I've been to hell (camera/darkroom related)

[erie_patsellis]

Well, I picked up a couple of enlargers this past weekend, and I've a

sad story to tell...

 

Seems this guy bought a building that had a rather nice commercial

studio/darkroom in it, totally full of 'stuff' (his words). So he

rents a 30 yd dumpster and carts everything carryable into it. He told

me it was overflowing. The only thing left were a couple of enlargers

(10x10 devere and an 8x10 Elwood) and a copy camera (with a 16 1/2"

artar apo, which I got). According to this guy there was tons of

cameras (old style, with bellows (sic.), boxes and boxes of lenses, I

found an 8x10 darkslide (seems he said there were boxes of big black

things those went into, aaargh), unfortunately, there were tons of

condensors for the devere and they got tossed, so I only have a 4x5

condensor (though I do have the 2 monster 14" square ones), that's ok,

because I'm converting it to a homemade cold light head(10mm cool

white neon tube a la. arista (but much cheaper)). I asked if the

dumpster was still there, hell I'm not that proud..(missed it by a

week, and almost wanted to ask where it went to).

 

I guess on the bright side, I scored 2 enlargers, a decent barrel

lens, a brand new 48" x way bigger than I'll probably ever use roll of

ilford multigrade and I'm getting about 400+ lbs of raw chemicals. not

bad for a $1 ebay purchase.

 

erie patsellis

[vick_vickery]

Hell, I WOULD have asked where the dumpster went...its worth checking out!!!

[stephen hazelton]

Go to a large landfill and contemplate the possibilities of ever finding a shipment from a week ago, and I think that idea will go right out the window.

 

Or else, we'll be seeing posts like "I've got this Model XXX lens that's been run over by a bulldozer and soaked in mud and gull poo for a week. Can I salvage it?"

[mark_l3]

no problem, just shoot with it and call the prints "artistically distressed".

[joachim_sefzick]

I am just curious about your self made cold light head. what sort of tube do you use? I've been wanting to make one myself but never found the right lightsource.

[jeff bishop]

I've mentioned this elsewhere before. If you are looking for darkroom equipment, advertise for it! I put an ad on "Craigslist" (one in every major city) and got quick responses.

 

For as much as this stuff cost new, people would rather give it away than throw it out. This is one of the silver linings on that digital cloud...

[erie_patsellis]

joacim, I'm haaving a neon tube bent, just deciding on color temperature, as too blue raises the contrast of MG papers, I'm leaning towards Voltarc 4500degree tubes, as (I assume) that's what Aristo uses in their 45 series head, with a 30y cc filter (or something close in a roscoe) that should put me about where I need to be. An alternative would be warm white, but at 3500 degreed, it may be too yellow. There's less light loss with a yellow filter than a blue, in my experience. BTW, I have worked in the sign industry for 18 years now, the last 5 owning my own business, and if you aren't familiar with working with neon, DON'T!!!. at 5,000+ volts, it doesn't take much wrong to hurt you, really, really badly.

 

 

erie

 

 

erie