good big stop watch for my darkroom

[bonk]

Do you know of any good stopwatch that would be practical in a darkroom:

- big enough to see the time from far away
- easy to operate with one hand and with gloves on
- illuminated to see in bad light conditions

I don't know what else is important in a darkroom. Maybe you have some other things I should consider. I worked with a normal digital sportwatch and I must say its really nerve racking.

Oh and it shouldn't be too expensive.

 

[Sirius Glass]

GraLab timers can be picked up in APUG Classifieds for about $25US.

 

[Rick A]

Nothing of that sort, short of a Gralab 300 or such. I use digital kitchen timers with alarms. Preset the time for procedure, activate, then stop when it chimes. I have several and set one for each step. I dont need to see them, only listen.

 

[MattKing]

I'm assuming that you are asking about printing, and have safelight illumination.

A largish battery operated clock with a sweep second hand works well once you get to the point where you know the timings off by heart. Just make a mental note of what the time will need to be at the end of each step in the process when you commence that step.

Oh, and make sure that the sweep second hand itself isn't red or orange - otherwise it will be really hard to see under safelight.

 

[Rick A]

Are you in need of a timer? I may have a spare Time-O-lite or Gralab I can part with. I think my Time-o-lite is even self resetting(some are, some aren't).

 

[Worker 11811]

How about one of these?

 

[tkamiya]

What is this for?

I went though several iterations and settled on Gralab digital timers. Gralab 300 was nice but accuracy at less than 10 minutes weren't great. Digital versions aren't 100% reliable but works well enough for my needs. I believe I paid $50 or something right here on APUG.

I also use several non-lit LCD digital kitchen timers for processing. Even with my dim safe-light, I can see well enough and beeps to be used as a process timer for dev, stop, fix, etc. for paper.

 

[Adrian Twiss]

Paterson still make a very nice 60 minute timer that is quite easy to see. It has three buttons, stop, go and reset. You could also keep an eye out on ebay for a large Junghans timer. Same as the Paterson in function but wall mounted and 12 inches in diameter. I favour the Gralab timer. Very easy to use with one hand and very visible in the darkroom. The only downside, for me, was that I had to install an extra power point over the sink.

 

[SkipA]

Most darkroom processes don't need to be precisely accurate. Just consistent. I have two Gralab 300's in my darkroom for general process timing, and a Gralab 450 to control exposures on my enlarger. I've also got a Gralab 900 that I don't use. It has to be one of the weirdest and most difficult to use timers ever made. If anyone wants the 900, contact me, I'll sell it cheap. It works fine for a Rube Goldberg, but it's in cosmetically rough condition.