This is my grocery list for a minimal darkroom. It’s not a perfect list, but it will give you an idea of what and where to buy (if you’re starting out as a novice and want to save money).
I will elaborate on why I chose particular products later in the course, but in the meantime, this will give you a rough idea.
Legend:
Underlined items are for developing film without a darkroom.
Non-underlined products are for darkroom printing.
Red items are products you can buy from specialist photography stores; I reccommend that you get them from B&H.
Purple items are easier to buy from Ebay, Amazon, second-hand stores, Craigslist and the like.
Green items are general products you can buy anywhere.
Blue items are free
ONGOING DARKROOM COSTS:
- Kentmere 400 ASA Black & White Film, 35mm, 100′ bulk roll
- Ilford Multigrade FB Matt Paper, 5×7″ 100 sheet
- Print File Archival Storage Page for 35mm Negatives 100 Pack
- Ilford Multigrade Paper Developer
- Ilfotec HC Film Developer
- Any kind of acetic acid: vinegar, citric acid or human pee (if you are a crazy person or work in the latrines).
- Ilford Rapid Fixer
- A light kitchen detergent
- Black duct tape
- Black rubbish bags
- Access to running water, unless you don’t have access to free water.
DARKROOM/CAMERA EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES:
- Any kind of 35mm Film camera (preferably start learning with a compact film camera)
- Durst M-301 Enlarger
- Film Changing Bag
- Kalt reusable 35mm cassettes for bulk film, (25 cassettes would be ideal)
- Scissors
- Thermometer
- Lint-free cloth (typically used to clean glasses)
- Clothes line pegs
- A watch/timer
- Kitchen brush
- Stainless Steel Developing Tank
- 2x stainless steel 35mm reels
- Bulk Film Loader
- 100mL measuring graduate
- Kitchen Tongs
- Micro-focus finder
- Screw Light Bulb
- LED red light or a red lightbulb (DO NOT USE A PHONE SCREEN!!)
- Plastic trays larger than 8×10″ (needs to hold over 600mL of liquid).
- Glass bottles (must exceed 500mL or higher)
- A peg hanger
- Kitchen funnels
Hardware:
- A basic Windows PC (minimum requirements: 3Gb RAM and a 2GHz Processor)
- Matte screen display monitor.
- A film scanner; I use the Epson Perfection V370 but there might be better products from Canon if you look.
Software:
- EpsonScan (or a different scanning software if you’re not using an Epson scanner)
- Darktable
- GIMP
- BIMP (batch image manipulation extension for GIMP)
- Adobe Bridge
