Digital BW, The Print

I wrestled with the concept in my own dark room for a couple of 
years...then I realized that my 8 foot sink with 4 temp controlled 
valves was full of printers and scanners and such and was never going 
to have chemical trays in it again...

I looked at selling it and didn't see much value there, so I donated 
it all in one package to a local charity...made me feel good...they 
sold it to a young "starving" photographer, they got some money...

Hard to see where you can go with it...

But good luck (I still have a few Kodak clocks and clamps on the 
walls).

Cheers,

Tom O'Connell


--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@y..., "Euphy" <euphy@e...> wrote:
> Hallo, I work in a big city library (newcastle), and have recently 
had an
> opportunity to delve into its depths, discovering a fully equipped 
darkroom
> with all its fittings (real posh, enormous, but non-digital beseler 
4x5
> enlarger, big format 17x22" kit throughout, all double-doored, 
ventilated,
> safelighted, temp controlled setup). I knew such a thing existed in 
the
> bowels of the building, but didn't think it was still servicable. I 
asked my
> boss about whats done with it, and since they're on something of a
> best-value kick at the moment, I suggested it might be coaxed back 
into
> service. The local studies reference section of us has a big b/w 
archive
> photograph collection that people regularly buy prints from. This 
involves
> us asking the council "city repro" section to make the prints, and 
city
> repro seem to charge an pretty high fee (though I'm pretty sure 
they use
> their standard machine processing, which can't really cost that 
much, though
> I guess they are consistant), and we don't really get much except
> administration costs from it.
> 
> Does anybody have a suggestion on how I might be able to capitalise 
on the
> darkroom, apart from just selling the bits off. I'm not an expert
> print-maker by any means, but I know my way around with the red 
light on,
> and have learnt not to waste materials and supplies, and more to 
the point,
> I know people who are more than qualified to work in such a place, 
if there
> was a few quid in it for them.
> 
> Conversely, and more topically, has anybody been in the situation 
where a
> new in-house digital/inkjet solution has replaced and/or improved a 
wet
> processing solution (prints more-or-less limited to A3)? I wonder 
if buyers
> would be as happy with an on-demand (or one- or two-hour) inkjet 
print (city
> repro makes you wait.. they made some "errors" last week and 
everybodies
> prints are another fortnight late) made on a hot-as quad/hex tone 
printer. I
> guess the glossy/tactile photo factor is involved.. sell them 
framed, so its
> not so instantly obvious?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Any ideas, commments, thoughts, greatly appreciated. It breaks my 
heart to
> see that gear going to waste. The room is being filled with obsolete
> computers as time goes by. In my delving, I bumped into a stack of 
286s and
> just 86s, I almost cheered (a stack of a more than a dozen 
computers that
> couldn't even do together what the enlarger next to them could 
replicate, if
> it was photoshop on a modern machine.. if that makes sense er... 
you know
> what I mean..)
> 
> 
> 
> sandy @ www.euphy.co.uk