Basic Darkroom supplies for beginner?

[sky.pesce]

Hello APUG!
I am a high school student who has shot digital for a while, and would like to get into B&W film. I recently bought a set of darkroom equipment, consisting of the following:
Beseler 67C w/ negative holder, lens, lensboard, etc.
adjustable easel, up to about 11x14
a few safelights
a few Paterson tanks
a few thermometers
Gralab analog timer
assorted 8x10 trays, bottles, measuring cups
If necessary, I have access to precision chemistry labware, including graduates and scales.
I am planning on converting the spare bedroom in our house (about 10x12ft, but no running water unfortunately) into my darkroom, so I will have plenty of space to work.

I am going to be shooting 35mm film, and would rather not buy bulk-roll film (at least not until I decide that I am actually serious about analog photography). Even though I have 8x10 trays already, I think I'd rather buy another set of trays and start with a smaller paper, probably 5x7, to save money until I am good at printing.

Can anyone recommend a good, very frugal film/chemistry and paper/chemistry combination?
In addition, is there any other equipment I need/should have?

Thanks, and I look forward to becoming a part of this great community!

 

[Chris Lange]

Where are you in NY state? I split my time between NYC and Columbia County at the moment...welcome to APUG

 

[heterolysis]

Sounds like you will have a nice setup.

For very frugal film, look up Arista. If you decide to stick with it, go the bulk loading route. I love Kentmere 100 and got 100' for $35. For very frugal chemistry, stand develop in Rodinal 1+100 or something, use a water stop, and then buy a fix and store and use it until it's dead. Fix and stop can be used for paper too, but you'll have to buy a separate paper developer. RC paper is cheaper and better for beginners anyway.

I wouldn't say it's necessary to buy any more trays because you can keep and reuse the chemistry.

 

[jp498]

You'll want some negative storage, such as printfile pages, and some clothespins and a wire to hang film/paper up to dry on. A set of variable contrast filters would good too if you want to print different contrasts on variable contrast paper (pretty much a necessity unless you're a film shooting and developing god or don't care about your contrast)

You can use the 8x10 trays for 5x7 paper no problem.

Take a look at the seagull brand paper at B&H; real good stuff and inexpensive. Even better deal if you qualify for the EDU program at B&H.
I'd suggest some d76 for film developer and use it 1:1, Get some TF5 or TF4 fixer. Mix up half for film and the other half for paper. It's re-usable and you don't need stop bath before it (just water) or hypo clear after. Nothing wrong with dektol for paper developing. Just mix your dry chemicals outdoors to keep the darkroom and lungs clean. I like to use 91% rubbing alcohol (from walmart) for cleaning negatives if necessary too. No water spots with that stuff. Get some distilled water for mixing up your chemistry. Label the chemicals good.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to APUG

In addition to B&H check out FreeStyle, one of APUG's Sponsors.

 

[fretlessdavis]

Dektol or Ilford MG Developer for your paper developer, and it's hard to go wrong with an HC-110 clone (Legacy Pro 110, HC-110. Ilford HC). I caution against Rodinal for 35mm if you want to use faster film-- it can get really grainy. D76 1:1 and 1:3 work great, too. When I was new, I measured out partial weights of D76 Powder and mixed as I went. Contrary to what I learned after I did that, I got even, consistent results through the whole bag. The open powder lasted almost a year double bagged no problem.

I started on Adorama house brand paper, and it wasn't fun at first. Too fast, too much contrast. The Arista rebadged Foma stuff would be great-- I think 100 sheets of 5x7 for $20 bucks or so (RC).

I second the Alkaline Fixer-- pretty cheap, and no stop bath (smelly) to worry about.

I HIGHLY recommend getting PhotoFlo right off that bat, too. I didn't, and scrubbing water spots off negatives is no fun. I don't use 91% rubbing alcohol because of the water content, but rather a denatured alcohol meant for cleaning paint brushes and such. Works great, but it's better to not have water spots in the first place.

As far as cheap film, in 35mm, I really like the Arista Ultra.Edu 100 (Fomapan 100) but don't really like the faster speeds in it. FP4+ became my favorite, because Adorama and B&H have a 3 pack of 36 exp rolls of it for $12, which keeps the price way down. As mentioned before, Kentmere is pretty good, too. HP5+ or Tri-x if you want something faster, though.

