Post by Dimitris TzortzakakisPost by Abandoned_TrolleyPost by Dimitris TzortzakakisPost by Abandoned_TrolleyPost by Vikesh KapoorHello!
I'm looking to construct a color darkroom at home.
Anyone looking to sell a tabletop color processor ie. Fujimoto
CP-31/CP-51, etc.
Thank you!
Have you managed to resolve this problem yet ?
AT
Have you done anything about it? Because I'm also looking for a
second-hand colour enlarger, plus lens, plus paper tank. It's not
really that difficult, I have done it in the past both with RA 4
and Cibachrome, and it's very exciting, and fruitful. No
algorithm, no photoshop and no inkjet printer can reach the
beauty of a colour print printed by hand by an experienced
printer, IMHO. I hope I can find something locally. Unless
someone has to one, to sell me a "turntable" of blue, red and
green filters that go under the lens of a normal B&W enlarger,and
wishes to ship it in Greece, preferably with a paper tank.I can
pay with paypal for shipment and a reasonable fee for the goods.
where normally the red filter goes, and with the additive system
you do three different exposures on the same piece of paper. I
have put adds OTOH here locally for an enlarger.
My apologies, I didn't realise you lived in Greece so did not
appreciate the difficulties which you are having
Anyway, right at the moment I don't need to do anything about it
as I have a Meteor Siegen roller transport processor which handles
paper up to 40cm wide. but its not exactly a "table top"
arrangement - the dev and blix tanks are 9 litres each.
So, I dont know if any of this is any use, but here's a few things
which might possibly help.
First, before I got the Meteor processor I was using a Cibachrome
processor which I picked up cheap on eBay. You probably know that
Cibachrome is a 24 degree process which I think is 3 minutes per
bath. I fiddled about with the thermostat bit and changed the
drive gears so that it was running at 45 seconds per bath. I don't
think anybody is processing Cibachrome any more so its possible
that some of these things are still around. Anyway, it might be
possible to adapt something for your use. Failing that, there's
some other tabletop processors from Durst and other makers which
may be worth considering.
Alternatively, you might be able to develop a technique for
daylight processing by popping the paper in to a film developing
tank. If you leave the film spirals out then you can easily stick
a 5x7 paper in around the edge then pop the lid on and carry on in
daylight
Second, I have heard some reports from somebody on photo.net
saying that they have had some success with RA4 processing in open
dishes. Obviously this has to be done in total darkness unless you
can find one of those (almost useless) colour safelights. If you
are working in the dark then 45 seconds per bath can be a bit
tricky, so I think he ran the dishes at maybe 20 or 24 degrees,
and adjusted the time to about 3 minutes ? Keeping dishes at a
constant 38 degrees is a bit of a non starter anyway, so you need
to spend a bit of time fiddling about to work out some sort of
process.
Basically, there is a number of ways that you might consider RA4
processing WITHOUT using a roller transport processor at all.
Third, unless you have some overpowering reason for not doing so,
I would strongly advise you to forget about the "filter drawer"
techniques and simply get a proper colour enlarger. You then dial
up the filter density required.
If you are doing any B&W processing then multigrade papers seem to
assume the use of a colour enlarger anyway - I don't even know
where to get graded papers from these days (no - DONT bother to
tell me)
Also, don't forget that a large chunk of B&W printing is done
using B&W RA4 paper anyway, to save the labs running a separate
"normal" B&W process.
One of my earliest enlargers was a Durst 606 with a filter drawer
but I am sure that it dated back to the sixties. Basically, I
think additive systems and filter drawers went out with the Ark
AT
thanks a lot for replying. yes I live in Greece in the island of
Crete which is the southmost place in Greece, halfway to Africa. My
city (Iraklion) is quite big so I have some opportunities of
finding used darkroom and photo equipment. My current enlarger
(meopta axomat II) doesn't even have a filter drawer so I had to
buy a set of multigrade filters (Ilford of course) that goes under
the lens, from the excellent macodirect.de site. I don't mind using
a paper tank, that's like a normal film tank in the sense that you
load it in total darkness but you process in daylight. It has some
special grooves and can accept several paper sizes. My old enlarger
(Meopta opemus 6) had two heads, one condenser with a filter drawer
for B&W and a diffusion colour head with regular subtractive
filters. This with all my equipment I foolishly gave away when the
digital came, I never thought I'd go back. Anyway since I'm a
humble electrician I'm looking for a solution that won't cost an
arm and a leg and preferably, something local or at least in
Athens. I did also Cibachrome back in the day, but it's
discontinued, alas. I also did RA 4 and the also discontinued R3
(reversal chromogenic paper like Cibachrome but with different
process). I'd rather not use a film tank for paper processing as it
doesn't have any grooves and the paper might slip and I'd rather
use a bigger size than 5X7, maybe 18X24 cm. A packet of 100 costs
50 euros in macodirect plus tetenal chemicals for 18 papers, 15
euros, so the cost is not prohibitevely high. No, I'd rather not
develop RA4 in dishes as my darkroom is quite cramped up and I'd
have difficutly with it, anyway I found even in ebay used paper
tanks for every wallet. They're very convenient. I'm sure that such
a processor doesn't exist here in iraklion. I know how to use a
colour enlarger, but I haven't done so in almost 20 years. And I
lived to tell the tale :-) Macodirect has many kinds of paper I
think even graded a search is quite easy. My enlarger must be at
least from the '70s because in the infamous lightmaster there was A
Siemens capacitor dated 2/1972!!!But it was completely free and
with a ton of other goods, including papers, but alas, no easel or
multigrade filters or even a red filter (it was destroyed). I don't
even know how its late previous owner printed at all.
D.T.check this out, www.secondhanddarkroom.co.uk, excellent site, has even
they arrive. I can either get an enlarger lens from them (they start
has marumi enlarger lenses for 50 euros. Chemicals and paper from
macodirect.de HTH.HAND. (I don't know if there's something similar