Talking timers for film processing?

[Kevin Caulfield]

Does anybody else use talking timers for processing and printing? I use the little electronic countdown timers which you can buy here in Australia at Dick Smith Electronics (for about $22 AUD). They are great for B&W processing, and even better for colour, as with colour there are more steps, and you don't have to keep your eye on the clock. Last week I tried to buy something similar at Radio Shack in NYC, but they don't seem to exist in the US.

 

[Nige]

Kevin, you have my attention....

What sort of functions does it have? I've been using a kitchen timer for film development in trays and it would be good getting confirmation that it's running! (I actually use a 2nd timer as backup!) I was thinking of setting up a cassette tape with minute marks.

Also, does it have a sexy female voice

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Well, Nige, it has -
Count up, count down and clock. I usually use two in tandem. So, for B&W, I'll have one running for the dev, say 8 minutes, and the other will be set on say 4 mins for the fix. With color stuff, for E6, I have both set on 8 mins, and do the FD for 6 and wash for 2 on one, then the RE for 2 and the CD for 6 on the other, and then the BX for 8 on the first. They also have a memory function, which is great for printing.

And yes, it does have a sexy female voice

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

I forgot to mention that it gives a time every minute counting down, every ten seconds under one minute, and then the last ten seconds to zero, then beeps for a minute.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

I've been using talking timers for about a year. I have three of them and I paid about $10.00 USD apiece for them.

I love 'em!

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Aren't they great? I've been using them for about four or five years.

 

[Buster6X6]

Hi every one
I was looking at those talking timers which somebody suggested to me in another tread about a month ago. What I found I need three to four times to time some time lot of trouble trying to find one or the others in the dark. So on eBay I bought a four- time set kitchen timer. You set different times your developing ,stop bath, fixer .I turn light off and start all with one press of the button.First one goes off you take film out put it in the next tray second timer goes off and so on. I paid $ 14 on eBay for that kithchen 4Xtimer.
Just an idea that I am going to use.Really don't need to talk to me just to go of at the proper time.

Greg

 

[juan]

I had a talking timer from Radio Shack about 10-years ago, but the company doesn't seem to have them anymore. I would have liked it a lot, but the start button was a bit difficult to locate in the dark and the timer made no "start" noise, so I was usually unsure that the thing had actually started.

I now use my Palm Pilot and a program called Fototimer. I put the Pilot in a deep box to keep the screen glow from fogging the film.
juan

 

[Neal]

Dear Kevin,

For developing color prints in trays, I use a Timex Ironman 100 lap watch. It has a timer setup that you can program for multiple steps. It beeps at the end of each step.

Neal Wydra

 

[BarrieB]

Greetings Kevin, I too use a dual timer ,from Tandy in Melb ( Now part of Dick Smith ) but if you are going to run more than two steps I recommend a 'Tape Recorder' and dictacte your message, ten seconds to go before the drain step,etc ( it is best to have a ladies voice, you will get sick of your own !!!

 

[Graeme Hird]

I used one for a while and loved it.

Another idea someone mentioned on another forum was to use a tape recorder to record your own voice counting down from your usual development time. You could customise it for contracted or expanded development to suit, and you can also customise an extra bit on the end of development times for your stop bath timing and fixing. Rewind to the start and do it all again next time. Makes good sense to me.

Cheers,

 

[Ryuji]

I forgot to mention that it gives a time every minute counting down, every ten seconds under one minute, and then the last ten seconds to zero, then beeps for a minute.

Does it speak the remaining time every minute even if the remaining time is 15 minutes? I've found a talking timer but the description said that the timer announces every minute for last 10 minutes.

My friend made a CD with sound every 15 seconds. With a decent sound editor, such can be made quite easily. But I usually play music and don't want to have a second CD player in my darkroom. (Actually, I use a DVD player with CD-R's with MP3 files so that I can print 6 hours straight)

 

[mikewhi]

As for me, I have a girlfriend who nags me reliable every 30 seconds. I'm thinking of putting her up on eBay......

-Mike

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Does it speak the remaining time every minute even if the remaining time is 15 minutes? I've found a talking timer but the description said that the timer announces every minute for last 10 minutes.

No, it only speaks in the last 10 minutes.

 

[Graeme Hird]

As for me, I have a girlfriend who nags me reliable every 30 seconds. I'm thinking of putting her up on eBay......

-Mike

How much? I might be interested to hear a lady nag you every 30 seconds Mike.

 

[Nige]

No, it only speaks in the last 10 minutes.

well I bought one today... her voice would be sexy if it wasn't piped through whatever it uses for a speaker!

Like many things in life... there's a workaround! If you leave it running after it's reached 00:00:00, it beeps for 1min (very annoying to listen to for a whole minute), keeps counting the 'overtime' and starts anouncing '2 mins over' and so on, so it will effectively be able to time 20mins in 1min 'alarms'. After 10min (EDIT) it next indicates 20mins over.