 

[MattKing]

Welcome to APUG. I bought my 67C new when I was in university and it served me well for a long, long time.

I would caution against economizing too much with chemicals. Most are quite inexpensive anyways, and when you are starting out ease of use will trump economy. As you get more experienced, your volumes will go up, and making choices based more on economy will start to make more sense.

For me, a good set of chemicals is as follows:
FOR FILM:
1) Kodak HC-110 developer;
2) Kodak Indicator Stop Bath;
3) Kodak Rapid Fix, or Kodak liquid fixer or Ilford Rapid Fix or Ilford Hypam;
4) Kodak Hypo Clearing agent; and
5) Kodak PhotoFlo.

FOR PRINTS (RC Paper):
1) Kodak Dektol or Kodak PolyMax T;
2) Ilford Ilfostop;
3) Kodak Rapid Fix, or Kodak liquid fixer or Ilford Rapid Fix or Ilford Hypam.

In just about all cases, there are Ilford equivalents for Kodak materials, and vice versa.

There are also other manufacturers and suppliers that make excellent products. It is hard to recommend them here, because availability varies by location.

It may seem like it would make more sense economically to buy larger quantities rather than smaller ones, but it may make more sense for a beginner to buy one or two of a smaller quantity than one of a larger quantity. That being said, I buy the larger size bottles of fixer.

For film, and while it is still available, I think Freestyle's Arista Premium 400 24 exposure rolls are a great idea, given that it is almost certainly Kodak Tri-X. No one ever went wrong choosing Tri-X. Here is the link: http://www.freestylephoto.biz/192244-Arista-Premium-400-ISO-35mm-x-24-exp.

For paper, Ilford products are uniformly excellent. You might want to start though with Kentmere (made by Ilford) or one of the house brand papers that B & H or Adorama carry. I'd suggest buying a box or package of at least twenty 8x10 sheets and using an inexpensive paper cutter to cut that into either two 5x8 or four 4x5 sheets.

And most important - have fun!

 

[removed account4]

sprint photo chemistry is inexpensive, liquid and easy to mis ( 1:9 for everyting except for film fix its 2:8 )
when the stop bath indicates everything is spent, but not before, its a "system" and it works with EVERY FILM and EVERY PAPER very well ...
( its the developer &c that a lot of high school and college darkrooms use )

if they don't sell it in a store near you, you can buy it online from their website, they sell convenient 1L bottles ... and bigger sizes if needed

times &c for every film out there are on their website
as well as other info ...

http://sprintsystems.com/
Dead Link Removed

you can probably find cheap 5x7 trays at the dollar store
in the tupperware aisle.
i have 3 or 4 of them and use them for processing film ( sheets ) and prints
if it 's a smaller than 8x10 print .. few bucks each.

good luck
john

ps welcome to apug

 

[nworth]

Trays for 5X7 take only about half the chemicals that 8X10 trays take, so getting a set may be a good idea. I found some trays made by Rubbermaid (probably rubber filled polystyrene, possibly filled PET) in a hardware store a while back. They were for food use and were cheap. Look around and you may find something, but avoid soft polyetylene. Precision measuring gear is not needed. What you got with your kit is probably fine, but you can supplement it with kitchen utensils (dedicated to darkroom use) if you find them inadequate. 35mm can be rather fussy about developers, although most things work. I would favor Xtol of Ilford DD-X over HC-110; they give a considerably better image. D-76 is another favorite. Liquid concentrates are handy, especially for small volume use, but mixing up a stock solution from powders is also an option. With only half gallon and gallon sizes, solutions from powders are likely to go bad before you use the full amount (unless you shoot and print a lot), but the cost is really quite small despite the waste. For fixer, get a liquid rapid fixer concentrate. It's easy to mix, fairly cheap, and lasts a long time. For a paper developer, there are several liquid concentrates out there that work well. You can also mix up Dektol from powder into a stock solution that will last a couple of months. You may get real picky as you get to be a better printer, but almost any print developer will work for learning. If you mix solutions from powder, you will need storage bottles. Two liter plastic pop bottles work well. Pick up big, cheap clock to hang on the wall near your processing area. You will use it to time processing. I didn't notice an enlarging timer in your list of equipment. While not absolutely necessary, it is a very handy device. When you get around to it, try to get one that beeps every second - very handy during dodging and burning. A paper towel dispenser (or roll holder) is also handy. You will also need a very large waste basket. For film, the Arista house name from Freestyle is cheaper than most and has good quality. When I was in college, I bulk loaded my 35mm film and saved a quite a bit of money.

