Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
I wrote an applescript (MacOS only) that says how many (half) minutes have passed. I can bring my laptop INTO the darkroom since it blacks out the screen. It also has a countdown function so you can feel your away around in the dark before the actual development starts.
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Thanks for your most useful comment
What is the exact accuracy possible dipping sheets in trays
I do use programmed timers on my Gas Burst covered tanks and relax in the light while processing
Usually
but sometimes I really do count and look under safe light while processing very old films and plates one at a time
an old method called process by inspection
perhaps you know it
or not
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jay Wolfe
The lack of precision in your suggestion is ridiculous. Look at the other recommendations. There are plenty of other options that will be more accurate. Maybe with your 14k responses, you should back off and let more informed members offer more useful information.
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jay Wolfe
The lack of precision in your suggestion is ridiculous. Look at the other recommendations. There are plenty of other options that will be more accurate. Maybe with your 14k responses, you should back off and let more informed members offer more useful information.
Why? Ansel Adams used the same method with a metronome. The person you responded to said “if no timer” and not everyone expects or needs results consistent with a high level of precision (noting the distinction between accuracy and precision). I suspect that with my musical training I could count in my head within 10-15% one way or the other. Are your shutters that accurate?
Rick “this is not the forum for posts with personal attacks—okay?” Denney
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Digital Truth’s Lab Timer app for iphone counts up. You can set it to output red light which, combined with the ability to set a low light filter (Google for how to do this) on the phone makes it sufficiently dark for darkroom use. I set it on the floor when I tray develop so there’s no direct path to the plates in the tray.
That app allows very detailed processes to be set up and stored. I use it mostly for E-6 and C-41. Multi-purpose apps are the best.
There’s also this, which counts up and down. You’ll want to cover it in rubylith and tinted film to dim it down.
https://www.amazon.com/DreamSky-Adju...565920&sr=8-11
There’s also this version, which has an LCD display and is therefore not lit.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YXL1J18..._B07HGN7F58_pd
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Here’s another option: http://www.curtpalm.com/Software.html
I don’t know whether he has kept the software up to date.
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
I bought and tried a $20 timer for the blind from a online store for the blind
Total crap
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
The Catlabs darkroom timer looks very much like a modern copy of the ZoneVI compensating timer, one of which has lived in my darkroom for something like 40 years. The ZoneVI is a count-up timer, and personally I love the compensating feature which I use both in tray developing sheet film, tank developing 120 and 35mm (I put the sensor in a beaker of water the same temperature as that in the tank), and printing. Since the ZoneVI is no longer made, I cannot judge whether the Catlabs price of $333 is fair or not.
Re: Looking for a count up timer for use with film development
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jay Wolfe
The lack of precision in your suggestion is ridiculous. Look at the other recommendations. There are plenty of other options that will be more accurate. Maybe with your 14k responses, you should back off and let more informed members offer more useful information.
Not so imprecise... I can easily count seconds, without a metronome, up to 5 minutes or more and miss by only a few; an error in the 1-2% range. I do this with long exposures all the time, since it's usually easier than bothering with my iPhone.
FWIW, I developed sheet film in my makeshift darkroom in my apartment in Vienna for more than 20 years, counting seconds with a metronome. No problems at all, and precise to the second. Normal developing times were from 9 to 14 minutes.
The suggestion is neither ridiculous nor superfluous.
I now use my Zone VI compensating developing timers for both film and paper development, but I still print with a metronome. I'm fairly confident in my accuracy.
Best,
Doremus