Where can I get a darkroom-camera?

[marciofs]

By Darkroom-camera I mean those cameras photographers used to have to offer photo service in the streets, so they would photograph and develop on the location, using the camera as darkroom box.
I have heard about three photographers who use them, one in Brazil and two others in Germany.
I am interested on get such kind of cameras but I don't find anywhere in the web where I could buy it.
So I am asking you.

 

[jim10219]

Do you mean an Afghan Box? I think you have to make them yourself, or find someone to make one for you. I don't know of any company that makes and sell them, as the market must be quite small.

 

[marciofs]

Do you mean an Afghan Box? I think you have to make them yourself, or find someone to make one for you. I don't know of any company that makes and sell them, as the market must be quite small.

I mean Afghan Box.
Do you know who could possibly make one for me?

 

[Kino]

http://www.afghanboxcamera.com/abcp_camera_howtobuild.htm

 

[summicron1]

I mean Afghan Box.
Do you know who could possibly make one for me?

you best bet would be to find a local carpenter shop, show them the plans in that link, and work with them to build it.

It's really just a box big enough to hold basic chemicals, and you use paper negatives to make the prints. A wet print from exposure to final print can be done in about 5 minutes.

 

[narsuitus]

Thanks for this informative thread.

 

[StepheKoontz]

 

[Molli]

I looked into this quite a few years ago after seeing an old Velophot in a local second hand camera store. This was a German design patented around 1920.
In my research, I came across Kurt Mottweiler's website. He was in the process of building one at someone else's request. This is the link directly to that post:

https://mottweilerstudio.com/velophot-one-minute-camera/

He has other write ups on the project, but they're not all listed with the same tag. Click on "street photography", "one minute camera" and "wooden camera" for other posts on the subject. He does truly beautiful work but is, unfortunately, not at all local to you, being in Portland, Oregon, USA.

I was also going to mention Joe Van Cleave (linked to by StepheKoontz in the above YouTube video) if you wanted to go the DIY route. Again, based in the United States. He is a member here, though, if you're wanting to pick his brain.

Also a member, although I've not seen him about lately, is Nigel (Smith, I think?) located here in Australia. He has an Afghan Camera. I can't recall if he built his own or not, although I think he did. At any rate, he'd certainly know how to go about putting one together if you wanted to reach out to him.

I hope this gives you a little direction or impetus to make your own. I wound up deciding to make a mostly portable Darkroom box instead, to work out of the boot of my car - more as a show and tell for friends than any thoughts of setting up a street vendor outlet. The materials I bought for the project are STILL sitting in the spare room awaiting attention! I wish you a tonne more motivation than I've managed to muster up! ☺

Kindly,
Molli

 

[mooseontheloose]

I love the entire idea behind these cameras, always hoped I would come across one in the wild so I could be photographed, and would love to build my own except that I would definitely need to hire someone to do it. Thanks everyone for the links and ideas in this thread, I'm feeling very inspired at the moment!

 

[John51]

I didn't know these existed.

I've been trying to figure out a way to do daylight wet printing for the grandchildren and this has given me some good ideas.

 

[M. Axel Wikstrom]

Joe is a good guy - generous character.

 

[marciofs]

Thank you everyone.
While I was watching the video, he talks about positive paper. Then I thought I could use a normal large format camera with positive paper, then use a darkroom bag to place the paper in a Paterson tank to develop and fix it.

 

[Luckless]

The use of positive paper would really help with turn around times on such a project. - I've considered exploring a similar setup on summer weekends as a random source of added income, but had wondered about possible negative impact of making contact prints from damp negatives, but direct positive paper sounds so much more sensible.

But I would still consider some kind of a "Box and folding table", with strong consideration to combining the camera into it, sort of setup - Gives you a raised work surface that you could rely on, rather than working off the ground or relying on tables/raised surfaces on site, and combining the camera into the same space also makes for a safety and security factor. By having a "Development box And a camera" you have to watch over for people fiddling with two different things. But combining them into basically the same thing will free you from having to "Watch one while working with the other".

The box also gives you a nice way to 'advertise' the service, if you're planning a direct to customer service, rather than using it as a near immediate results inspection work flow.


Not sure how home renovation centres are in Hamburg, but here in North America is it pretty common for them to offer "Panel break down" or cutting services [Sometimes for free!] for plywood so you can bring them a cut list and they'll do the bulk of the cutting for you. And custom building a reliable box really isn't that complex of a task if you have the time and attention to detail, and access to a simple hand saw and a chisel. Plenty of resources on YouTube to help guide anyone who doesn't think they're 'handy' enough.

 

[Arthurwg]

They are still in use in India. Go to Old Delhi and find one in use. Ask the photographer to take you to a place that sells them.

 

[M. Axel Wikstrom]

... or get a polaroid.

https://www.polaroid.com

 

[John51]

For street trade, I'd have it so there was a Rubylith type side to the camera. Then the clients can see their print develop.

 

[ic-racer]

 

[tezzasmall]

Neat idea ic-racer!

Terry S