Hi, just wanted to introduce myself. To some peoples surprise I am planning a darkroom. It was over 15 years since I used one but I really had the urge when I found out how fun it was to develop my film shot with my Leica M6 or my russian Iskra II and scanned the negs. But I wasn't really able to make nice prints with those scans. And it was quite boring sitting in front of the computer; something I do a lot anyway...
So I bought a second hand Durst M70 with colour head and a Nikkor 50/2.8 and a Schneider Componon-S 80/4.
In a quite chaotic night in the kitchen I actually made some really nice large prints! This is even more fun than developing the films! So, the next step will be to make a darkroom in the basement in a couple of weeks, without running water, but otherwise with space so I can have most of the equipment permanently set up. What I like about the wet printing compared to the scanning is that it actually is so fast to work with. You expose the paper for a couple of seconds, develop for a minute, or something, 30 sec in the stop and then into the fixer for say a minute before you can turn on the light and look at the finished picture.

So Apug seems to be a good place to search and ask all the questions as I start to fine tune my work and experiment with fb-paper, toners, home brew developers, etc.

/matti

Hi and welcome Matti
I think you will feel at home here.
A word of warning though. Beware of the LF pushers, they get you hooked in no time if you don't watch out :)
Cheers from Denmark, Søren

More Scandinavians are always welcome :D

LF pushers? What LF pushers??? I haven't even advertised my Linhof Color yet! :p

Hi Matti! You've find the right spot on the web. APUG is the place where you'll get 100% support for your analog perspective on photography.
With so many Scandinavians around there may be time for a local APUG meeting soon...

... and my enlarger only takes 6x7. Did I hear anyone say contact prints? :p

/matti

Hi Matti, welcome from Hawaii. I have a good friend here from Stockholm, from what I have seen it is a beautiful city, so I am looking forward to seeing your images in the gallery.

A big welcome from New England.

You seem to be eager to mess with the forbidden pleasures of a dark secluded space with lots of weird instrumments and dangerous liquids. Don't say we didn't warn you.

... and my enlarger only takes 6x7. Did I hear anyone say contact prints? :p

/matti


Didn`t take long to lure this guy in :)


Welcome Matti

... and my enlarger only takes 6x7. Did I hear anyone say contact prints? :p

/matti
No problem, you will not be restricted to contact prints when (not if) you go large. You're not that far from Uppsala and when you join Uppsala Fotografiska Sällskap you'll be able to enlarge from up to 10x10 inch negatives using our Durst 184 :-)

/Richard, 35 mm RF + 4x5" LF

Oh, no! Don't tempt me like that!
You don't happen to know where I can buy chemicals for Pyrocat and alkali fix in Sweden? My chemist wife would be happy to mix it up for me at the lab, but she doesn't want to order it for me.

/matti

No problem, you will not be restricted to contact prints when (not if) you go large. You're not that far from Uppsala and when you join Uppsala Fotografiska Sällskap you'll be able to enlarge from up to 10x10 inch negatives using our Durst 184 :-)

He's also right next to Forstöringsateljéen - who have a 20x24" enlarger named "UFFE". Yes, 20x24" is the film size. :D

Welcome, Matti.

And now I have a question - I'll be in Sweden this summer for a few weeks. Can you recommend a good shop where I can buy film? I'll carry slow films with me, but I'd prefer to buy fast films on location to avoid security issues with hand-checked film.

Hi Robert, Kameradoktorn http://kameradoktorn.se/ is in the middle of Stockholm. They have a good selection of films. But if you want something special, you might want to check with them before you go. I am unaware about what they have in LF, for example.

/matti

Welcome, Matti.

And now I have a question - I'll be in Sweden this summer for a few weeks. Can you recommend a good shop where I can buy film? I'll carry slow films with me, but I'd prefer to buy fast films on location to avoid security issues with hand-checked film.

He's also right next to Forstöringsateljéen - who have a 20x24" enlarger named "UFFE". Yes, 20x24" is the film size. :D

See what I mean :)
Hey Ole. Thats foul play, We where talking LF not ULF :D
Cheers, Søren

Hi Matti, welcome to APUG and the world of wet photography. BTW, my wife's family is from Duved up north. She will be travelling there this year late July.

Hi Matti,

A very warm welcome and regards from Finland!

Cheers

André

Hi matti, glad you like your DURST and the dark pleasures !!!

Hi, (And thanks for the kodak pdf!)

Yes I like the Durst so far. It's a bit difficult to make the small turns needed to get grain focus. Maybe it's the 25x focuser that makes it difficult, or I could just use film with larger grain :-) .

I think I will start to actually build the new darkroom this weekend, when we trash our old kitchen, I will reuse the cupboards and some other stuff. If I get really creative I might even put some paint on the raw concrete walls!

/matti

Hi matti, glad you like your DURST and the dark pleasures !!!

Uh-oh!!
seems like another memeber of darkoom-holics anonymous :D

Welcome Matti! Good to have you.

Nice first upload to your gallery!

Bill

Thank you Bill. I don't really use slides like this that much. I'll try to upload some some real prints later. As soon as I have figured out a way to do that without using a scanner :-)

/matti

Welcome to APUG, Matti, and congratulations on your darkroom.

Hi Robert, Kameradoktorn http://kameradoktorn.se/ is in the middle of Stockholm. They have a good selection of films. But if you want something special, you might want to check with them before you go. I am unaware about what they have in LF, for example.

/matti

Thank you, Matti. I'll be shooting MF so film should be pretty simple.