Dream dark/develop room

[KevinVH]

Guys

as some of you may know, I'm currently living in Belgium, but moving to Ecuador, South America in a month.

I have a three bedroom duplex apartment, and I'm willing to dedicate 1 room to my developing/scanning/editing room. It has to be said that I don't want to print my negatives with an enlarger, I just want to develop the negatives, select them on a lighttable, and scan them onto my computer, then print them at home.

What I had in mind is the following:

A big desk, with brown glass bottles to hold the chemicals, a nice homemade lighttable, a nice scanner and printer, and some other small stuff.

How would you guys build your own darkroom if place and money didn't really matter? So this topic was meant to get some ideas that I maybe have overlooked, and to see what you guys think of as a dream workspace for everthing from developing to printing, albeit digital, or with an enlarger.

 

[finguanzo]

If you only want to develop film, you dont need a darkroom... I develop in my kitchen usually.. Just need a changing bag to spool the film..

 

[FrankS]

Go all-out.

 

[KevinVH]

I know I don't need a darkroom. Right now in Belgium I go into my bathroom which has no windows, wind the film on the spool, put in in the development tank, and then go to my room were I poor in all the chems.

 

[gb hill]

You need a lightroom not a darkroom. For what you wish to do all you need is a good sized changing bag. Perhaps one of those nice tent sized ones that will allow plenty of room for your stuff & hands. A good ink jet printer like an Epson is huge & will take up a lot of space. Then you will need room for your computer & scanner. I like your idea & think this is the way to go in this film/digital age.🙂

 

[KevinVH]

Ok guys, I'm not only asking for suggestions for my situation, although I really appreciate them. Let yourselves go, describe your ideal light/darkroom for everyone else here.

 

[crispy12]

Darkroom is completely unnecessary if not for printing! Save your self the headache and get a changing bag.

My dream darkroom has two floor mounted large format compatible enlargers, a built in large metal sink and ample space for washing drying prints. My computer and scanners would be in a different room (study room?) with a personal assistant to scan it all for me 😀

 

[Brian Puccio]

I want a machine that I place my film in and in half an hour get it back developed. It needs to handle E6 primarily (pull 1 and push 1 and 2), Adox CMS 20 (both as negative and as positive, something I'm still working on) and Neopan (again, both neg and pos). I have no desire to sit there shaking around a tank all evening.

Bonus points if it comes with a huge stash of film and Gepe mounts.

 

[KM-25]

Sounds like you need a Jobo ATL 3...


As for the OP, not sure what to tell you since I would not bother to shoot black and white film if I did not wet print it which I do. The difference between a print done on Ilford Warmtone Fiber and some digi-product is night and day and I work with several galleries in which we have done lots of side by side.

On another note, up until now I have only been able to print up to 20x24 but have in the past few weeks acquired the very best mural enlarging lenses and built a cool portable horizontal mural enlarger with partial view camera movements for critical alignments. Once my whole system is figured out I will be doing 40x50's like Clyde Butcher and could even go as large as 56x90.

My .05£ for the day...

I want a machine that I place my film in and in half an hour get it back developed. It needs to handle E6 primarily (pull 1 and push 1 and 2), Adox CMS 20 (both as negative and as positive, something I'm still working on) and Neopan (again, both neg and pos). I have no desire to sit there shaking around a tank all evening.

Bonus points if it comes with a huge stash of film and Gepe mounts.

 

[newsgrunt]

For starters, a 3'x10' stainless sink for printing, not sure it would be against a wall or an island for two sided printing. If an island, it would have a shelf about 12" wide running overhead the length of the sink for misc stuff. A separate 3x6 sink for the Jobo and other film processing.

A solid bench, maybe 10', for the Focomat IIc, Devere 504 and timers etc.. A space for the Devere 5108. Ceiling would be 8 or 9' high with Thomas safelights. Walls would be gray or dull yellow (like Saunders easels).

Would also need bench space in the darkroom for the print and film dryers.

Proper anti fatigue matts along the sinks and enlarger bench. A tic toc timer or metronome as well for dodging and burning.

An L trap door for in and out and good air flow.

and wifi and sound system.

 

[NeeZee]

A professional developing machine for c41 colur negatives + a nice enlarger with top lenses, tons of chemicals, paper and portra 400 and lots of space of course. If money indeed didn't matter... 🙁

 

[newsgrunt]

and a huge fridge and freezer for film and paper 😉