Someone just offered me a Meopta Opemus 5 darkroom (German stuff I think), complete with enlarger with built in color filters, etc....everything included. The guy's moving to digital and doesn't use it anymore, but I'm not sure wether to buy it. Not as for if it's worth the $, cause it's cheap (a bit used-ish, but great working order), but I'm wondering what the limits of this stuff will be as for printing quality... Anyone have any ideas on this stuff ? He told me it comes with a 80mm durst and a 50mm nikkor lens. That's all info I got here :) Thx! B

Attached Link: http://www.thedarkroom.co.uk/rk2/meopta1.html

Oh, and it's possible to do multigrade paper, color and color slide (prints).

Is a built in timer important ? Or doesn't it matter if you have a normal timer (a good one, but not specifically dev timer) ? Oh, well, about developing color, I forgot to mention that I have my slides developed in a few days for only $7 (for a 36 roll)....and the results are really very good. But enlargements give me a really, really big headache, cause they can't make any enlargment that is sharp and has the right color balance. They're really terrible....did I say terrible ? I meant complete crap :) And as for b/w, I never wanted to shoot b/w cause I haven't been able to print myself...so all lab prints will look like those glossy, badly cut holiday snaps. :) So, do you recon it would be less expensive to do color enlargements and skip developing for color ? Thanks again =) PS That's a might big size!

Ouch! Tough questions. I was a color darkroom technician for a couple years. It can be done but it is one big pain and unless you have some previous experience the learning curve can become quite expensive. Chemistry and paper for slides reproduction is not cheap. Not here anyway. I have never been a big fan of color prints from slides. The contrast and colors never seem quite right to me. Another option for you maybe to find a lab/repro shop that has a good scanner/operator and get it done that way. Then you can crop, tweak, and correct on your own. If you get a cheap epson color printer you can do alot of your own prints and once in awhile treat yourself to an iris or a pictro. My opinon is a good to great scan will beat a print 9 times out of 10.

I love b/w. If only I had a darkroom... I miss the smell of acid fixers.

Mmmmm formaldahyde!!! And vinegar!!!! Stars we will make a scientist out of you yet! Bsteph

No, I mean you're right about scanning and printing with inkjet, but the reason for printing in dark room would be getting real prints on paper and not to scan those, etc, but just to get prints/enlargements. I'd never even think about going back to scanning prints again...my film scanner is excellent (minolta dual II).

If the equipment works fine (and everything INCLUDING the timer is included), go for it. Colour is a beyotch from what I've been told (never done it), but black and white is a fricking blast! Starting from now on, mainly beginning 6 weeks from now when Im back at school, I'm only printing with fibre paper, which means tray work for me!

The first time i printed fibre (very first print only), I forgot about having to use trays. It came outta the machine fine, but didn't dry properly. After, a few people had some wierd anomallies on their prints, prolly fibre from the paper itself... lol, my bad. I got pissed when I found out I could hand colour images on RC. That's when I made the final decision, cuz its something I REALLY wannna get into. Also gonna have to buy the archival toner to convert the silver. should run about 25$ canadian if im right.... am i?

Have you guys ever tried to make good prints with inkjet printers ? I think there's some very heavy printing paper for photo printing. Sort of canvas/textile paper, but also that lovely aquarell paper. Hmm...lemme call a store to see if they got it, am curious.

Alpha, give the man some advice. as for the pencils and oils, i dunno yet, lemme finish my movie first.

You know I have one of those set. i still haven't gotten around to trying it out. sorry guys but that project is wayyyy at the bottom of the list. BTW. they sell markers for that kind of stuff now. Is the Marshell stuff really that special or is it just permanent archival ink. BTW. HP is selling a dinky photo quality printer. ( Prints 4 X 6 glossies ) for $180.00 at the local Comp USA. Bsteph

Bless the diligent souls that create beautiful hand printed work in the color darkroom. The world is a better place for their efforts. For myself, I found it was not at all FUN. Feeling around in complete darkness loading the paper. Watching the drum spin for half an hour. Finding the color is wrong, and needing to start over, (at $$ per sheet). Only to find in the morning some chemical streak missed seeing... On other hand, B&W darkroom is a blast! Creative. Fast. (relatively) inexpensive. Useable yellow safelight. Nothing beats a 6X7 negative printed on fibre paper! (cept maybe a 8X10 contact printed). Alas, do not even do much of this anymore. Needs dedicated dustfree space, which do not have. Film scanners and photoshop can work wonders using corner Jiffy-Mart processing for the messy parts. I'll not comment about quality, as that is a very multifaceted topic. My advice would be to find a local school/hobbiest group/etc, and work in their darkroom for awhile to see if you like it, before spending a lot of money. There are always work-arounds for things like timers. Important thing is if you like the work. If you find you like it, go for it!