Darkroom Planning Permission Achieved!

It will be for B&W only, for the foreseeable future.

The idea is to have it all self contained over the bath tub when not in use. The rest of the bathroom will be completely functional (toilet + sink). We have a separate shower elsewhere in the house, so it'll literally only be the bathtub itself that can't be used. :)
 
Regarding the question about chemical temperature: I started out checking the temperature of the dev before I started and it was always around 20 to 22C. It seemed to have very little effect on the outcome. Now I don't bother, and even on the very warm days a few weeks ago, the results were roughly the same. Even if it does change a little, the development of your test strips will also change and account for the difference. If your house is reasonably well heated then the chemicals will be just fine at room temperature. Where you may run into trouble is if you mix fresh chemicals with cold water immediately before printing. When I was using trays, I tried to plan ahead and let the chemicals sit in bottles in the darkroom for a couple of hours to get up to temperature. Now I don't worry as the Nova tank sits full and ready to go (with some top-up chems in bottles to one side).
 
Awesome. Many thanks for all your replies! Seems to me that in reality, where the darkroom will get used mainly in big bulk sessions, rather than little and often, I'm probably not hugely worried about temps. As such, I think I'll stick to trays for the time being and come up with a stacked approach to using them... at least until the day when I can afford/justify a nova processor in 16x20. Seeing as how the enlarger is going to be expensive as it is, plus all the other stuff I'll need in the first instance, this should keep the costs down... I hope!
 
I used to keep it to short sessions of just a few prints. As setting up and packing up was quick, I'd try to stop at 10pm. Otherwise I'd be printing all night. As I used to at the beginning.
 
ianp5a said:
I used to keep it to short sessions of just a few prints. As setting up and packing up was quick, I'd try to stop at 10pm. Otherwise I'd be printing all night. As I used to at the beginning.
Click to expand...

Me too. It's easy to get lost when you're printing and suddenly realise it's 3am. Also, it takes me a good three hours to get a print close to something I'm happy with, so I usually work with just one negative per session. Mind you, it's still quicker than all the mucking about I used to do in Photoshop!
 
The comments in the Durst thread reminded me of this one, and I see that there don't appear to have been any other comments on enlargers.

In an ideal world, I would probably prefer a de Vere, but one of their big selling points has been the ease of adjusting focus from baseboard level when the enlarger head is at the top of the column. My LPL 7451 has an optional extra that attaches to the focusing knob at the enlarger head then passes down to baseboard level with a knob at that end, and transfers the motion back up, which means that I don't need extra long arms to focus. I have no idea how easy it would be to source this now, as I bought it new and they may no longer be made... There is/was a couple of LPL 5x4s, and the basic difference between the 7451 and 7452 was the column height. Mine is the shorter one, and even so with the limited headroom in my darkroom (and the height of the work top) I can't raise the head to the top, although the column fits in. The 7452 wouldn't even fit.
 
Well @Woodsy when you get to the Lakes you must be more than half way to Dollar... :)
 
Transport could be a problem as they are fairly large....

I'd rather like one, but I wouldn't be able to fit it in without raising the ceiling in my darkroom (and probably widening the stairs to get it up them).

Edit to add - the enlarger is in Dollar, which used to be in Scotland.
 
You could get some sunset shots over Arran while you're picking it up!
 
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