Category: Getting Stuff

About vendors of photo and art materials, training, you know, stuff.

A Simple Question

Posted on Posted in Getting Stuff, overnight notes, pipeline, the Lab

One simple question, a shopping one. Which enlarger should I buy?

What have other established photographers used?

Links [2024]

simple update

links: http://www.jollinger.com/photo/enlargers/

—-> http://store.khbphotografix.com/home.php

— >https://glennview.com/nav.htm

>>Who made the best/first/… maybe check the patent database;;

patents: darkroom enlargers

My first enlarger was a Kodak. It was equipped with Ektar lenses. My selection was easy because it was the enlarger mentioned in a dye-transfer guide. And, I found a used one at a local camera store (DC). Next, came a Durst, then and Omega D2. At places I worked, were Fotars, Agfas, Dursts, Omegas and an occasional Leitz. Each had something worthwhile, while each had something missing. In a professional custom lab, there is no reason to keep testing enlargers: those that work well become the central tool. If it doesn’t meet all needs, modify it. In my present darkroom, I have several Omega and Beseler enlargers. One Omega has a Durst carrier system added. With point light, several types of condensers, and diffusion lampheads; I can print using additive, subtractive, split filter — any which way I want.

There was a time that photopaper was slow,varied by batch. It didn’t print the same month to month– reprints were risky. Additional consideration in the best printing labs, the enlargers had to print the same color, the same contrast across a divided order. That is something the home brew doesn’t encounter. Home cooks never have to make the same thing 50 times a night. Professionals do.

Commercial chefs have many knives, can cook on many fires, are expected to produce peak performance order after order.

The light, the lens, the space are primary tools — choose those you will use. An enlarger is a holder, a jig for the light , lens, and film stage.

Deciding the type of LampHead affects the contrast range of the negatives you make:

A condenser is an optical lens that renders a divergent light beam from a point light source into a parallel or converging beam to illuminate an object

overnight: Exploration

Posted on Posted in Getting Stuff, minimum daily requirement

Write to the honest self; use, find a prompt.

>>cutting off their exploration cuts off yours.. as you deny their effort & imagination, you castrate yours.

doubts himself, his credentials are forged — doubting even his family’s value, he inflates them as well.

We weren’t having the same conversation

>>It shows on screen better than in hand. The scan(display) is improvement, better than the print. Form of display = interpretation.

>>solarizing began as error and misnomer.

More knowledge that passes thru than… Film as L* factor of imagery.

Donnie’s (link) house… I had money, he had a maid. Different levels of wealth in childhood

HC-110. The brand is dropped, destroyed — destroyed in the fine photos — forever a hobby horse, fed on bales of lies.

Rambling Walead — someone finds (your, my) the past. He reads the shoreline of the 70s sea.

My books: how they wound up on the stack, but title before author sets me every time.

eu darkroom equipment

overnight: 4.17.24

Posted on Posted in as written, Getting Stuff, overnight notes

overnights are collected strips of paper. from blackboards around the house. notes to self.

what girls know:WGK
read the funkin label:RTFL
. . . 
because people can't clean negatives--
rats
cats
bobcats
--rinse, repeat...until empty. the shampoo method

Mouse urine contains Lepto*[various] — consider cleaning with a C41(stablizer) final rinse, such as from Bellini or… checking Freestyle found two inexpensive vendors: Bellini and Cinestill.

  • hexamine (CAS 100-97-0) & photoflo (contains ethylene glycol)
  • 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-one (CAS 2634-33-5) & diethylene glycol CAS 111-46-6

I would try the Bellini. Following that onto the web gets me to a list of darkroom vendors carrying their products.

Bellini Vendors… Spring 2024

Richard Avedon rotated into my notes, so, here:

  • Camera in studio: Sinar P1; Deardorff in field
  • 360mm Lenses. either a 360 mm f/6.8 Schneider Symmar-S or a 360 mm f/6.3 Fujinon-W . Prices just now at between $500 and $700.

I’ve written about Ciba..patents[US 2,322,084] and formulas/ Maybe I will update them[cibachrome. sunsetters, hikers and weekend walkers]. Also, I have finished tones and toning.

sidenote: Laser or LED exposures can overlap slightly as they scan. This causes an effect similar to pre-flashing paper. THIS IS TERMED OVERSCAN. emulsion makers have altered their coatings to account /correct for this.

sidenote: silver step tablets don’t give same results as dye step tablets of same step sizes and ranges. They differ in the high densities. There is a term for this also.