[lithedreamer]

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Has anyone had experience printing with color? I mostly shoot color film, and wasn’t particularly impressed with the digital workflow options I’ve worked with in the past. I develop my own C-41 with zero issues, but I’ve never used an enlarger.

I’ve gathered that I'll need an enlarger with a dichronic head (and a good bulb), lens, darkroom timer, tongs and trays, negative tray, easel, grain finder, contact printing frame, paper, chemistry.

Did I miss anything? How much can a beginner's kit expect to cost used?

Honestly, it seems like a lot going on, so I see why the only darkroom even remotely within traveling distance is purely B&W.

[Kelvin 5500]

I’ve gathered that I'll need an enlarger with a dichronic head (and a good bulb), lens, darkroom timer, tongs and trays, negative tray, easel, grain finder, contact printing frame, paper, chemistry.

Did I miss anything? How much can a beginner's kit expect to cost used?

Instead of tray processing, you will be using drums on a motor base. The reason you can't use tray processing is because color paper has to be processed in total darkness. Therefore, you will not be able to see the paper to pick it up and transfer it from tray to tray. With drum processing, you place the exposed paper in a drum, put the end caps on, and then turn the room lights on to do the processing.

You will also need graduates for the chemicals that you will then place in a temperature controlled water bath.

Good luck,

Dennis

[Derek]

Has anyone had experience printing with color? I mostly shoot color film, and wasn’t particularly impressed with the digital workflow options I’ve worked with in the past. I develop my own C-41 with zero issues, but I’ve never used an enlarger.

I’ve gathered that I'll need an enlarger with a dichronic head (and a good bulb), lens, darkroom timer, tongs and trays, negative tray, easel, grain finder, contact printing frame, paper, chemistry.

Did I miss anything? How much can a beginner's kit expect to cost used?

Honestly, it seems like a lot going on, so I see why the only darkroom even remotely within traveling distance is purely B&W.

Well, what Dennis said plus a set of Kodak Viewing Filters (quite cheap) to judge what color adjustments need to be made. Many of the items you'd be buying would also work for black and white. Color isn't any more difficult than BW, just different. RA-4 also a lot less finicky than C-41 re temperature requirements.
Darkroom equipment has been at giveaway prices for a long time. Shop around, ask lots of questions, have fun. Color paper is usually cheaper than BW due to lower silver content.
Photorio.com (former APUG) is a great place for asking advice about darkroom work.
Oh yeah, buy an enlarger that is at least one format size larger than what you plan on shooting. Having your own darkroom capability becomes very addicting.

Derek

[stevebrot]

Instead of tray processing, you will be using drums on a motor base.

...and there is a major rub. At one time, one could buy a Unicolor drum and base for a fairly reasonable amount, but even finding such used is not easy at present.* I may be wrong, but I believe that the Jobo System 3000 "Expert" drums and Jobo 3062 (legacy by special order) are the only product currently available for that purpose. The 3005 Expert drums max out at 8x10 while the 3062 will allow up to 11x14. Jobo also makes the 3063 for up to 20x24. All are expensive.

One can do tray processing, but it is by the "feelie" method only and requires much larger chemical volumes.


Steve

* I use my Unicolor drum and motorized base for 4x5 film processing, where I can do four at a time. I should probably invest in a MOD54 frame for use with a Patterson tank.

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Last edited by stevebrot; 03-17-2019 at 12:16 PM.

[stevebrot]

At one time, one could buy a Unicolor drum and base for a fairly reasonable amount, but even finding such used is not easy at present.

I typed too soon. There are a couple of drums and motor base on eBay for reasonable money. If interested, be sure to buy the drum for print processing. The drum for film is not useful for print paper. The motor base is highly recommended and beats manual agitation by rocking the drum back and forth on the counter top.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/625/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=unicolor


Steve

[Wasp]

Back in the old days, the simplest way to print in color was Cibachrome. It was used with color transparencies. You put the silde or film strip in your enlarger and made the exposure in complete darkness. You then loaded the exposed sheet of paper into a drum. After that you could switch the lights on. There were three steps in the development. No need for any machines, you just rolled the drum back and forth on the table. Not too difficult, could be done in your home darkroom. The colors were just wonderfully saturated when you got it right. It was quite expensive, sadly. As far as I remember, you needed a different drum for each paper size. Temperatures for the chemicals was easy to do. You just pored them into vials that you kept in a water bath at the right temperature. Color negative printing was a lot more complicated and I never tried that. Sadly, Cibachrome is long gone now.

