First 4x5 for portraits and contact printing?

[mdarnton]

I once had a dry darkroom in a tiny entrance hall closet. There was just enough width for me and a counter, just enough length for my Omega D2V at one end at the end of the open space, right angles to the trays, me, and the trays. I saved newspapers and always worked with quite a thick layer under the trays, rolling the whole mess up and tossing it at the end of the session. A tray ladder would have helped a lot, but I couldn't afford one at the time.

I had a friend who used an even smaller powder room, but he was a news photog shooting 35mm, using a smaller enlarger. A removable shelf over the toilet for the enlarger; tray ladder over the sink for the developing, wash tray on the sink draining directly into the sink.

Now however, I develop 8x10 in narrow tanks with hangers, on top of the clothes dryer, and I scan and print in the comfort and light of my office. I have considered contact printing, but scanning is just too nice to go back to the darkroom, especially if I were doing tiny 4x5 negs. :-)

[jbenedict]

Consider a 180mm or 360mm Tele-Arton or similar true telephoto lens. If you use a monorail, the shorter bellows draw may not matter but if you have a folding camera, it might.

I would consider keeping the enlarger and timer if you will be contact printing. Yes, it can and has been done with a bulb. The materials that famous contact printers like Weston used were very, very slow and timing did not have to be especially accurate. I have contact printed extensively with 8x10 and have always used an enlarger. The lens and timer allow a precise control of the light on the paper. It's repeatable, too. If you find that f 11 on the lens, 5 sec. on the timer and 12" distance from lens to paper is correct, the next time you make a print with that negative, you can get it.

[jeztastic]

Thanks for all the advice. Further choices depend on bigger things such as whether we move house, whether I can afford a shed in the garden, how much of that space I can allocate to a darkroom... Etcetera.

[charlesholland]

I completely agree on underrating the non-tecnika linhof. I have one since about 1 week and am still playing with it without film. It fills up the gap between my Cambo monorail and ebony sw45. I can imagine it works great for portrait. The camera I am talking about: the linhof kardan color (last versiin where You can raise the back). I found a near perfect example for €200. You can't beat that with any other 4x5 if You look for a well build 4x5 that is still portable in a certain kind of way.