Timer/Metronome for Color printing in trays?

amellice · Feb 26, 2015

Since I started color printing last December in trays and I'm counting time, it's okay and I can get fairly close but it sometimes gives me headache specially for long sessions (4~7 hours). What timer/metronome that I can use safely?

Please note that I'm printing in trays

rdg · Feb 27, 2015

What I have done in the past for processing B&W film, but should be just as applicable for anything else, was to record the steps and timing onto a cassette tape. The player would be turned on at the beginning of the session and would say the steps when needed. If the player has an LED that might be lit during play you can cover it. Or use an MP3 player with your steps recorded instead of a tape player.

Richard

bvy · Feb 27, 2015

Some of the small kitchen timers have minute and second buttons that you can maneuver easily in the dark. Press the minute button once for one minute, twice for two, etc., then click start.

Thomas Bertilsson · Feb 27, 2015

I love working with a metronome. After a while counting seconds becomes second nature, and it's just so effortless to keep it ticking. When printing, it also frees up both my hands to do whatever I need to do.

wildbill · Feb 27, 2015

the headache is from the chemicals, not the counting Some folks react to color chemicals and the reaction worsens over time. Drew will chime in.

amellice · Feb 27, 2015

thanks guys, i think my wife has a kitchen timer so i can give that a try since i don't have metronome or mp3 player

bvy · Feb 27, 2015

wildbill said:
the headache is from the chemicals, not the counting Some folks react to color chemicals and the reaction worsens over time. Drew will chime in.

Drums are your friend.

Wayne · Feb 27, 2015

A metronome would make my head explode. I would put a GraLab under the sink or something like that...

RPC · Feb 27, 2015

I have a Philips PDT 2015 Process Timer than has a red countdown display, dimmable for color work or b&w film which can countdown through all the processing steps one right after the other, or manually one at a time. You might try to find one or something like it on ebay, that's where I got mine for song.

I recommend you stick with trays. I used to use drums but when I switched to trays my productivity and ease of processing increased greatly. There are those who will warn you about the fumes, but even Kodak says it is okay to use trays with adequate ventilation.

MattKing · Feb 27, 2015

If you have a voice recorder in your phone, that can be used as well.

amellice · Feb 27, 2015

bvy said:
Drums are your friend.

drums maybe convenient for some but for me i never managed to get a print without pink streaks in my Unicolor 8x10 drum, I also don't like to wash and dry the drum everytime i do a print. that ofcourse is lack of my technicalities and I know people who get amazing results with drums

spijker · Feb 27, 2015

I use this app on my android phone. Besides film development sequences, I also have "programmed" sequences for RC and FB paper development. The app is free, has a red display mode, plays a short sound at the end of every step and works very well for B&W. With the display dimmed to a very low level, it might be usable for color printing as well.

Menno

bvy · Feb 27, 2015

amellice said:
drums maybe convenient for some but for me i never managed to get a print without pink streaks in my Unicolor 8x10 drum, I also don't like to wash and dry the drum everytime i do a print. that ofcourse is lack of my technicalities and I know people who get amazing results with drums

I don't wash or dry my drums either, and I don't get streaks. They work great.

amellice · Feb 27, 2015

spijker said:
I use this app on my android phone. Besides film development sequences, I also have "programmed" sequences for RC and FB paper development. The app is free, has a red display mode, plays a short sound at the end of every step and works very well for B&W. With the display dimmed to a very low level, it might be usable for color printing as well.

Menno

thanks for the suggestion, but color paper is also sensitive to red, and also i don't know the wavelength coming out of the phone screen is adequate or not even if you see it red, i wonder actually if someone knows anything about that, are cell phone timers that has red-mode display actually safe for darkroom?

MartinP · Mar 1, 2015

It's a little unclear exactly what you are timing with the metronome - the exposure or the developing?

For timing printing I use an electronic timer, for timing burning and dodging I use a music style metronome (Seiko SQ50V), for b+w paper timing I use a Durst ColTim, for RA4-timing and film developing I use an app ("Darkroom Timer") on an Android tablet (the tablet is inside a paper box for the RA4) or a kitchen timer.

The simplest answer for tray development is to have a couple of super-cheap kitchen timers. One each for dev and bleach-fix, as the rinse through stopbath is not really timed with precision. Start the dev timer a second or so before the paper is fully under the chemical, then decide whether you will add a few seconds to allow for that, or just have the same-ish amount of delay at the end when you take the paper out.

JoJo · Mar 1, 2015

When developing prints in trays, you have to agitate the paper in the developer by hand. So you will not have your head or hands free to do other work beside.
I count the seconds in head by myself. After some excercise, this works very precise and subconscious.
Working with drums would be different. For this I would use some kind of timer, even 45 seconds or 1 Minute is not that amount of time to do different things while developing.
The most luxury variant is a roller transport processor. Insert paper and forget.
The blix bath is not critical. 1 Minute more will not change the result so no timer is necessary for this.

For exposure: Most mechanical old timers are too unprecise to make the short exposure times for RA-Paper. I would use a digital timer with 1/10s resolution in the 1-10s range.
I use a Durst Labotim and I am happy with it. The only problem is that you have to cover the red display after setting up the time.
It is unbelievable how many LEDs darkroom equipment has which all can ruin a color print after short time.

Joachim

RPC · Mar 1, 2015

One reason why the timer that I mentioned in my earlier post and types like it are so nice is because you can program to go through all the process steps automatically and only have to start it and your hands are free thereafter.

The display is too dim to fog paper but just bright enough to see. Beeps occur at the end of each process step.

Thomas Bertilsson · Mar 2, 2015

The metronome is something I use for print paper exposure, for all of the subsequent stages of paper processing, including toning (black and white of course).

What I like about it is that it just keeps on ticking. I start counting at will whenever it's appropriate. After a while I don't really 'hear' the metronome second ticks, and the exercise of counting seconds becomes an almost subconscious exercise.

For film developing I use a timer, because of different films requiring different developing times. Paper processing, for me, is always done at 2m30s in dev, 10s in stop, and 1m in two baths of 1+4 fixer. I never deviate from that.

Timer/Metronome for Color printing in trays?

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