Darkroom Equipment Reviews
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Saunders/LPL 4550 XL Enlarger
I use the well known Saunders/LPL 4500xl enlarger for all my printing. I bought a 4x5 enlarger BEFORE I decided to work in 4x5 format, and this turned out to be an excellent decision for a host of reasons. I highly recommend that if you are considering buying an enlarger, buy the largest enlarger you can fit in your darkroom and which fits your budget.
Just as a camera is, in theory, a tube with a lens at one end and film at the other, an enlarger is little more than an adjustable tube with a lens at one end and a bright light at the other. Alas, the difference between theory and practice is larger in practice than it is in theory, and enlargers are no exception.
The 4550xl can be fitted with any of three different filtration modules - a B&W module (which does NO filtration), a dichroic module for color printing (and also usable for B&W work, discussed later), and a VCCE module for printing on B&W VC paper. The VCCE module provides speed matched results with continuous adjustment of contrast. There are actually two versions of the VCCE module - an old one with only one channel, and a newer one with a channel pre-adjusted for Kodak and another for Ilford papers.
I like the 4550xl for several reasons:
- It's a pretty robust device. Once focused, it stays focused. It stays aligned (but see shortcomings, below).
- It handles 4x5 negatives with ease - the illumination is very even.
- It has very smooth focusing, with a vernier adjustment.
- It has a very room bellows, which reduces flare.
- The lensboard arrangement is well thought out, so that you needn't put lots of stress on the lens stage to change lenses.
- I have the dichroic module, which I find is excellent for printing on VC papers. (For details on this, see the article at http://www.butzi.net/articles/vcce.htm.
On the downside:
- Out of the box, every Saunders 4x5 enlarger I've ever seen leaked light like a sieve.
- On the 4550xl, the baseboard is too short and the easel hangs off the end. This has been fixed in the 4550xlg.
- There is no provision for alignment. To align it, you need to use shims under the end of the column, and under the negative stage.
I've fixed the light leaks with black gaffers tape, and aluminum foil. To handle the light leak where the ventilation fan blows air out of the head, I added a black cardboard tube which directs all the light from that leak at the far end of the darkroom.
One essential accessory is the flexible wand which fits on the focus knob. Without it, the knob is too high to reach while peering into a grain focusing device if you are a human of normal proportions (I'm about 5'7", or 1.7 meters tall, and I can't do it when making 16x20 prints).
Jobo CPP-2 Rotary Processor
One of the few indispensable devices in my darkroom is my trusty Jobo CPP-2 processor. I use it to process all my B&W film regardless of format.
I develop 35mm film in 1500 series drums. Until recently I used the 1500 series plastic reels. For a brief period, I switched to stainless steel reels, but I found that they were too heavy for the relatively under-engineered Jobo Lift, so I've switched back to the plastic reels. I've found the 1500 series reels and tanks give excellent, even results. One of the great things about the 1500 series of drums is that they are modular and can be arranged in various configuratons so that you can develop 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, or 8 rolls of 35mm film in one run.
I develop 4x5 film in the Expert 3010 drum, which is mind-numbingly easy to load and gives absolutely outstanding results. The only downside to the Expert drums for sheet film processing is that the lids are a terrific pain in the butt to put on and take off, even with the wonky air pump Jobo sell to pressurize the drum and pop the lid off.
The essential accessory for the manual Jobo processors (cpa-2, cpe-2, cpp-2) is the lift, which greatly simplifies the process of filling and draining the drums while maintaining the automated rotary agitation. Don't buy a Jobo without one.
One of the really great things about the Jobo rotary processors is that they're supported by Jobo with customer support that is second to none. I've sent email to Jobo asking a question, gotten an emailed response twenty minutes later which contained both an answer to my question and an apology for the delay. If every manufacturer/distributor supported their wares the way Jobo supports theirs, the world would be a heck of a lot more pleasant.
Easels (Saunders UA Series, 11x14 and 16x20)
I own two easels with adjustable blades. Both of them are Saunders UA series easels - the ones with the black knobs. At the time I bought them, I felt they were the best available - the blades stayed aligned, they were easy to adjust, and the blades stayed adjusted without being taped in place.
The easel I use most is the 11x14 easel, which has slots for positioning 5x7, 8x10, and 11x14 paper. The 5x7 slot is actually 8 inches long, so if you are of a mind to cut 8x10 paper into 5x8 pieces, you can fit them in the easel without trimming the end off. This easel has seen hard use, and still looks brand new.
