Darkroom Diary

I wanted to post that image of my current tempering set up. What you see there is a 11x14 mat water bath with the thermostatically controlled seed mat, and my tray of A130 on top of it. By setting the seed mat to 80F I was able to heat my A130 to about 70-71F. Perfect for a 2 minute development time.

I've got my Ilford RC MG V offsets nailed, contrast coming soon. I think I may re-do my Fiber Classic offsets on 1/12 increments.

For this round on contrast calibrations I'm going to put the step wedge in my enlarger for bigger patches. I'll use my densitometer to create the full curves so they're as accurate as possible. More to come!

NortheastPhotographic said:

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That set up looks very awkward:
Here is a photo of my homebrew heat pad and a second photo with an 11 x14 tray sitting on the heat pad with the probe in the tray, keeps developer within .5C. I love it!

markbau said:

That set up looks very awkward:
Here is a photo of my homebrew heat pad and a second photo with an 11 x14 tray sitting on the heat pad with the probe in the tray, keeps developer within .5C. I love it!

View attachment 243318 View attachment 243319

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Yes when I tried it just under my tray the heat transfer was non-existent. It's possible that the ambient temp of my lab at that time was too cold also, or that your fermentation mat is simply much warmer. I looked up your model on Amazon and it lists as not being available. My search continues... In the meantime though my solution may be inelegant, it works.

NortheastPhotographic said:

Yes when I tried it just under my tray the heat transfer was non-existent. It's possible that the ambient temp of my lab at that time was too cold also, or that your fermentation mat is simply much warmer. I looked up your model on Amazon and it lists as not being available. My search continues... In the meantime though my solution may be inelegant, it works.

Click to expand...

I'm guessing that having the rack under the source of warmth may reduce efficiency.

Great day in the dorkroom! I spent the first half of the day finally light proofing the garage. No easy task. At times I felt like Donald Duck trying to plug holes in a sinking boat. However, eventually I got to a passable result after going through quite a bit of gaffers tape and black plastic sheeting.

Then I finished my calibration of Ilford MG V RC for the Analyser Pro. I am even more confident of those numbers than I am of my Fiber Classic numbers, so I might do a 2nd round refinement of that. I was planning on putting the step wedge in my glass 4x5 carrier and enlarging the patches to make a full curve....then I remembered I don't have a 4x5 enlarging lens. So the contact prints were fine.

With calibration finished I got to business. I started by making an 8x10 contact print for a friend from a recently processed Tri-X negative. I used the analyser by taking a shadow reading through an area of the negative closest to film base, then dialing the exposure down until the LED indicated the darkest tone. I still used a test strip and ended up dialing down the exposure 2/3rds of a stop (look at me thinking with F stop times already). Looks beautiful! Though I am beginning to rue the day I purchased a Photographer's Formulary contact printing frame. Those little snaps are painful...

Then I got to enlarging my own stuff. I recently tried out some Pancro 400 in both XTol R and 510-Pyro. The 510 Pyro caused some weird mottling on the Pancro, but the XTol was clean. Processing times for Pancro are wildly long. 18 minutes with XTol and 22 with 510 Pyro. The image looks good, but I can't say it's much better than HP5. In fact I can't really think of any reason why I would buy more Pancro... But I have 7 or 8 rolls left in 120 so I'll use it.

I'm also getting more confident in knowing what the LEDs are really indicating, it's all about where you meter. Overall a good day!