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  #21  
Old 25th April 2022, 05:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Martin Aislabie View Post
No

To print I would investigate hiring a darkroom or joining one of the local colleges, which still have a darkroom.

Martin
And Martin, if you didn't have access to a darkroom at all?
Would photography still hold the same pleasure for you without the opportunity to 'wet' print your own work?
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  #22  
Old 25th April 2022, 07:12 PM
snusmumriken snusmumriken is offline
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Probably. I suppose I might go digital, but it wouldn't have the same appeal. I think it's to do with creating something with tangible materials. Drawing, painting or wood carving might do it for me
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  #23  
Old 26th April 2022, 04:15 AM
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> Drawing, painting or wood carving might do it for me

Same for me. I love the craftmanship, the manual work. I would not change this to some kind of computer work.
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  #24  
Old 26th April 2022, 05:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MartyNL View Post
And Martin, if you didn't have access to a darkroom at all?
Would photography still hold the same pleasure for you without the opportunity to 'wet' print your own work?
Hi Martin

Yes, I still would.

Even if I could only look at my negatives on the lightbox - which is all I could do for a good many years due to back problems.

Just the sheer pleasure of taking landscape photographs is enough for me, the other steps are just bonuses.

Martin
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  #25  
Old 27th April 2022, 05:40 PM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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I have a darkroom in France, equipped long ago with the finest enlarger (de Vere 203 / Multigrade 500), Componons, dishes up to A3, and an Ilford 1050 dryer.
But the pandemic and expensive travel insurance has prevented me getting there, so I am proposing to side-step the restrictions by ordering an Intrepid Camera enlarger to use in my shower cubicle here in UK. It will plug into the shaver socket (I have a beard!) and I have a red LED party bulb, a Meopta copy stand and an Ental. I read that the LED lightsource won't print beyond grade 3 1/2 but it should be fun nonetheless..
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  #26  
Old 28th April 2022, 04:30 AM
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> so I am proposing to side-step the restrictions by ordering an Intrepid Camera enlarger

There may be an alternative way to that. Meopta enlargers come into a suitcase and can disassembled easily. You need only a room for that suitcase. I had an Opemus 4 for decades and still have an Opemus 5. That is 6x6. If 35 mm is sufficient you may look for an Axomat which is smaller. Here in Germany it is easy to get one for free.
This is an Axomat suitcase looks like (Axomat III). The ground board is on top, it has been removed:
https://portal-images.azureedge.net/...527b076ee0.jpg

I recommend this one. The later models need separating the head if stored. Axomat II ( and the similar Opemus 4) are built in a minute and stored in a minute.
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  #27  
Old 28th April 2022, 10:43 AM
JOReynolds JOReynolds is offline
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I recommend this one. The later models need separating the head if stored. Axomat II ( and the similar Opemus 4) are built in a minute and stored in a minute.
This is not intended to be a marketing text but the Intrepid Camera enlarger includes an LED colour/Multigrade head and timer. It collapses into a shoebox. Without the column it costs under £300. The German equivalent (Heiland) costs £1 200, just the head.
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  #28  
Old 28th April 2022, 02:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JOReynolds View Post
This is not intended to be a marketing text but the Intrepid Camera enlarger includes an LED colour/Multigrade head and timer. It collapses into a shoebox. Without the column it costs under £300. The German equivalent (Heiland) costs £1 200, just the head.
Isn't equating these 2 enlargers a little bit like comparing a Lomo with a Leica?
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  #29  
Old 28th April 2022, 06:40 PM
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Most definitely NO !

The image, to me, is the most important thing however it was created...

Neil.
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Last edited by B&W Neil; 28th April 2022 at 07:08 PM.
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  #30  
Old 29th April 2022, 08:51 AM
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I got by for a long time with make-shift printing spaces. Blacked out bathrooms, an airing cupboard, a window-sill at one point, the kitchen table with tin-foil on the windows. I certainly made prints, and some were even quite good. Looking back though it did stifle my productivity. I certainly haven't taken or printed as many photographs as I would have liked.
Now I have an inky-black, plumbed and ventilated darkroom.
From walking in the door I can have the enlargers uncovered and chemistry mixed in five minutes. It's the best set-up I've ever had, and I only had to wait until I was 60 to get it

If I lost my darkroom tomorrow it would be a blow, but I'd sooner go back to 'Guerilla' printing than stop altogether.
If the question here is really "if you couldn't make wet silver prints anymore" would you stop, then that's harder. I was in a couple of print exchanges a while back (Large Format Forum) where some of the prints I received had been made 'hybrid'. All were shot on LF film but some were scanned and ink-jetted. These were serious film users, but none of the inkjets matched the silver work. Maybe things have improved, and maybe I was unlucky in what I received.

I wouldn't be interested at this point in my life binning skills it has taken me years to acquire to try and master a new medium which has (so far) failed to impress me. I could see it being the end of any interest in serious image-making. I already own a digital camera which I don't really enjoy using, but then I've never handled a digital camera which I liked. It has an electronic viewfinder which is at least better than looking at a screen, but next to my Voigtlander 667 it's a joke.
I could imagine my photography settling into holiday and family snaps.

There are other things which interest me. I have a couple of MGs awaiting restoration, and I write a little. That could easily become a more satisfying creative outlet for me if I had to give up the darkroom.

We all change anyway. I have a friend who quite suddenly abandoned LF photography because he felt it had run its course for him. Now he builds model ships and restores vintage bicycles, and is quite satisfied.

In short, I'll be making silver prints in my darkroom as long as Ilford stay in business and I have the strength to do it. I have the best work-space I've ever had, and might soon have more time (a long story some folk on here know).
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