Color Darkroom Tech in New York City - near by?

MingMingPhoto · Nov 30, 2021

Hi all!
I'm partnering with a guy who owns a studio with a FULL darkroom in the basement. Corona Virus put a huge hault on his situation and he lost his former lab tech. My friends and I have taken on the task of getting the darkroom back up and running but we are all young and need to hire actual experts lol.

Anyone have experience with Colenta D&D processors + Colenta and Kreonite R4-A Paper Processors. We are paying, but also nothing is finalized but we'll be lookign to get you part ownership in the darkroom it self.

Also if anyone has advice on where on the internet I can search for someone with these skills aside from this site that would be incredible. Thank you!

btaylor · Dec 1, 2021

Bob Carnie out of Toronto has a lot of experience with this type of equipment. He may be able to help steer you in the right direction. He’s a member on this forum and he is generous with his knowledge. Best of luck getting this venture off the ground!

MingMingPhoto · Dec 1, 2021

Thank you so much <3

halfaman · Dec 1, 2021

Colenta is a running company, probably the only one selling brand new film processors right now. Have you contacted them for technical assistance?

https://www.colenta.at/php/index.php/about-us

MingMingPhoto · Dec 1, 2021

halfaman said:
Colenta is a running company, probably the only one selling brand new film processors right now. Have you contacted them for technical assistance?

https://www.colenta.at/php/index.php/about-us

Hey there! Yes I know. I reached out and I’m glad about that. However we are looking for people to run the lab

MingMingPhoto said:
Thank you so much <3

jamesaz · Dec 2, 2021

There’s an outfit called Dunning in Oklahoma that was able to give me advice and some parts for a kreonite sink. It was pre-covid so I don’t know their current status but they had a guy that would come and rebuild film/paper processing machinery. Good luck.

mshchem · Dec 2, 2021

I wonder if my wife would divorce me if I wanted to install a Colenta D&D processor.

I looked at their C-41/ B&W machine, enough tanks to accommodate both processes in a single machine, neat! (Or can run as dedicated E6)

Mr Bill · Dec 2, 2021

MingMingPhoto said:
... and he lost his former lab tech. My friends and I have taken on the task of getting the darkroom back up and running but we are all young and need to hire actual experts lol.

Hi, the former lab tech is probably the first person you should contact. Aside from that I'd suggest dropping in on some local labs, and ask if they know of anyone who might be interested. They may even have someone willing to help out after hours.

Fwiw if you don't already know how to run the processes, etc., you probably won't be able to tell the difference between a real "expert" vs someone who knows just a bit more than you do. So a reference from a working lab has some value in this respect.

A commercial outfit is probably gonna need a sewering permit from the local municipality. Hopefully the studio owner is already on top of this. A regular photo lab tech is not likely to know much about this, or effluent control in general, but it's something that has to be dealt with. You can probably find information online with respect to local requirements. Fwiw this was one of the main reasons the so-called washless systems were developed, 1980s or so. No sewer hookup, so no permit needed - ALL waste was taken by licensed waste haulers.

Hopefully things will work out ok.

MingMingPhoto · Dec 9, 2021

Mr Bill said:
Hi, the former lab tech is probably the first person you should contact. Aside from that I'd suggest dropping in on some local labs, and ask if they know of anyone who might be interested. They may even have someone willing to help out after hours.

Fwiw if you don't already know how to run the processes, etc., you probably won't be able to tell the difference between a real "expert" vs someone who knows just a bit more than you do. So a reference from a working lab has some value in this respect.

A commercial outfit is probably gonna need a sewering permit from the local municipality. Hopefully the studio owner is already on top of this. A regular photo lab tech is not likely to know much about this, or effluent control in general, but it's something that has to be dealt with. You can probably find information online with respect to local requirements. Fwiw this was one of the main reasons the so-called washless systems were developed, 1980s or so. No sewer hookup, so no permit needed - ALL waste was taken by licensed waste haulers.

Hopefully things will work out ok.

Thank you, I'm going to have to find out about the sewer thing. We're in new york, but how I understood it was as long as you remove the silver from the fix everyhting is A OK.

Yes good idea though I'll try to find some local labs.

Color Darkroom Tech in New York City - near by?

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