 

[fotch]

Hello sky.pesce and welcome to APUG.

 

[pbromaghin]

Wow. Great advice here. Especially Matt King and jnanian. I wish I had this when I was starting out. You're a lucky guy. You're getting world class advice. All the best to you, and I hope you stick to analogue.

 

[dorff]

Good advice so far, and nothing I don't agree with.

One of your battles will be with dust on negatives. So you will want something like a fine watercolour brush to remove the bits you don't get blown off. An anti-static lens cleaning cloth will also help. Incidentally, a great aid in combatting dust, is to line the darkroom walls with black polyethylene sheets, the kind that painters use as drip covers for carpets. It is not necessary to get something as thick as a pond liner. The plastic will be statically charged and will attract dust in the air. Then once in a while you can just wipe it down with a wet cloth.

If you do not have a grain focus finder, I recommend getting one. Some negatives are harder to focus by naked eye than you might think.

A contact printer will be useful, but not strictly necessary. It is nice to be able to contact print a film at once in a neat arrangement like the contact printer will give you.

Get a few thin, strong wires. The kind that florists use in flower arrangements are good. Then you can attach various shapes and sizes of cardboard to the tip for dodging. Also get a few sheets of solid cardboard and make a few standard hole sizes and shapes, e.g. round in three or more sizes, and long rectangular in a few sizes etc. One hole per sheet! I took the sides of a cereal box, and it is perfect for the job. You are going to use this for burning in. You can of course refine the sizes and shapes, and make adjustable apertures as well.

If you are going to work for a while before washing your prints, I must strongly advise you to get at least one extra tray which is filled with water. After your print is fixed, transfer it to the water tray. Otherwise the fixer will start to degrade the thin parts of your print, and it will lose highlight detail. It is subtle, but a print that is left in fixer for an hour or more will suffer some damage. After an hour or so, transfer all your finished prints to the bathroom or wherever you plan to wash them. Make sure to change the clean water bath too, otherwise it will load up on fixer.

 

[mr rusty]

As others have said, don't be too frugul with chemistry. Go for something that is easy to obtain, not one off bargains. The reason is you will soon find you waste far less paper because your chosen film and chemistry is consistent. If you keep changing/experimenting with different film and chems I guarantee your wasted paper costs will exceed any chemical savings, particularly as you are learning the "craft". You will find it far more satisfying once you find you are printing consistently and can then start manipulating the exposures/dodoging/burning to improve your prints. After a decent time using one selection of film/chemistry, try something new and you will then quickly see how that differs from what you have become used to.

With regard to reusing chems, I find Ilford paper developers last a week if rebottled after use, even though for absolute ultimate performance it is best to mix fresh every session (I just cannot see a difference between a mix used for a few prints on day one and the same mix used a week later). Stop can be re-used until its indicator shows up or no longer smells (unless you use citric acid). Test fixer using clipped film ends and discard when clearing time is twice fresh clearing time.

 

[mgb74]

A few points I'll add to the discussion:

Frugal is a function of how much film you plan to develop. For example, D-76 is economical when you buy powder to mix 1 gal but not in smaller quantities. But if you can't use that 1 gal in a reasonable time, and it goes bad, you just wasted developer and money. So make sure you can use up the quantity you mix or purchase.

Some liquid developers are "legendary" in their ability to keep over a long period of time; HC-110 and Rodinal are examples. Rodinal was out of production for a while but is now being produces by another manufacturer.

A word of caution about HC-110. It used to be available in 1/2 liter bottles and many of us were used to buying it that way. Recently, Kodak eliminated the 1/2L bottle and it sells now in 1 liter bottles. That's a lot of developer unless you're shooting regularly. Freestyle sells their version of HC110 in pint bottles, but I don't know that it has the same keeping qualities of HC110 as the viscosity is different.

Finally, you may come across chemicals from someone's long defunct darkroom. Powder chemicals in original packaging that haven't been opened are usually OK. Opened bottles of HC110 and Rodinal (assuming they haven't been diluted) are usually OK but should be tested. (Of course the problem with testing is that you have to know what to expect.) Anything mixed should be avoided unless used very recently with good results.