Anyone in TAIWAN ?

[David R Munson]

I have a second, small bathroom in my apartment that I mostly light-proofed (still can only use it at night!), and I have processed sheet film in there. I have a small table I set up in the shower, and I use plastic refrigerator trays from Daiso to do the processing. Not great, but cheap and they work OK.

These days I am mostly shooting 35mm and 120 film. My 5D Mk II needs to be sent in for repair as soon as I get back to the US, and I just shipped all my 4x5 equipment back to the US, so all I have right now are 35mm and medium format. This is a good thing as it's given me an opportunity to get my backlog of undeveloped film down from about 150 rolls to less than 20 now.

[silvio]

Sounds good. I guess I'd do something similar if I needed to process 4x5 b&w. I've been living in Korea and have been sending a bunch of stuff back from time to time. It's expensive but I like the quality and being able to communicate any issue I have with the processing.

Any tips on living in Kaohsiung? There is a nice community of shooters where I have been living(Busan).

[David R Munson]

Kaohsiung is a good city to be in. There's one shop that I know of that still deals film and film cameras and looks like it's been there for a long time (near the O2 Yanchengpu subway stop). The rest of the camera shops are mostly concentrated in one part of town known as Computer Street right off of the R10 Kaohsiung Main Station subway stop. They have plenty of stuff available there for digital, accessories, and tripods, but not much for film cameras. There's also a camera district in Taipei, and film cameras and related supplies are much easier to come by there. I'm sure there are online shops in Taiwan that sell relevant things, but I haven't found them.

It's funny that you're coming to Kaohsiung from Busan. I came here a little more than a year ago after living a while in Changwon!

[silvio]

wow, that is random. When you were in Korea what did you do with your Large Format work? Do you ever shoot color 4x5? From what I can gather online it may be best just to send my stuff back to the states. I've actually done that here for my medium format work. I'm death with some labs in Seoul, which are pretty good. Although the inability to communicate much is a barrier. I plan to get a scanner when I come to Taiwan.

If I did shoot B&W and process it myself it is easy to get ahold of chemicals in Kaohsiung?

Thanks for all your help, really useful information.

[David R Munson]

I wasn't doing any 4x5 in Korea, that's just been something I've recently returned to after a hiatus of maybe 4 years.

The only place I know of to get chemicals in Kaohsiung is at the old shop in the Yanchengpu neighborhood, and they have the problem of having both limited selection and high prices on what chemicals they do have. Honestly I'm not even sure they're still replenishing stock. The last time I got anything there it was a bottle of wetting agent that seemed pretty new, but it cost more than it should have and it was sitting next to a box of enlarging paper that appeared to be (without exaggeration) at least 30 years old. Your better bet is either to find what you need in Taipei or have it shipped to you from abroad.

[silvio]

Sounds good, thanks for the info. I think I will end up sending my stuff out of country for developing especially if I'm shooting c-41. Maybe it will work out though for doing my own b&w. Cheers.