Making Ipod screen darkroom safe

[f/stopblues]

Hello! I searched for a relevant thread but didn't come across anything, so my apologies if this has been discussed.

I'm going to be working in a public darkroom and I'd really like to play music in there since I recently picked up some really nice headphones (Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10Pro IEM's to be specific )

The Ipod screen is rather bright with light that's not-so-safe. I'd rather not run outside or hide in a corner every time i want to pick a song.

As you can see in the picture (sorry about the quality! It's from a camera phone,) the case I have has a piece of plastic that protects the screen. My first thought was to just slide a piece of colored translucent plastic under that part, but I'm not sure exactly what color I need (just any ol' red or amber?) I thought of using a safelight filter, but all the ones I've seen are too thick.

Any ideas? How about other novel approaches? Thanks!

Chris

[Anon Ymous]

Sorry for not being very helpful, but the best advice I can give is buy your own enlarger and print at your place. I always hated public darkrooms, they're just a compromise! For the record, my sound system has an orange display that is perfectly safe for any paper

[David A. Goldfarb]

Eugene Smith put a red filter over a B&W TV in his darkroom. I'd try a few layers of red lighting gel equivalent to a 25A filter, and be sure to test (especially with multigrade papers, which are more safelight sensitive than graded papers in general) before taking it into a public darkroom where others are working.

[f/stopblues]

I actually have a whole darkroom, Anon Ymous, except it's packed in boxes and in storage. There isn't any space for it right now! Oh I wish..

I'll be sure to test it, David. Is it adequate to just eyeball a gel that looks close to a 25A? I'm not sure how exact the color needs to be, or how exact safelight color is in the first place.

[Mark Fisher]

Might consider getting an old iPod Mini....it has a monochrome LCD. That is what I use. Otherwise, the red filter (e.g. rubylith) idea should work well. Red Saran wrap would probably work if you put enough on.

[JBrunner]

My thought is that a good deep red filter will cut enough transmission, besides color spectrum, to eliminate most any problems so long as you keep it oriented away and 4-6 feet distance. Test of course.

[archphoto]

How about the little iPod Shuffle ? Small, no screen to worry about and cheap !

Probable even cheaper than a couple of red gels that you have to tape over your more expensive one ?!

Peter

[David A. Goldfarb]

Is it adequate to just eyeball a gel that looks close to a 25A? I'm not sure how exact the color needs to be, or how exact safelight color is in the first place.

Rosco conveniently uses the standard numbers for their gels that match Wratten filter colors, so look up "Rosco #25 gel" on the B&H website, or your favorite supplier, and you'll find the right color.

[f/stopblues]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll probably try out the red filter method and see how that works. A local photo shop has a large amount of new old stock screw mount filters. I may try removing the glass from the mount on a 25A filter and using that. They're selling them for $2 each. Step down/up rings are $1

As for the secondary Ipods, I have about 65gigs of music on mine, so I'd rather stick with it

Chris

[BetterSense]

see if you can get any free 3D glasses, and steal the red side out of them.