Like Christmas for a little kid!

[pbromaghin]

Oh, man. Did I make a haul. I just brought home a huge pile of top-quality darkroom equipment.

Free.

It filled the back of my Honda CRV, with the seats down, all the way to the top so I drove from Chicago to Denver without the use of the rear-view mirror. Omega D5XL with dichroic head, power supply, holders, slot print washer, densitometer, dry mount press, bushel box of SS reels and tanks, studio lights, backdrop holder, large paper cutter, heated tub/sink for color film processing, light box, 2 print dryers, tongs and trays, print easels, papers and chemistry, anti-Newton glass, a new-in-box Minolta X-370 body with auto winder, and a bunch of stuff I don't even know what it is.

It's pretty cool how this happened. A year ago Laostyle17 and I attended the showing of Ansel Adams' Museum Set in a suburb of Chicago. A reporter from the Tribune was interviewing attendees and I ended up being quoted in the article as saying I was in revolt against digital and was accumulating darkroom equipment. So this retired guy, Barry, is sitting in his large suburban home, thinking of the massive pile of junk he and his wife have to get rid of to fit their lifestyle into their downtown condo. This pile includes the pro-level darkroom he no longer uses since going digital. The local photo school (with 6 other B&W D5's) wouldn't take it because it would be too much trouble to explain the dichroic head to the students. Not even if he delivered it himself. A friend of his put one out for the junk man and the junk man didn't take it. He reads this article and decides this guy in Denver with the weird last name just might be the sucker he can unload it on.

So he found my number on the internet and I just happened to be working at home that day and answered. We hit it off right from the start and talked for over an hour. He told me things about analog and having tons of negatives he wants to scan. I told him things about hybrid process, even talking him out of giving me a Mamiya C330 because new negs scan just as well as old. Our conversations continued for almost a whole year until this weekend when I backed into his driveway and we loaded it all up. Going through some of the boxes at home, it almost makes me cry to think of what this meant to him, all the money he spent accumulating it, and that the only alternative was the dumpster.

Now, all that's left to do is build a room to hold it all and find the time to use it. But that's a different thread.

[Alan W]

I love a happy ending.

[Nick Merritt]

Does he still want to give away that C330? I'm serious!

[tony lockerbie]

Still very heartening to know that there are people like you that will give it a good home....to marks to you!

[Kevin Caulfield]

That's a great story. Thank you for sharing it with us. Have fun with all your new stuff.

[lightwisps]

Wow, what a haul!! Do you wear a black bit of fabric over your eye and fly the Jolly Roger someplace on your car? What a lucky pirate. Don

[pbromaghin]

Nick Merritt:

No he doesn't. He is going to start doing hybrid process. If I had only kept my mouth shut I would have it now. It would have gone really well with my C33 and he has the 55mm and 65mm lenses that I don't have. All Blue Dot, too.

But he does have a Nikon f2 and f3 he wants to sell. Probably some lenses. I didn't go for that because I am heavily committed to Minolta MD series.

[Chrismat]

All that darkroom accumulation on his part will not go to waste now because of your enthusiasm for traditional printing, I hope he can take comfort in that. Fantastic story and congratulations.

[canuhead]

You know you have to send him some prints made with his/your enlarger. He's probably happy it went to someone who is going to use it and I'm of the same mind for some of my stuff. Some

[pbromaghin]

You know you have to send him some prints made with his/your enlarger. He's probably happy it went to someone who is going to use it and I'm of the same mind for some of my stuff. Some

Sending him prints was the only condition on the exchange.