Looking for a count up timer for use with film development

[Jeroen]

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.

[Tin Can]

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

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.

[rdenney]

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

[Nodda Duma]

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

[Keith Pitman]

Here’s another option: http://www.curtpalm.com/Software.html

I don’t know whether he has kept the software up to date.

[Paul Ron]

amazon is your friend.

[Tin Can]

I bought and tried a $20 timer for the blind from a online store for the blind

Total crap

[Peter Lewin]

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.

[Doremus Scudder]

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