Sad but happy

Over the weekend, my wife and I were doing usual weekend thrifting. A stack of clean darkroom trays caught her eye and she told me to take a look. The stack was marked for a $100. So I had a "wait but there's more" moment. There was a Beseler 45MXT enlarger, a Zone VI cold light head with stabilizer, Beseler darkroom timer, Zone VI 16x20 print washer, combiplan 4x5 film tank, loads of Dektol, Selectol soft developer, 4 boxes of nearly full 50 sheet boxes 16x20 Seagull various grade paper, 6 boxes of various brands of 8x10 graded paper which includes Ilfobrom. There's also a Peak grain focuser, Beseler 16x20 bladed easel and a Patterson film tank with 3 reels.
My wife doesn't know what half the stuff is for, but I told her that thousands of dollars worth of darkroom gear has sold for a mere $100. I added sad thing is that ink jet printers killed the darkroom. I don't know if I were younger, I would ever build a darkroom. I'm in my fifties and built my darkroom over 30 years ago in my mom's garage which I still use today. I do make ink jet prints, but there's nothing like making a darkroom print.

I see steady resurgence in the niche use of the darkroom by people of all ages, a lot of young ones too. I am never sad about it but instead very passionate and get people fired up about using film and the darkroom.

Wow, I would have bought that in a minute, as everyone here would have. That's the deal of the year.

I agree with you about the inkjets wrecking wet printing. I hate those things though, and everything related to getting the images to them for printing. The wet printing is slow, it smells, it's cumbersome, it can be expensive for large prints, and it can take multiple attempts to get a print the way you want it. But a big B&W print on fiber is so nice. Nothing like a properly printed neg on fiber.

Mainecoonmaniac said:

... I'm in my fifties and built my darkroom over 30 years ago in my mom's garage which I still use today.

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I hear you! Getting close to my fifties and the only thing I've had at my own was ... garage!

But I'm not ink printing. Way too complicated and not as good as darkroom prints.

Do many people even use ink jet anymore? I think it itself has been killed by social media (ok, maybe on life support, not killed).

skorpiius said:

Do many people even use ink jet anymore? I think it itself has been killed by social media (ok, maybe on life support, not killed).

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I work in an art department at a university and kids are still printing. One faculty member is assigning students to create a body of work by making photo books that are hand bound. They're really beautiful. It's a great lesson in creating a body of work and making something by hand. Some even have slip covers. They're also creating an art object. The students are also learning how to process film and print in the darkroom too.

Digital printing is fast, and at 83 I can't count on much more time. For example, yesterday and today I printed a portfolio for friends and relatives to view at my sister's funeral this afternoon, and burned CDs so they could print more for themselves. We should use whatever tool is best for whatever task we face.

Ai Print said:

I see steady resurgence in the niche use of the darkroom by people of all ages, a lot of young ones too. I am never sad about it but instead very passionate and get people fired up about using film and the darkroom.

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I do sense that some are discovering the magic of the darkroom. Got a feeling that darkroom processing is now a fine art medium. Wet darkroom processes is dead in the realm of commercial photography.

I thought digital printing would be just the ticket for me, not having a darkroom. But I took a B&W course at the local community college, and the darkroom bug BIT ME HARD. Wet printing is so much more relaxing than working on the computer. So now I am 'trying' to figure out how to make a darkroom at home. I got the enlargers, but the room itself is the challenge.

But there are indeed places where digital work is superior to wet printing. So I try to use the best of both options (wet and dry printing).

I run into all kinds of people who would like to do darkroom work, including techies and engineers whose day job involves digital imaging! They know
the difference. And it is a great time to acquire darkroom equipment reasonably. That isn't the problem around here. The difficulty is finding affordable real estate, and still having enough time and funds, or even an extra room, to make this possible. Way back when I purchased my house
I looked at three lots on the same day which had substantial on-site commercial buildings. Now young techie couples with high incomes scrape and
scrounge just to pay the mortgage on a half-remodeled doghouse. Either that, or they have to commute four hours a days from the miserably hot
inland burbs. It won't be long till I'm in my 70's, but just installed my third 8x10 enlarger. More worried about the cost of the film; but as I get older
I'll be shooting smaller formats more and more, with plenty of 8x10's already taken and ready to print. Only a small percentage will actually get done. But sorry to hear to your loss, Jim. It's difficult outliving one's siblings.