[TomB_tx]

Yes, I did print slides onto Cibachrome decades ago. Gave very nice results.

[StiffLegged]

I'm a bit jealous! Although I only did black & white, some of the best fun of those days was making my own prints. All the best with getting the kit together and starting!

[Maxman1947]

It's been a long time since I had my color darkroom, another addition that I found to be indespensible is a color analyzer. I had a Beseler PM2 which worked very well. It makes getting the settings on the dichro color head much easier to do. Analyzers are available on ebay for a fraction of what they were new. My enlarger was a Beseler 23C with a dual dichro color head, it was quite excellent, though there are probably better ones available now. Electric powered print drums are nice, but i just hand agitated them, price conscious I guess. Have fun with whatever color set up you end up with.

[jcdoss]

Did I miss anything? How much can a beginner's kit expect to cost used?

So, what's the equipment list looking like now, and what's the running total?

[3by2]

I used to use a slot processor which I found easier than the jobo type drum kits. However they are more expensive and less suited to occasional use. I don't even know if you can still get them now.

[tuco]

Instead of tray processing, you will be using drums on a motor base. The reason you can't use tray processing is because color paper has to be processed in total darkness. Therefore, you will not be able to see the paper to pick it up and transfer it from tray to tray.

Dennis

I've done color prints in trays before back when you could get a room temperature color developing kit.

[tuco]

Did I miss anything?

A color analyzer. Or you can get color print viewing filter kit you see hanging on the cord and in front of the analyzer in this picture. After your print dries, you look at it through these filters to try and figure out how much CMY to add or subtract to get the right color balance. A bunch of attempts later you finally may have it right. All night to do a few prints.

[lithedreamer]

This has been some really wonderful input, thanks y'all. Craigslist near me is pretty scarce on enlargers, and almost all of the ones on eBay are 'local (i.e. very far away) pick-up only'.

Combining that with wanting an enlarger that can accept up to 4x5 film is tricky, plus color support.

[PDL]

I used to do a lot of color printing, both color film stock and transparency.
Things to remember:

• When you change chemistry - you need to re run all setup tests.
• When you change paper - you need to re run setup test shots. (the suggested base corrections are printed on the box)
• When you change light bulbs in the enlarger, you need to re-run setup tests. (suggested base corrections are printed on the box)
• If your film does not come from the same base stock (i.e. emulsion number printed on the box) you will need to run new setup tests for that roll of film. (Hint: buy your film in bulk and write all this stuff down)
• Get/or make a light meter for the enlarger, it is easier to set a plain old light meter rather than use another piece of paper to adjust exposure time if/when you change the enlargement amount.
• Back in the day I had a Omega filter tester that allowed you to validate the dichoric settings on your enlarger.
• Safelights do not work. You have to do everything in complete darkness except for the exposure.
• Once the exposed paper is in the tube (we had a unicolor) you can work in a lighted area.
• Temperature of the tube, chemistry must be kept within spec. A large temperature controlled water bath is essential, use water from this bath to "temper" the tube before you insert the paper and add chemistry.
• Don't do this if you are using a septic tank. No reason to make your leach field a hazardous waste site. (This is why I do not do this - may be when I "downsize") Investigate methods of neutralizing the chemistry and silver recovery. Remember, color prints do not contain silver, but the unexposed paper does, all silver is removed during processing.
• Dodging and especially burning can/will cause color shifts. Do so grudgingly.
• Keep notes as to film emulsion number, paper base corrections, light bulb base corrections, filter settings and exposure settings. Making changes as these variables move around will save you a lot of time.

I remember spending many hours making Cibachrome prints from my Kodak and Fuji transparencies. I also shot/developed/printed a lot of B&W. I did shoot/develop/print color film, but I just did not get all that into it, I preferred transparencies as I could see what is going on, like with digital. Shooting transparencies taught me to expose to keep the highlights, something I still do today. Good memories all in all.