" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 8:38 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?


> We have a Focomat V35.  We used it in the attic without a/c and
running
> water.  In the summer we worked naked and in the winter in a coat ;-)
> After the chemical processing we washed the prints in the bath tube.
We did
> that many years for all of the b&w wedding pictures.
>
> I'm learning now to use Scanner, VueScan and PhotoShop.  I miss the
attic,
> the red light and all the other bits and pieces that came with it.
>
> J?rg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+jorg=mindspring.com@leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+jorg=mindspring.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Vick
> Ko
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:51 AM
> To: 'Leica Users Group'
> Subject: RE: [Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?
>
> I do!!!!
>
> It will be three years now since I've used it, because it was our TV
> room, then room to nurse our baby son.  That was 3 years ago, and now,
I
> feel that it is okay to do prints, but I haven't gotten there yet.
>
> I hope soon though -
>
> Vick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+vick.ko=sympatico.ca@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
> Jim McIntyre
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 9:36 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?
>
>
> Marc,
>
> Buried under boxes of Christmas decorations, kids toys, and other
> miscellaneous (mysterious) material is my darkroom. I have a wonderful
> Durst M800 with a glass carrier and a tack sharp Schneider lens.
Trays,
> timers, graduated cylinders, thermometers, tanks, tongs, enlarging
> frames are all there. I even have a hand-made "apron" my mother-in-law
> made for me. Alas, I haven't made a print in over a year. But like you
I
> am not willing to give it up. I can't afford a high-end printer or
> scanner (the cheapy model does OK for the net). But the writing is on
> the wall I feel. Even though I don't have the top quality electronic
> machinery, I can tell you that sitting in front of my terminal
> "spotting" out dust specs, adjusting contrast, doing the "dodging and
> burning" electronically is sure a heck of a lot faster, accurate and
> cheaper than the traditional wet darkroom process. And given the
> testimony from a number of LUG members to the quality of Epson 2200
and
> ilk prints, it's only a matter of time and budget before my poor 20+
> year old equipment gets permanently retired.
>
> Does make me a bit sad though...many a night was spent there, in the
> soft red light with my radio tuned to a classical station, making
prints
> that still hang in my house.
>
> jm
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marc James Small" <msmall@infionline.net>
> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 5:41 PM
> Subject: [Leica] Who Still Has a Darkroom?
>
>
> I moved into my present house almost two years ago, and dedicated a
room
> in the attic for use as a darkroom (it had originally been the
Servants
> Quarters' when this house was built in 1897).  I have never completed
> fixing it up as such, as I now scan my negatives and slides and, now
> that I am getting a bit familiar with this, I have no strong desire to
> go back to chemical work.  I can load film into tanks in a changing
bag
> and processing is no big thing.
>
> But I am unwilling to give up, quite yet, on the ability to produce
> chemical prints as they still are better in quality than are scans, at
> least with my current gear and at my current level of expertise.   I
> suspect I will never finish making the putative darkroom completely
> light-tight and air-conditioned but, still, I cannot quite give up on
> it. I have a grand set of gear (a Leica V35 and a Beseler 23CX-II with
> Rodenstock APO enlarging lenses, all sorts of trays, tongs, timers,
> lights, &c &c) -- Hell, I not only have 16mm and 127 reels but I have
> not one but TWO print driers.  And finishing the darkroom would be a
> matter of five or six hours or less.
>
> Dreams die hard.  I spent a magnificent number of hours over forty
years
> in a darkroom and I guess it is time to admit that I'll probably never
> enlarge another negative.  But I'm not willing, yet, to come to terms
> with this reality.
>
> So, like Tina, I can and do process film but scanning is becoming just
> so damned EASY!
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@infionline.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
>
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