I'm thinking of setting up a darkroom in my house and want to know the cheapest possible pricetag i can expect to pay? Basically all i really want is a good dependable yet fairly priced enlarger, safe lights ect ect.....i have a sink allready and trays and all the other little stuff. I want to use it for black and white so with chemicals and all the supplies i mentioned, whats a resonable price tag i can expect to pay, assuming i would buy everything from a supplier? anybody that has experience in seeting up a darkroom i would love to hear from ya,

-- michael J. Howser (mike265@aol.com), February 18, 1999

Answers

It depends on the format, the quality you want, and whether you would buy new or second-hand.

You could pay anything between #20 (UK pounds) for a second-hand 35mm or 6x6 enlarger plus lens (yes, second-hand can be stupidly cheap), to a couple of thousand for a top-notch new enlarger plus lens.

The most important item is the enlarger lens. In some sense, this should match the quality of your camera lens.

There is a sister forum to this one, specifically for printing etc, and you might browse through that one: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=B%26W%20Photo%20-% 20Printing%20%26%20Finishing

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), February 19, 1999.

Michael, Get some cataloges from various suppliers such as B&H and comparison shop. A little known supplier(because they mainly deal with printing supplies)is Valley Litho Supply located in the heart of the midwestern US. Their variety may be somewhat limited but I've found that if it's not in their catalog,ask. E-mail me if you want more info. Barb

-- Barb Javener (littlebit152@hotmail.com), July 25, 1999.