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Darkroom Accessories: Checklist
Darkroom Checklist
| This checklist is divided into three groups. One is for basic necessities needed for developing and printing black and white. The second lists items that will make things easier. The third list is of items to round out your darkroom. |
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Necessities |
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Basically, the answer depends on a lot of different factors:
- How much do you already have?
- How much can you find for free?
- How much can you make for free?
- How much can you make, and for how much money?
- How much can you buy used?
- What can you live without?
- For Developing
- Changing Bag / Dark Room - Make a Changing Bag
- Film Tank - you need one of these, get a used one, the cheapest you can find, if it lets light in, you can process in complete darkness, or put an opaque bag over it for processing - so you can buy one that is not in good condition, or one without a lid, or just find a tube which can hold a film reel. PVC piping, with a cap secured on one end could work, you could even slide a cap on the other end so you could turn the lights on to agitate.
- Film Reel or Reels - you need one of these, to fit inside the film tank.
- Chemical Jugs (3) - these can be gallon or half gallon plastic milk containers, as long as you clean them out by rinsing them 20 times or so.
- Film - obviously you'll need to buy this, it is cheaper to 'roll your own', however there is an initial investment of about $60 to get 100' of film and a bulk film loader, to start, just buy rolls of film from the camera store, or through mail order
- Film Clips - clothes pegs (wooden or plastic, spring loaded) work just fine
- Timer - a watch or clock with a second hand is fine
- Thermometer - as long as the temperature is the same every time (within a degree or so), then the actual accuracy of the thermometer is not important, so you can get a cheap one
- Funnel - you'll need to pour chemicals, you can make this from the top of a liter soda bottle
- Mixing bucket - you'll need to mix chemicals, you can make this by cutting off the top of a gallon milk jug
- Mixing rod - you can use a long piece of hard plastic, but a glass rod would be best
- Graduates - to measure chemicals - you could use a cheap measuring cup
- Developer / Stop / Fixer - you have to buy these
- Negative Storage - don't scrimp on these, unless you don't want to keep your negatives - get glassine sleeves from a local store, or through mail order
- For Printing
- Darkroom - no way around this one, you need a darkroom, but it can be a closet, or bathroom, just so long as no light gets in the room. If you use a bathroom, you already have a counter to put things on, or you can use a sheet of plywood cut to fit over the bathtub.
- Enlarger - Used. Newspaper ads, garage sales, or a dealer.
- Negative Carrier - with the enlarger
- Lens Board - with the enlarger
- Lens - with the enlarger
- Safelight - you can process in complete darkness, or get the cheapest bulb safelight
- Print Trays - you can use baking pans for this - but don't put food in them after you've put chemicals in them - they're usually much cheaper than buying new print trays - or if you can find them used, they are usually very cheap at garage sales, etc.
- Chemical Jugs (3) - milk jugs - cleaned out by rinsing about 20 times
- Developer / Stop / Fixer - you have to buy these
- Printing Paper - you have to buy this
- Print Squeegee - this isn't totally necessary
- Dust Brush - a small fine hair paint brush will work - 1/4" or 1/2"
Visitor Comments
The comments stated below are not necessarily the opinions of Andy Hughes or DarkroomSourcehow about venting the air how about louvers for air exchange how about a hepa filter ??? all 3 are relevant i think !!!Contributed by on 2000-11-04 00:00:00
Agreed, that's why there's a page on ventilation, http://darkroomsource.com/ventilation.htmContributed by on 2000-11-06 00:00:00
eBay is a good source for a used enlarger.Contributed by on 2000-11-26 00:00:00
For color printing, would you need different materials than in the list under the basic needs for a darkroom? If so, what would you need in addition to those materials?Contributed by on 2004-06-05 23:26:10
