Frank regarding the revolving door.
Call up all the labs in your city, someone will give you one for free , they are great.
Bob
Frank regarding the revolving door.
Call up all the labs in your city, someone will give you one for free , they are great.
Bob
I'm not a fan of the revolving door, particularly used ones that work less than optimally. Pocket doors seem ideal, but anyone who has ever had one in their home will likely attest to their un-ergonomic tendencies, and limited useful lifespan (perhaps mitigated with newer construction materials). The easiest/cheapest solution is probably to weatherstrip any old door and hang a heavy curtain in front (darkroom side). Two inexpensive (hollow-core) doors with light trap can be easily constructed in the same space a revolving door requires (as floorpan here). Both can be left open when cleaning, airing out, or transporting equipment into or out of the lab.
But here is something really wacky. I once was privy to a redesigned community college gang darkroom. The old heavy, dark and holey entry curtain was removed in favor of a free passage light maze something like this:
outside
----------
------------
darkroom
The theory being that light doesn't bend around corners, Einstein be damned!
It was quite light at enlarger stations closer to the door.
The maze was used in my school and I made one for my first commercial darkroom. Frankly it takes up too much room if you want to move big trays back and forth, but really really nice if you have the space.
I like the big revolving doors that can handle decent size trays, but if I had the space I would make the maze as it really is the best. Never had fogging as the light dosen't bend around the corners as you suggest.
Originally Posted by ROL
Of course, just begging the question, at that relatively small scale. Obviously, it worked well enough for their purposes. But I wouldn't recommend it for developing film.
Why do you need the room to be dark?
I've loaded, unloaded and processed all my film in open daylight, and never had a problem
Frank,
In my current darkroom I have a normal door, it works fine, foam weather stripping in the door frame to seal it tight. I have to push a little to close it and it is fine. Double squeegee type stripping on the bottom (inside and out).
I do have two hooks to drape a black cloth if for any reason I would ever need to, which I have not.
John Sexton has a slick setup.
The doors slide into the wall, there is a small office in front of the darkroom, so you close the outer doors and then open the darkroom doors. Come and go as you please. His were very wide doors, it is a really nice setup if you have the space and the need for another room in front of the darkroom entrance. I think he even had a light that would light up when the white lights in the darkroom were off and safe lights were on.
For many years, I worked in the newspaper darkroom with a light trap/maze.
That was great too.
Armand, one of my darkroom mentors, had the same darkroom setup as the staff fotogs, but he installed a heavy think black set of drapes that he only used when processing film. The Fotogs had tiny closets just for film and we never souped film in the room with the maze, just prints.
No fotog was allowed to use his room without permission, he had a great setup.
The revolving doors are great too, but it would be better still if you could have a service door also, my old E6 lab was setup like that. 99 percent of traffic went thru the revolving door and only when they really needed, they used the full size doorway.
have a great new year,
looking forward to seeing what you produce in 2012.
I have used darkrooms with revolving doors and they are great right up until you need two hands to carry something or are trying to move something big. I wouldn't put one in a darkroom unless there was another door too. Light traps are great but as Bob says they take up a lot of space. If you already have a door to the room just lightproof it. My current darkroom, a semi-converted bathroom, has a weatherstripped door with no leaks except on the bottom. If I am printing during the day I just put a towel across the bottom on the outside and when I shut the door it is light tight.
On a related point, I made a safelight out of the window by cutting a 8 inch hole in the cardboard over the window and placing photolith over it. It is a lot nicer printing during the day if you can look outside.
[QUOTE=ROL;825225]I'm not a fan of the revolving door, particularly used ones that work less than optimally. Pocket doors seem ideal, but anyone who has ever had one in their home will likely attest to their un-ergonomic tendencies, and limited useful lifespan (perhaps mitigated with newer construction materials).
May be the pocket doors fitted in USA are different to the ones I have fitted on my own home 25 yrs ago, the simple leveling principles and the fact of being able to
have your floorspace taken up by swing doors is a no brainer
a little lubrication to the tracks every year makes for a well operated barrier for light
the very reason i placed some example picture of the simplicity of lightproofing these units.
(
that where life as a TRUE Photographer begans!!What's a "darkroom" ? by Ed Kelsey
I add a light trap to a standard door.
It consists of a 1/2"x1" molding all the way around the door , on the frame side spaced 1/8 from the frame plus a 3/4" 1/4 round on the frame spaced 1/8" from the molding on the door. This is also done on the door sill.
Paint the inside flat black and it is light tight. The cost is about $25.00
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