The most expensive part of a dark room is the real estate including the limitations on the use of the room.

Thats the deal of the century. But I bet that stuff would sit there for weeks until someone like us would come around and snatch it up.

Most of us have used computers long enough to have experienced this many times over. It boggles the mind how much money was sunk into computers by businesses and individuals over the years. This $50,000 workstation, obsolete since the 90s. That multi-million-dollar supercomputer, scrap metal for gold recovery. At least film equipment is as good as it ever was, and as useful, if not as relevant.

michr said:

Most of us have used computers long enough to have experienced this many times over. It boggles the mind how much money was sunk into computers by businesses and individuals over the years. This $50,000 workstation, obsolete since the 90s. That multi-million-dollar supercomputer, scrap metal for gold recovery. At least film equipment is as good as it ever was, and as useful, if not as relevant.

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Where I work, the university has to come up with $30K per year for one computer lab with 20 workstations just for hardware. Never mind the software. Adobe now no longer sells "Perpetual" license software. Which we will have to subscribe at about $20/month per workstation. On the other hand, the wet lab side, has 30+ year old equipment. We had an Ewaste run to toss out old computers. We disposed of functioning computers because they're obsolete.

Mainecoonmaniac said:

Where I work, the university has to come up with $30K per year for one computer lab with 20 workstations just for hardware. Never mind the software. Adobe now no longer sells "Perpetual" license software. Which we will have to subscribe at about $20/month per workstation. On the other hand, the wet lab side, has 30+ year old equipment. We had an Ewaste run to toss out old computers. We disposed of functioning computers because they're obsolete.

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I noticed that Micro$oft does the same thing. I call it renting software. Therefore I run an older version of Micro$oft Office on my Mac and OpenOffice on my laptop.

michr said:

Most of us have used computers long enough to have experienced this many times over. It boggles the mind how much money was sunk into computers by businesses and individuals over the years. This $50,000 workstation, obsolete since the 90s. That multi-million-dollar supercomputer, scrap metal for gold recovery. At least film equipment is as good as it ever was, and as useful, if not as relevant.

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This is easily applicable with digital cameras aswell. People who have the most expensive digital cameras are going to get the best resolution and image quality and cameras don't stay in production nearly as long as they did in the film days. Whereas with film, as long as your glass was good any camera could produce outstanding results.

thats one heck of a deal.... SOLD!

ink jets were nice till you ran out of ink. my stinking ink costs $100! want a nice printer? its been out of ink for 30 years n i have no plans on ever using it again. cheaper to make prints the old way... by hand!

Jim Jones said:

Digital printing is fast, and at 83 I can't count on much more time. For example, yesterday and today I printed a portfolio for friends and relatives to view at my sister's funeral this afternoon, and burned CDs so they could print more for themselves. We should use whatever tool is best for whatever task we face.

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Sorry for your loss.

I rarely use my inkjet for prints since I get better results uploading files and having them printed for me on photo paper.
Hopefully I can get a darkroom set up in the next 6 months. I have the equipment and supplies, I just need to finish unpacking from a recent move.

paul ron said:

thats one heck of a deal.... SOLD!

ink jets were nice till you ran out of ink. my stinking ink costs $100! want a nice printer? its been out of ink for 30 years n i have no plans on ever using it again. cheaper to make prints the old way... by hand!

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Well yeah, and the darkroom process is so much fun and we don't have to get screwed by printing companies.

paul ron said:

thats one heck of a deal.... SOLD!

ink jets were nice till you ran out of ink. my stinking ink costs $100! want a nice printer? its been out of ink for 30 years n i have no plans on ever using it again. cheaper to make prints the old way... by hand!

