Contact Printer - How's this work?!

[Scott --]

Ok, complete newbie question, I'm sure, but how does this kind of contact printer (http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Kodak-wooden-contact-printer_W0QQitemZ110120989922QQihZ001QQcategoryZ711QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) work? Good option for a beginner in contact printing?

[Nick_3536]

First you buy a time machine and go and buy contact paper. :rolleyes:

The bulb etc is designed for slow contact papers. Not for enlarging paper.

Second issue is look at the size. I'm not sure from the pictures but I bet it's for 4x5 or smaller.

I wouldn't buy it to use it. If you do and the size works for you you'll need to knock the light level down. ND filters? Smaller bulbs?

It's easier to just get yourself a heavy piece of glass and a small light [7watt or so] that you can plug into a timer.

Or you could look for a contact printing frame. Smaller ones show up on Ebay often listed as picture frames.

[Ash]

I guess you lay the neg and paper on the top, plug it in, the light turns on inside, self-contained unit. Might be fun?

Hey, maybe I'll add it to my list of things to make/botch up :D

[Gene McCluney]

That "kind" of contact printer has a light bulb in the base, and a ground glass or opal glass plate where you put your negative emulsion side up, then you place a sheet of photo paper emulsion side down on top of the negative close the door and turn on the light, or the light may come on when the door is closed. You then count off the seconds of your exposure in your mind, take the paper out and process it. This example you link to is a very primitive piece, and only suitable for small negatives, and it may not even be big enough for 4x5. Hard to tell in the listing. You can get much better control of your contact prints by just using a contact printing frame, and your enlarger, or a dim light bulb hanging overhead as your light source. With this method I described, you can dodge and burn, giving you creative control, with the contact printer you linked to, there would be difficulty in doing localized exposure control over just part of the negative.

[John Cahill]

Scott,
I would say it is not a good option at first, although if the price is right, buy it.
To me, contact printing has always been easier using an enlarger light. Papers are faster now and do not need the added oomph of many lamps close to the matrix.
With our old contact printers, overall doging was done by selectively turning off bulbs under the neg as needed. Even then, for precise control, cut-to-form-pieces of tissue paper were placed as needed.
You can do the same thing with tissue paper, or red crayon, or whatever, on the glass of a contact printing frame under an enlarger if using a dodging tool does not work.
That piece does, however, look like it would make a nice what-is- it piece of furniture for the time being.

[Scott --]

Ah, t'was worth a shot. More in my never-ending quest for darkroom-free printing. :p

Thanks, guys.
Scott

[Gene McCluney]

Ah, t'was worth a shot. More in my never-ending quest for darkroom-free printing. :p

Thanks, guys.
Scott

Scott, that printer, or any other contact printer, or contact printing frame is absolutely a "darkroom required" piece of equipment. If you want to make prints in daylight, you need a mini-lab such as a Fuji Frontier. The only other way to make prints in normal room light, is to scan the negs and make inkjet type prints. ha ha.

[Scott --]

Well, here's what I'm (now) envisioning: I'll set up the back room in the basement so as to darken it fully. Get a safelight. Rig up some kind of 4 to 7 watt bulb. Get a contact printing frame or two. Expose the paper in the "dark" room. Load the paper in my Unicolor drum. Develop it in daylight.

I just hate having to try to block out light in any room we have. Requires electrical tape over smoke detector lights, towels in front of doors... :rolleyes:

[Gene McCluney]

Yes, you could do this as you describe, but as you see, you need darkness to expose the paper..thus a dark room is at least partially required for any home method of exposing b/w photo paper...except POP (printing out paper) which may or may not still be available.

[Nick_3536]

For printing you'd be suprised how much light you can tolerate.

Plus light doesn't go around corners so there are ways to minimize light leak problems.

[Scott --]

Yep, gotta darken it, I guess. I was actually looking for printing frames on eBay when I happened across several such box-type devices. The wheels started turning, and I thought there might be a loophole. Guess not, really.

I'm looking forward to starting in on contact printing, though. The 4x5s are going to be a little on the small side (though 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 used to be a standard print size from Walgreen's, and 4x5's awfully close), but when I get me that 5x7... :D

[Jan Pedersen]

Scott, with your woodmaking skills you can make a real nice contact printing frame in some nice fancy wood,, how about black valnut?

[Scott --]

Yeah, Jan, that thought's already run through my head once or twice... ;)

[Kevin Crisp]

I think you may find these things are sheathed internally with flaking asbestos. I had my hands on two and they were both that way.

[Donald Qualls]

Scott, one way you could get good use out of that contact printer is to mount a spiral compact fluorescent BLB bulb in it, and use it for alt-process or POP printing. It'd be an *excellent* way to expose cyanotype, van Dyke brown, kallitype, even platinum within its size (the only way to make platinum affordable -- print *really* small), as well as albumen and POP -- probably even work with Azo or the replacement for it that Michael and Paula have been working on (if that ever finally bore fruit, and you can manage to get some). You probably wouldn't do much dodging and burning on a 4x5 contact print anyway, so the negative and paper being locked in during exposure isn't that big a deal...

However, for more general contact printing, you want something more like this contact printing frame (http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-WOOD-CONTACT-PRINTING-FRAME-1800s-LABEL-MINT_W0QQitemZ290110700937QQihZ019QQcategoryZ4702QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).

[Brian Ellis]

"I just hate having to try to block out light in any room we have. Requires electrical tape over smoke detector lights, towels in front of doors... "

Paint the smoke detector lights red or tape a piece of red tissue paper over them.

Depending on where the doors are, how many there are, how far from the paper, etc. you might not need the towels. Remember the inverse square rule of light fall-off with flash - it applies to light coming in under doors as well.

[Paul Metcalf]

Well, here's what I'm (now) envisioning: I'll set up the back room in the basement so as to darken it fully. Get a safelight. Rig up some kind of 4 to 7 watt bulb. Get a contact printing frame or two. Expose the paper in the "dark" room. Load the paper in my Unicolor drum. Develop it in daylight.

I just hate having to try to block out light in any room we have. Requires electrical tape over smoke detector lights, towels in front of doors... :rolleyes:
Scott-
I have what I affectionally call a "dark closet" in my house. Until I make my wife's quilting room bigger, I'm not allowed to make my closet bigger. But it does have plumbing and a sink, and my 4x5 enlarger, but only has room to do 8x10 prints in trays (which is why I haven't migrated to 11x14 or bigger for contact printing yet). So when I enlarge to bigger print sizes, I use my Jobo drums (despite all of the naysayers) to develop the prints. It can be done, and it's a better alternative than doing nothing. Good luck. Paul

[Paul Metcalf]

BTW, that's a pretty cool looking box in any fashion. Might be good for something else.