Newbie Setting up a darkroom - help please

p.giannakis

Pan Giannakis
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Jul 8, 2008
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Hi everyone,

I am a complete novice with this so please bear with me.

I found a Rolleimat Universal enlarger on a charity shop. It came with a Componon-s 50mm lens for a total of £7 - i thought i had nothing to lose.

Got it home and i am trying to set it up and start printing. I know there are loads of things to learn but i haven't managed to find a manual yet.

Does anyone know where to get one? It came with a Durst timer.
 
If you google rolleimat universal manual, you will find some. Prepare to pay more than you paid for the enlarger 🙂
On the other hand, if it’s complete, it should not be too difficult to start without it.
Nice lens.
Regards,
Frank
 
Thanks everyone. Part of my frustration was the fact that I couldn't make the enlarger work - seems that the light bulb had perished, with a new one works fine.

Any recommendations for paper developer and fixer? I will not be doing a lot of printing so I would like a developer with long shelf life.
 
To my disappointment, it is a Componar 50 f/3.5 lens. I will keep an eye open for a better lens thought.


The Componar was a lower priced lens, I think it had four elements and the Componon-S had 6. Another good one to look for is Nikon's EL-Nikkor lenses. They were incredibly good. Most enlarging lenses are really cheap used now, even high-end ones like the Componon-S and the EL-Nikkors, so definately look for a good one.
 
Is the lens clean? If so, it is the last thing you should worry about, IMO.

Do you have contrast filters kit with it? If not and you still want to print, you will need to find single contrast grade paper.

Do you have focusing loupe? Trays, tongs, safe light and easel?

Any fresh paper developer and fresh fixer without hardener will do.
 
I'll try and write a bit more tonight, but let me second what Chris is saying about El-Nikkors, they rock. Most medium format and smaller (35mm) enlargers use a 39mm thread so swapping it out shouldn't be an issue. The 50/2.8 is my favorite, thought I had very good luck with an Ektar lens too. f2.8 makes it much easier to focus than an f4, but they cost more. Remember, the quality of your enlarging lens directly impacts every print you make regardless of what lens you took it with.

Over on this side of the pond El-Nikkors go pretty cheap. Not sure what you have like CraigsList on that side, but there's often great buys to be had if you keep your eyes open.

B2 (;->
 
The most important thing is to have a space were you can install your small darkroom. If there are windows, these need thick curtains, also when you only will work there at night.

Place the enlarger on a solid table.

You'll need another table where you can place the three trays: developer, water (or stop bath) and fixer. You'll need a set of pincets too.

Take care the place is not too dusty.

As a starter use only resin coated paper, easy to dry and good enough for a beginner.

Good luck!

Erik.
 
Thanks every one

Moved in a bigger house, thinking to convert part of the garage into a dark-room. There is a kitchen sink and work surfaces. Door to the house is light tight - main garage door needs improvement.

Got the enlarger, the trays, the safe light and the tongs so far. The Componar is in great condition. Hoping to get into it soon.
 
It's very important to have a good quality lens. Anything of low quality in the light path will degrade the image. The Componar is a good inexpensive lens when stopped down to f8 but not in the same class as the EL Nikkor, Fujinon EX, Rodenstock Rodagon and the Companon S. As mentioned the old Ektar lenses and the Wollensak enlarging lenses were premium lenses in their day and still good lenses. These were pro quality lenses in the 50's into the 70's. I apprenticed in the early 70's in a master photographers commercial studio. We used Wollensak enlarging lenses and may have had an ektar or two. They were excellent performers with both color and B&W.

I primarily have EL Nikors in 50, 80, 105, 150mm but have several Rodagon in 80, 135 and 210mm. These are stellar performers. I also have a 180mm Companion that's my primary lens on my 5x7 Durst 138.

Unfortunately Fujinon lenses have been hard to find because they were never officially imported. Without a doubt the Fujinon EX lenses are my favorite enlarging lenses. I had a set but was moving to a location where I didn't have space for a darkroom and sold them. I wound up not moving to that location and built an even better darkroom and not found the FL's that I use. Second choice and very close in performance are the EL Nikons.

It's my understanding the first version Nikons are a slightly different formulation than the newer design. I have some of both and can't see any difference.

None of the above are expensive lenses.
 
You’ll want a decent grain focuser.
Seems like there are a lot of el nikkors out there.
Should be easy enough to find one.
A table top paper cutter is nice as it makes life easy in the half darkness.
Start with some variable contrast paper to get a feel for how it works.
Test strips are where one gets their chops early on so.... strip away!
 
With variable contrast paper you'll need a set of filters. With those you'll have endless possibilities: you can use one filter for a print, but you can use also more filters if neccessary: a part of the exposure with filter 00 for the light grays and another part of the exposure with filter 2 1/2 for the normal tones, etc. etc.

Erik.
 
Thanks everyone, loads of important suggestions already. I went online and bought a componon 50 f4 for £5 - it is the older 6 elements version. I thought for this price I can't go wrong.
 
I finally got round to setting up a darkroom recently - having gone through a lab in the past. It had to be cheap, fit within practical constraints (a corner of my bedroom), and ideally be able to process my favourite formats. I finished up making some blinds to go in my windows.

By the sound of it the developer and fixer have been recommended above, and you've got a couple of good lenses - to be fair given the price of good enlarger lenses there's no point having anything rubbish, but, even the componar lens will be fine for medium enlargements provided it's in decent condition.

You will be able to use variable contrast paper without filters, but they do go together, and you'd be wasting the potential of the paper if printing without any available.. particularly useful for saving thin or over contrasty negatives. Once you get into contrast filters they can be used for split contrast printing - which I'm just in the process of starting - for bringing out the best of the light and dark bits in a picture.
You could go with fixed contrast paper but it means having more money and space tied up in paper, especially in a size range.

Perhaps the most uninteresting and costly side to printing is the other stuff. for contact sheets I just borrow a piece of glass from one of our coffee tables - practically, in 35mm (and often MF) they're generally done for finding out which negatives to print properly rather than to display.

Containers, measuring jugs, trays, etc.. I bought a cheap plastic set of stationary draws for a compact developing tray alternative - works for up to 8x10, I've drums for bigger stuff. The accordion chemical storage bottles look great for storing chemicals - some people have used glass marbles to fill up the air space inside bottles.

Measuring jugs, you can just mix a bit of developer with water and put the paper in until it looks roughly right. It's much better to mix to a consistent ratio, so the consistency will allow you to get a proper feel for the process, it's especially important if you decide to process prints in drums.

Grain focuser/magnifiers, a few here would probably cringe at the old cheapy next to my enlarger, had never seen that brand, poor but it works just well enough.. There are essentially 2 types, some use a ground glass as a focusing screen perpendicular to the paper (these are more of an image focuser rather than a grain focuser), others use a mirror and are viewed through an eye piece - these break down into some variations.

Timer, you can use a regular on/off flip switch, or a foot switch. A stopwatch or sounding metronome (available on modern phones) can work with one of those manual switches. That combination is fine though a little monotonous and error prone if trying to focus on burning/dodging.

Safelight, you can make a good one with modern LEDs and rubylith for added insurance. Regular models can be bought fairly cheaply though, and you should do a test. Firstly a CD can be used to split the colours of light - to see what light is coming from the unit. From there, if it looks roughly alright then do a safe light paper test. There are plenty of articles describing methods.

Regards,

Jonathan
 
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