I blame my daughter!!

Donnie

Donnie

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She's doing a 2 year BTEC in photography and now in her second year they're doing a film project! AARRGH! Makes me miss my old Canon EOS5 I used to have and I've ended up buying an EOS30 from ebay to scratch the film itch!! (On saying that I'll likely get an EOS3 if one comes up at the right money)
 
Yep, doomed. Welcome to the machine.:)
 
The daughter and I were chatting last night how she was really annoyed at the tutor yesterday, said the tutor showed them about loading the film into the spools to go in the development canisters but she never showed them you had to align the two notches! She did say its one of their "sub" tutors as their main one is abroad this week.

Unfortunatly that led to a discussion about developing and setting up our own darkroom in the dining room!!!! AAARGHHHHH!
 
It's a lot easier if you make contact prints, and so don't need an enlarger; but that really requires negatives bigger than 35mm. 5x4 is a good size :rolleyes:

Blacking out a room is easier than it was when I started, with the materials you can get today.

Or why bother doing that?
 
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just get a daylight tank. I think thats what the majority of people use these days. You still need somewhere dark to load it though, My bathroom is internal so no windows which makes it ideal.
 
Daylight tanks are the way forward :)

I Have an AP tank and also a Paterson tank and the AP spool is at least three million times easier to load then the Paterson one, because the notches go all the way across the spool and you can just slide the film into the slot. The Paterson one only has two little nubs that you have to fiddle around to find, and then try and get the bloomin film under. I swear if I ever end up tied up in a little padded room, the Paterson tank will have played a big part in it!
 
We use Paterson tanks at my local college. Flipping nightmare! I have big fat fingers so its made worse by that fact. AP Tank and Spool eh? care to share where to get them?
 
i got mine from AG Photographic. This is mine, but obviously there are different sizes of tank to chose from.

I've found this photo on Google showing what I mean about sliding the film underneath:

APreel.JPG


When you shoot 120 film theres obviously a bit of a gap as the spiral is wider, but its still a heck of a lot easier!
 
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Yeah pretty sure that they are using paterson stuff at her college too from her description, like the idea of the daylight loaders i have to say so will be keeping an eye on ebay for one methinks.
 
Ah, so your daughter doesn't want to print at home then?

A changing bag is the simplest way to load in the dark if you don't have a darkroom or a changing tent.

View attachment 30564

I started out loading the older Paterson reels under the bedclothes at night.

I haven't found the Paterson reels a problem, but I've known no other.
 
StephenM said:
It's a lot easier if you make contact prints, and so don't need an enlarger; but that really requires negatives bigger than 35mm. 5x4 is a good size :rolleyes:

Blacking out a room is easier than it was when I started, with the materials you can get today.

Or why bother doing that?
Click to expand...

I'm not even trying to think about medium format yet, I'll see how the 35mm goes first and then developing my own :-) As for a darkroom tent!! £500!!! It'll cost a lot less with a bit of blackout material.

Initial thought was the dining room but if I use daylight processors for the film I can do as someone else pointed out re their bathroom, its only got one small window to blackout and I can cut a length of plywood for on top of the bath for the print developing surely
 
I think she does want to print at home, to be honest I did a little bit of it 20 years ago but then never stuck with it and kids and life got in the way, but I'd like to give it a go again.
 
Donnie said:
I'm not even trying to think about medium format yet, I'll see how the 35mm goes first and then developing my own :) As for a darkroom tent!! £500!!! It'll cost a lot less with a bit of blackout material.

Initial thought was the dining room but if I use daylight processors for the film I can do as someone else pointed out re their bathroom, its only got one small window to blackout and I can cut a length of plywood for on top of the bath for the print developing surely
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That's a good ide, I've only got one small window as well. Make a nice frame with blackout in so its easy to pop in and take out, a piece of ply for over the bath, et voila....
 
I used to use my bedroom for printing. I had a roll of light tight material (in my case, it was leather fabric from a condemned settee) that was rolled up and tied in such a way as to be concealed under the pelmet. All that was then needed was to undo two bows in the ribbon and use a few drawing pins to secure round the edges of the (wooden) window frame.

A few years later I tried the wood on the bath method, and wasn't sufficiently unclumsy to avoid problems with the wood slipping into the bath. I never risked putting the enlarger on it, and had to squat on the floor.

If you are going to use a room as a darkroom, don't forget that you will also have a door to light seal as well.
 
if theres such a thing as a folding bath stool for older people, then maybe you could use that as the legs, and cut and stick blocks to the underside of the top of the table, so it cant twist to far when in the bath
 
i find a folded up wallpaper pasting table fits across my bath perfectly, gives a nice solid support for my CPE-2 to do its thang.
 
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