darryl@ism780.UUCP (06/13/84)
#N:ism780:21200001:000:778 ism780!darryl Jun 10 00:28:00 1984 Does anyone out there do color printing from negatives and/or slides at home? I am interested in setting up a darkroom in my home with the eventual intention of doing color. Does anyone have recommendations as to the processes that are most likely to succeed in such an environment? How about the Kodak Extaflex system? The little I know seems to indicate that the print size is limited and the "paper" is expensive, but there is only one solution and temperature control isn't necessary. What kind of equipment do I need to be able to do C-41? Cibachrome? Replies gratefully accepted by mail, phone, snail, or net. Thanks very much, --Darryl Richman ...!cca!ima!ism780!darryl Interactive Systems, 1212 7th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 (213)450-8363
briand@tekig1.UUCP (Brian Diehm) (06/15/84)
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For your home color darkroom, consider Agfachrome Speed. It has ease of
use unmatched by anything else - one solution in a tray, no critical time or
temperature problems, wash and squegee. No special machine a la Kodak Ekta-
flex PCT, no multiple solution and temperature stuff. It comes in all standard
sizes, so that is not a limitation.
It is, however, expensive. C'est la vie, I guess.
Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.smith@umn-cs.UUCP (Richard Smith) (06/16/84)
#R:ism780:21200001:umn-cs:9000016:000:1703
umn-cs!smith Jun 15 18:04:00 1984
Re: Home Color
Cibachrome is a slide printing process. I've been doing it at home
for about 5 years now. I've been happy with it. The plusses:
1 Minimum space. I've usually had to use a closet as a 'darkroom': you
just need enough dark space for the enlarger, yourself, and the light
tight drum. This is true of all drum-oriented processes though.
2 The chemistry is almost as simple as black and white processing. There
are 3 chemicals, 3 minutes each. Temperature is recommended to be
at 75 degrees (give or take 3), but they have a chart for temperatures
from about 68 to 80 degrees or so.
3 The Cibachrome drum is probably the least expensive on the market. It
handles 5x7 and 8x10 fine. For about $10 you can buy an extra tube
for it that handles 11x14 prints, too. You don't HAVE to use the
Cibachrome drum though, nor do you probably have to be doing Cibachrome
to use their drum.
4 Cibachrome is the most permanent color photo process there is. Other
color processes produce the color dies chemically during processing.
Cibachrome dies are built into the paper. The image is created by
bleaching out excess dyes in the paper, leaving stable dies to make
up the photographic image.
The minuses:
1 Cibachrome is expensive. I think it's running about $2.50 per 8x10
processed at home to pay for chemicals and paper.
2 The glossy paper is the best but the matte surfaced Pearl paper is
the cheapest. The glossy costs about TWICE as much per pack. I thought
they were kidding when I found that out.
3 Cibachrome is weak on contrast control. There really isn't any.
Rick.
[smith.umn-cs@CSNet-Relay]
[...ihnp4!umn-cs!smith]smith@umn-cs.UUCP (Richard Smith) (06/18/84)
#R:ism780:21200001:umn-cs:9000017:000:815 umn-cs!smith Jun 17 15:17:00 1984 While pontificating on the advantages of the Cibachrome drum, I should mention what I learned last weekend. I was working with a friend who owns a Beseler drum. It proved to be a very nice drum to use if you have a motor base. The Cibachrome drum must be held upright when you pour chemicals into it while the Beseler has to be placed sideways, i.e. on the motor base. Also, the Beseler empties quickly and doesn't drip chemicals like the Cibachrome drum tends to. I had 3 problems with the Beseler, though: 1) it has 'feet' that make it hard to hand-roll; 2) it has a trough down the center that makes it hard to dry between prints [I could use a bath towel to dry the Cibachrome drum, but had to use paper towels to dry the Beseler]; and 3) it costs more and can't be easily 'converted' to 11x14 size. Rick.
notes@harpo.UUCP (06/18/84)
#R:ism780:21200001::73000001:000:1595 !mls Jun 14 11:59:00 1984 I do color printing at home both from negatives and slides. From slides is a little easier because you can see directly with filter colors you need to add to shift twoards the color that you want in the final print. Processing time is somewhat longer because you go thru 3 chemical baths rather than two. Also the color reversal material is more expensive. I have used the old Cibrachome and was happy with it. Basically you need an enlarger that will accept color filters or a color head. I have both, however I use the filters, because the light level with the color head is not uniform. Also, you will find that once you find a particulr filter set for the paper you are currently using, most of your prints will be OK particularly if taken with an automatic exposesure cammera and similar light conditions. You will need a drum to process and a drum roller is you do not want to roll the drum manually. A timer for the enlarger is helpful. An exposure meter is also helpful and an accurate thermometer. With the drums I can make a print every 30 minutes. With Ekaflex, I expect you could make one every 10 minutes if you want to see the result before making the next one. I bought my equipment before the Etaflex was available. The choice of paper size is limited, however I think the ease far outweighs the limit of paper and choice. Only one chemical is required and it has long life. I understand at least a year. For the drum process some of the developers have a mixed shelf life of 3 to 40 days. Irv McNair ATT Bell Labs whuxc!imm Send mail to address above not harpo
kurtk@tektronix.UUCP (Kurt Krueger) (06/20/84)
I make out quite well in a bedroom that has the windows covered with black plastic. I use Kodak Ektaprint chemicals and related paper. Temperature control is important, but not as critical as Kodak would like you to believe. I do all my processing in a light tight tube in the kitchen using a water bath. This is MUCH cheaper than Ektaflex, especially if you buy paper in 100 sheet boxes and chemicals by the gallon (get some glass graduated cylinders to mix up a quart at a time, works fine regardless of what Kodak will say. Just be REAL carefull that you don't contaminate your solutions and everything works great). Color is actually less messy than b&w because you don't have the open trays. The Ektaprint 2 process only uses two solutions (developer and bleach-fix) not counting water rinses. I get around color balance problems by buying paper and film in large quantities (24 rolls of film, 100 sheets of paper) and keep the stock in the freezer. There IS a difference from batch to batch of film and the correction factors on the paper are never quite correct.
kiessig@idi.UUCP (Rick Kiessig) (06/23/84)
The biggest problem I have with my color darkroom that
I never had with my B&W one is throughput. It takes me 20 to 30
minutes to do two 8x10's in my 11x14 drum (I know the sizes don't
add up, but believe me, it works). Whereas with B&W using open
trays I could do one print every couple of minutes. With color,
it can take several WHOLE DAYS to print one roll of 36 (of course,
that being the case, I never print entire rolls!).
What I would like to know is if anyone knows of a good
system for handling multiple color prints at a time? I've heard
of some super expensive units, but nothing reasonable for home use.
--
Rick Kiessig
{decvax, ucbvax}!sun!idi!kiessig
{akgua, allegra, amd70, burl, cbosgd, dual, harpo, ihnp4}!idi!kiessig
Phone: 408-996-2399