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I was not happy with the stink-jet prints on the best stink-jet papers. When the ink ran out, I had major sticker shock at the ink refill costs. I paid for the ink, returned home and when to Craig's List. The first time I looked there was the same type of enlarger that I had used at the Kodak Employees' Darkroom. I bought it and set up a dry darkroom in a bedroom. I convert the master bathroom into the wet darkroom when I do printing. I never looked back at stink-jet printing again. I enjoy my time printing in the darkroom and the results are not only much better than stink-jet, but also the are good enough to mount and frame.

Here in Chicago, I hear they've "re-instituted" darkroom work, IOW - FILM photography at schools such as DePaul, Loyola, but it's a way of getting the "students" to learn to look before they shoot. Time will tell if they form a bond with film.

skorpiius said:

Do many people even use ink jet anymore

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sure do !

printer made archival 5x7s for me for a job a few weeks ago, they looked beautiful,
and another printer in another state makes them on demand for me to sell, and they too look beautiful.
my local mini lab prints upto 8x10 on wet paper and laser and when i have things bigger its with ink.

skorpiius said:

Do many people even use ink jet anymore? I think it itself has been killed by social media (ok, maybe on life support, not killed).

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Every ink jet printer I had got binned due to the print heads blocking up, and a new print head costing more than the printer. Presumably due to lack of use. I eventually gave up and got a laser printer to print my letters on which has lasted much longer, and used a mini lab for the odd photo.

Same same here. In the 90s I paid big buck$ for two beaut enlargers (one a Leica Focomat 1Cwith a Multigrade filter head), Jobo auto processors and other darkroom bits, all now worth cents on the dollar or having to be thrown in with a bulk stuff sale, that is if I can get someone to even look at it. So I keep it. Winter nights are cold in Tasmania,and there is nothing to beat the pleasure of being in a warm room, with good music and a slug or two or even three of good Tassie red, printing on real paper, watching images forming in the Dektol tray, and enjoying the evocative smell of fixer.

Over a lifetime I've found my 120 negatives print best as 8x8s on 8x10 paper, and my 35mms on 5x8 (half 8x10). Never any larger. Nobody wants 16x20s anyway. Occasionally I do weekend sales at a local art market. My 4x5s in small white folders always sell out. Now and then someone buys a 5x8. No-one seems to want A4 prints, which are apaprently regarded as "amateur".

Ebay can be a veritable cornucopia of good photo gear and supplies. Unopened Multigrade III boxes often turn up. (I would never pay more than $5 for any opened boxes of 8x10 paper.) I recently got 18 packs of unopened Ilford Galerie, about 20 years old, for $36, or $2 per pack of 25 sheets. One pack so far opened, prints as new. Perfect for archival quality prints to friends, often from negatives I shot in the 70s and 80s but they have never seen the prints. So I'm catching up on my really old images, sort of.

Computer, software and inkjet printer manufacturers will go broke if they rely onme for their sales. I buy it all secondhand and pay almost nothing for it. My last inkjet went to recycling when I retired in 2012. I've never looked back. I do my own custom color printing on a Fuji automatic machine at our local Harvey Norman's retail outlet. Better than my last custom lab in Melbourne did for me 20+ years ago. Heaps cheaper.

There are tremendous bargains out there for the buying or even having for free, if one has the time to go out and look. Indeed, the time to look - one of the (many) pleasures of old age and being retired. Also exploring the streets of the old holy city of Ayuthaya in Thailand or the ruined temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia with a Nikkormat FT2, a Contax G1, or a Fuji Ga645i. That is true pleasure for me.

Why bother owning a printer for photos. The printers that even Wallgreens uses are industrial printers n do a wonderful job for dirt cheap. If you arent happy with the print, they'll do it over for you free. So no waste, no ink n I get prits off one of the finest printers Id never afford to buy.

But I love my darkroom! Ah, the smell of the fiber prints in the drum dryer at dawn after a night of printing is so refreshing over a cup of coffee n over easy black butter eggs as I admire my beautiful prints. Fully exhausted but so fulfilled.