The larger 16x20 easel I use only when printing on 16x20 paper. Except for a different mechanism which holds the blades and frame open, and the larger size, this easel is identical to it's 11x14 cousin.
Since I bought my easels, Saunders has introduced the V-track easels. They look awfully good, and if I were to make the purchase decision today, I might well buy the V-track easel instead of the UA.
Safelights (Thomas Duplex, Patterson)
I've had four different safelights in my darkroom at various times: A Kodak bullet style housing with a OC filter, a little Patterson red plastic dingus, a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight, and a prototype LED safelight. Note that all the comments below on brightness/darkness are obviously relative to the size of the space to be lighted. My darkroom measures roughly 9 feet by 12 feet (about 3 x 4 meters).
The Kodak bullet style safelights work fine, but the Kodak OC filters fade over time and eventually become unsafe. How long this takes depends on how much you have your safelight on, of course. Worse, the Kodak filters are horrifically expensive for what you get, and you don't want to buy them used (because they're probably faded, right?)
The little red Patterson safelight is the one that's lasted the longest in my current darkroom. It's horrifically dim, is VERY red, and uses bulbs which may be common as styrofoam peanuts in the UK but are not available except in camera stores here in the US. If you buy one, buy two spare bulbs, because you're sure to burn out the bulb at the worst possible moment. In the eight years or so that I've owned the thing, I've burned out three bulbs - clearly, they're using the Gillette business model. The big advantage to the Patterson is that it's red, not OC, so it's safe with the Forte papers (which, despite recent hype marketing by Omega-Satter, are NOT OC safe, not even the newer versions).
For about a year, I had a Thomas Duplex Super Safelight in my darkroom. The Thomas contains a single, exceedingly bright, sodium vapor bulb, which emits VERY STRONGLY on the 589nm sodium line pair, but almost not at all at any other wavelength. In theory, 589nm should be safe for any paper which is safe under OC safelights. In practice, this is more or less true. VC papers, which have extended sensitivity relative to graded papers, are a lot less safe under the Thomas than graded papers are.
When I first bought the Thomas, I was a happy darkroom guy. Man, this thing is bright, even with the vanes closed down. Then I noticed that I was really hurting for highlight contrast, and I did a safelight test with the paper I was using then (Kodak PolyMax Fine Art). The safelight test was not good news, and so I added opaque cardboard to the vanes to cut down the light and make it safe.
In the end, the warm-up time (you need to let it warm up about 15 or 20 minutes before it's really safe) and the inability to switch it on/off finally got to me and I went back, somewhat grumpily, to using the little dim Patterson. But I longed for the Thomas, which was so bright that you could read under it.
And now, I'm evaluating a prototype LED based safelight built by Tim Shoppa (at http://www.trailing-edge.com). The first version Tim sent me was about a factor of four TOO BRIGHT. It turns on instantly. When you turn it off, it takes a little while for the capacitors to drain, but gets pretty dim pretty fast. Unlike the monochromatic Thomas, you get a modicum of color recognition from the LEDs even though the wavelength spread is fairly narrow. The version I have now is great - far better than any other safelight I've tried, especially in regard to the apparent brightness relative to the measured safeness. With a bit of tweaking, it's going to be a winner.
Timers (Gralab 450, LPL ET-500)
reviews of timers are now at www.butzi.net/reviews/entimers.htm
Hass Intellifaucet D250
One of the really brilliant things I did when I outfitted my current darkroom was installing a temperature controlled faucet. A friend of mine had installed a mechanical thermostatic valve, and although I could see the advantage of good, simple, set it and forget it temperature control, the mechanical valve was prone to drift, had to be set anew each time, and was generally a pain in the butt.
Unlike mechanical thermostatic valves, the Hass Intellifaucet 250 is a microprocessor controlled valve unit - a dedicated microcontroller measures the temperature of the water leaving the valve unit, and adjusts the cold and the hot valves to maintain the output at the set temperature. Not only does it work, it works flawlessly. Even better, if you set it for 75 degrees, you always get 75 degree water; if you set it for 95, it comes out 95. Every time.
After seeing an ad for the Intellifaucet D250 in a magazine, I called Hass Manufacturing to find out about it. They filled me in over the phone, and sent me a glossy brochure. I made another call to Hass when I realized the minimum flow was too high for my needs. A quick chat with the very helpful people at Hass revealed that they'd be happy to install what they called the 'low flow' option - no charge. This gets the minimum flow rate down below one liter per minute - perfect for my needs.
