Darkroom Timer Q

[deirdre]

Is a Gossen Digisix appropriate for darkroom timing? I haven't bought one yet, so I don't know if it is lit. It'd just be kinda cool to also be able to use it in a darkroom as well as as a meter.

 

[ItsReallyDarren]

Is this just as a timer to count down the seconds or minuets in the darkroom or is to be used with an enlarger? A typical darkroom timer functions as a timer as well as the on/off switch for the enlarger. Dial in 30 seconds on the timer, press the activate button and the enlarger turns on with the timer counting down. When the timer reaches 0 it shuts off the enlarger.

You could always use a timer and operate the enlargers on/off switch by hand but getting consistent results might become difficult. Plus burning and dodging might become time constrained as well.

 

[deirdre]

The enlarger already has a super-duper timer. I'm looking more for something where I can time the tray time for developing and fixing (prints) because I can't see the existing clock in the school's darkroom. It's either behind me or too far away to see the second hand.

 

[ChrisN]

I use a Paterson Triple Timer over my dev trays, with the three timers set for the appropriate times for each step (plus time for the print to drain between steps). Another solution is a cheap stopwatch on a cord around your neck or hanging from your belt. You should suggest to the school that they need to put a big kitchen clock closer to the trays.

How are you liking the darkroom work? 🙂

 

[oftheherd]

Anything that provides seconds counting will work. However, I would worry where you will place it so that you or other students don't accidently knock it into one of the chemical trays. You also have to worry about the intensity of the viewscreen. Wall or shelf mounted clocks can be purchased very cheaply from Target, Walmart, or a thrift store. You might prefer to look in to one of those.

And like ChrisN, I am curious. How do you like the darkroom work?

 

[deirdre]

I really like the darkroom work. I wasn't sure I would.

I'm really not a black and white lover, to be honest, but I enjoy the process and I really do appreciate the tonality one can get. I mostly took the class because it filled in some gaps: I was a cinema major, so most of my work was on positive filmstock, and I was always a big slide lover for stills. So I never really did black and white before. It's a different look. Some of the photos I've taken, I think of them as "color" shots and miss the tones. I've taken a few, though, where the black and white really is the look. (like this one)

I'll see if I can find the Paterson timer locally -- that one would be ideal. I was planning to wear the digisix on a cross-body lanyard, which would keep it out of the chemistry trays.

 

[MartinP]

I'd suggest going to the supermarket and getting a couple of cooking timers, for almost no cost. Set one for your developer time and the other for the fix.

If you have any sort of programmable phone, or a personal-organiser, then there will also be freebie stopwatch apps for those.

If there are some decent secondhand shops where you live then you could look for a Durst Coltim which is a sort of clockwork cooking timer thing, with multiple stages. Only useful if you can find one for cheap as the digital cooking-timers do the same job.

 

[dap]

I use an old tape recorder...I made a tape w/ audible alerts that coincide w/ when I remove the print from the developer/stop/fixer etc. I rewind it after every series of prints and press play as soon as a new print enters the developer. I got the idea from APUG...it works really well.

The same thing could be done using mp3s and an ipod.

 

[silverbullet]

When I started (again) my film developing, a russian Poljot chronograph was my time keeper. Had very small indizes for the minutes.....;-(

BUT my iPhone 3G and the Mass.Dev. application does a great job.
In seconds I'm in the right film/developer/time and moving informations and off it goes.

Very big numbers, a clicking noise and a 'breathing' movement of the time numbers when an agitation should be done. For the money it's excellent!

http://www.digitaltruth.com/devchart.php

even the color of the numbers can be changed due to the emulsions properties.....

 

[deirdre]

The same thing could be done using mp3s and an ipod.

iPods, except the shuffle, have a white light issue.

 

[deirdre]

I'd suggest going to the supermarket and getting a couple of cooking timers, for almost no cost. Set one for your developer time and the other for the fix.

This is more stuff to haul around, though. I would already have a light meter with me. I was also trying not to bother other people in the darkroom with a particularly loud timer.

If you have any sort of programmable phone, or a personal-organiser, then there will also be freebie stopwatch apps for those.

Which have bright white light when they go off. Doesn't work for that context. I have both an iPhone and an iPad, but even at their dimmest settings, it's a good way to fog paper.

 

[dap]

iPods, except the shuffle, have a white light issue.

taping a red filter or rubylith over the ipod screen should be able to solve that problem.

 

[deirdre]

taping a red filter or rubylith over the ipod screen should be able to solve that problem.

The current models have a touch interface, though, so I'm not sure it'd work through rubylith. If someone's tried it already, I'm interested. I do have an older nano somewhere around here, but I'm not sure the beep would be audible in a darkroom. I remember it being anemic. I'd misplaced the darn thing a year ago though.

 

[deirdre]

After talking it over with my local photo store, they had a good point: electronic devices like the Gossen and an iPod really aren't designed for wet and may be fragile in a darkroom environment.

I bought the Gossen, and I also bought the Paterson triple timer. Sure, I could have gotten a kitchen timer for less $, but then I'd have to go find one I liked, which would mean another errand when I was already time-pressed. The Paterson was there, so I got it.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Chris101]

... electronic devices like the Gossen and an iPod really aren't designed for wet ...

They got that right! Last week, to my complete horror, I discovered that I had left my Digisix in my pants pocket and run it through the wash. Of course, when I tried it, it was dead, dead, dead.

So I took it apart, blew off the droplets, blew out the tiny holes in the display, and put all the parts - and the battery - in an open envelope. I then popped the envelope into a vaccuum oven, and gave it ten minutes at -28 inches with the heat off.

I took it out, put it back together, installed the same battery, and BAM! Works like new.

I'm glad you got your devices. The difficulty of changing settings on the Gossen would make it a lousy darkroom timer for enlarging. Maybe OK for developing, where you use the same setting over and over.