I was building my darkroom on a deadline and was concerned about having the unit on time. The wonderful people at Hass kept me up to date on when the unit would ship, faxed me when they shipped it, and it arrived without a hitch.
From the moment I got it installed and started using it, I knew I'd never go back. The temperature control is flawless - rock steady even when I run another faucet in my darkroom, or when the clothes washer cycles, or someone flushes a toilet. I never worry about the wash water getting too hot and washing the emulsion off my film, or softening prints. When I mix up chemicals, I can mix them at the exact temp I want to use them.
About five months after I got the unit, it started having trouble with one of the valves sticking. In a panic at the thought of having to send it in for repair, I called Hass. After assuring me the unit was under warranty (and that it wouldn't matter if it was outside the warranty, they'd rather have a happy customer than insist on a rigid warranty period), they talked me through manually opening and closing the valves to see if that helped. It did.
Life with the Intellifaucet D250 is good. Very good. Darkroom setup time is cut to a minimum. I know that the $500 price tag is steep, but it was worth every single penny.
You can check it out on the Hass Manufacturing web site at www.hassmfg.com.
Summitek Cascade Print Washer
Before I built my current darkroom, I washed prints by filling my bathtub with water, putting the prints in, and letting them soak, giving them a little agitation now and then. It produce prints which did fine on a residual hypo test, but it used a lot of water and took more effort than using a dedicated print washer.
When I built the current darkroom, I bought a nice, pretty Summitek Cascade washer. Like most print washers, this one is made from pretty acrylic, and has a bunch of compartments which separate the prints as they're being washed. Unlike other washers, the Summitek Cascade runs the water through the compartments serially - the output of one compartment is the input of the next, etc.
The result is that you use the slightly dirty wash water from each compartment to wash the next print. It turns out that as long as the water is substantially cleaner than the print, you're making good progress on washing the prints. And, of course, as the first print becomes clean, the effluent from the first compartment becomes clean as well.
The net result is that the Summitek Cascade does a great job washing prints to archival standards while using only a liter of water per minute. Over time, this adds up to considerable savings of water.
On the downside, the thing is a tremendous hassle to drain - so much so that I never, ever drain it in practice. This leads to my main complaint - it's a bugger to clean. And, since I rarely drain it, it eventually becomes a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty slime stuff.
The other big downside is that it's a hassle to fish prints out of the thing, especially if you wash a load of 8x10's in the 16x20 washer.
If I had it to do over again, I might give up some of the water advantage in order to secure a design where it drained easily, and the prints went into a basket which could be lifted (prints and all) out of the washer and unloaded that way.
Versalab 11x14 Print Washer
After years of using the Summitek Cascade, I recently bought a Versalab 11x14.
The Versalab is the Volkswagen (or maybe the Ford F150) of the print washing world - plain, functional, and highly cost effective. It consists of a plain white container with a plain white basket of separators inside. The water is introduced into the spaces between the separators by a series of jets; it drains out of the washer via a siphon from the bottom. There's an air hole that acts as a siphon break while the washer is running; to drain the washer you plug the hole with a supplied stopper and the siphon rapidly and neatly drains the entire washer. There's an overflow hose to prevent disasters if the siphon blocks for some reason.
The container is made of indestructible polyethylene. The separators are made from polystyrene. The whole thing is extraordinarily well designed but not in any way fancy.
The 11x14 model I bought has a capacity of 14 prints. My washer runs nicely at about 1.5 liters/minute, a bit more than the Summitek Cascade but a lot less than some washers out there.
The Versalab is not nearly as elegant as the glittering acrylic of the Summitek Cascade. But the basket can be removed in a moment, it's a snap to clean, it washes prints every bit as quickly as the Cascade while still using very little water, it's easy to get undersized prints out of, and it drains itself in about ten minutes with no effort at all. Compared to the Summitek, it makes very little noise when running.
The best part is it costs the remarkably low sum of $190. I will probably sell the Summitek and replace it with a 16x20 Versalab at some point. Sure, the Summitek looks nice, and the Versalab looks, well, plain. But the Versalab is a lot easier to live with, and the Summitek is just a pain in the... well, you get the idea.
Bottom line:
If you buy your equipment so your darkroom looks cool, buy a glitzy acrylic wonder like the Summitek. If you buy your equipment because it works, and you don't really give a rip what it looks like as long as it works, is reliable, and is easy to use, then buy the Versalab. I don't think you'll be disappointed.