burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Not dead, just not ubiquitous as it was before 2000.

I worked for a huge portrait company for 33 years. My office was in the lab. At one point, I managed film scanning and color corrections, which were next to film processing… lots of scents!

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

If the fixer smelled like coffee, I wouldn’t mind!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Nostalgia! Darkroom Ouders!

My first experience in a professional studio darkroom (better known as the "DUNGEON") was the boss explaining that, although the OLD and crusty/trusty technician down there had some strange QC habits, he said never drink, sniff, or immerse my bare hands in any of the chemicals. I found out that's old-timer had a habit of tasting the development to assess the level of oxidation and the amount of replenisher that was required. The funny thing was- he was always right on! He also drank coffee out of the beaker used to measure concentrated chemicals.

At the time, we mixed most of our chemicals from scratch formulas. I soon found out that sniffing 99.9% Glacia Acetic Acid was not a good idea. Adding a drop to sink water and putting it on your French fries was also not recommended. Mixing and boiling someof the components of the Nelson's Gold Toner formula smelled like a combination of an alarmed skunk and a malfunctioning toilet! Brown toner smelled like rotten eggs and Rapid Selenium Toner smelled like strong household cleaner.

Eventuall we progressed to color printing. The bleach fix looked like coagulated blood and the stabilizer made the place smell like the embalming operatory in a funeral home. I knew that for sure because my Great Uncle Rubin was an undertaker! He invited me to join his enterprise, but I opted for photograhy- a bad financial decision!

For dessert. The accidental and potentially toxic mix of the Sulphuric Acid in rapid fixer and Potassium Ferrocyanide (a popular bleaching and reduction agent) has the rather pleasant scent of roasted almonds. Myth has it that this is a quick and easy way of bleaching prints and turning your unventilated darkroom into a gas chamber!

I don't really miss the wet darkroom. While working on computer-driven post-processing, the worst smell is that of burng phenolic or other components in the electronics, or if one of the staff is eating a Limburger cheese sandwich!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

AndyT Loc: Hampstead, New Hampshire

I have a C 330 in really good working condition. I keep it for nostalgic reasons, but KEH Camera is listing C 220's for $300-375. You might want to run your equipment by them.

gwilliams6

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Interestingly, a few years go, we had a long thread in which I happened to suggest that accidental mixing of Potassium Ferrocyanide with either rapid fixer or Glacial Acetic acid could possibly liberate hydrogen cyanide gas. A knowledgable chemist on the forum assured me that reaction wasn’t possible and wrote out the potential equations along with the an explanation as to what drove the reaction in one direction or another. Given that it’s been many decades since college chemistry, I take his word for it, but I still don’t use ferrocyanide reducing agents in my home darkroom and even though I’m equipped for color processing, with the demise of Cibachrome, I just do B&W now.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

That is why I used the term "mythology", however, there is a backstory. The method of bleach prints either entirely or on small local areas involves fixing the price thoroughly in a standard fixer where the acid in the mix is most like a dilution of ACETIC acid. It is not advisable to use a rapid fixer, which usually contains SULPHURIC acid, firstly because the bleaching action wour be too rapid to control and stand will likely result. The big HOWEVER is as per the information I received from a chemist who worked for Eastman Kodak, and whose special assignment was to prepare and publish safety and warning notices for chemistry labels and data books as well as information that need to be dispensed to the industrial users of the chemistry as per EPA regulations, that the mixture of Potassium Ferrocyanide with any dilution of sulphuric can be hazardous, but not necessarily lethal.

Well, it ain't like the real "gas chamber" which utilizes a mixture of Potasseim or Soduma Cyanide pellets dropped into a bucket of Sulphuric Acid which liberates the leather Hydrogen-Cyanide Gas, a powerful asphyxiant.

The accidental mixture of rapid fixer and potassium ferrocyanide can cause serious eye irritation or damage, irritation to the nasal and sinus cavities, windpipe, and lungs. There is another chemical
mix used for processor systems and darkroom tray cleaning that contains higher concentrations of Sulphuric Acid and Potassium Permanganate. If that gets mixed up with Potassium Ferrocyanide, in a poorly ventilated area, asphyxiation can occur.

I know that chemistry professors like to disprove myths and folklore- they have all those neat diagrams of chemical reactions. All I know is some years ago, I had a new kid working in my darkroom and charged him with the chore of cleaning up all the stained trays in the sink. There was a tray full of Farmers Reducer which he dumped and proceeded to clean with the aforementioned tray cleaner. It was the middle of July, I walked into the darkroom and the kid is singing "The Christmas Song"! He said, "this stuff smells good- like roasting nuts". I immediately flipped the exhaust fan switch and simultaneously threw the kid out of the darkroom. The kid's reaction- "I know I ain't Nat King Cole" but I couldn't be all that bad"!

Nowadays, every time I hear that "Christmas Song "I begin to cough

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Interesting story. Anyway, these days, I just use various B&W film and print developers, indicating stop (which I mix from concentrate), fixer and photo flo. Haven’t done any color in awhile. When I was our local brick and mortar store recently, one of the young sales people, upon hearing I have a darkroom, indicated an interest in buying everything. I really don’t use it much, but I’ve spent so much time and $ collecting and upgrading everything over the years, I don’t know if I can part with it. Besides, how much will I get for a Bessler 4x5 enlarger with Dichro head, motorized frame and AP Rodagon lenses compared to what it cost. And if I sell the darkroom, I might as well sell my RB67 system, and I’m not ready to do that either - so many good memories using it. Besides I LIKE the look of silver prints.

It’s nostalgia for good times I guess. In my radio station, I currently have an Icom 7600 transceiver, etc. but I still wish I hadn’t sold my old Collins 75A4/KWS-1 station.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Our chem mix guy at the lab always said, flush one at a time, slowly!

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I suppose we all tend to hang on to certn things. I wanted to keep my 8x10 Chromega but it just took up too much space- not the kinda thing you can stow away in a closet. I did keep my RZ and all the lenses but I did finally fit it for a Phase I back so it is still in service.

As for old HAM gear- well- I have been off the air for a while now- too many hobbies- but in what is left of my "radio shack" (a shelf in a closet) I still have my Heathkit SS-9000 and an old "Taxi" radio that I converted to a 2-meter rig. The Yagi blew off the roof in a storm some years ago- maybe someday I'll put it back.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Hope you have time one day to get back on the air. That’s the thing about HAM radio - it’ll still be there when you get back to it. The sunspot cycle will peak in 2025 I believe, so good fun in the future if you like DX.

Cheers and 73,
K4CKB

PS: sorry to go soooo far off topic guys.

nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

You probably wont find the leathers they were scarce and hard to find 15 years ago , but I did find them in an old issue of shutterbug when I redid my C330 I have some left somewhere but believe they are for a C220 .I will look They will be free .

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

My daughter’s married name is Mamiya. At a baby shower for my first grandchild she received a gift in a gift bag with a black and white photo of a baby looking into the viewfinder of a C330. Using the Copyright notice I tracked down the owner and emailed him. He responded with a high resolution file and license for single personal use.

We got the idea to duplicate that shot so I went to eBay with the intent of buying a prop. But for little or no more I nabbed a pretty clean functional camera. Of course, we dismally failed. Babies do not make cooperative models! So my daughter said let’s take some pictures with the camera. Now my daughter is a good photographer and she has a D500, a better camera than I, some good glass (including MY venerable f/2.8 80-200) and shoots raw with competent post processing with LrC and Ps. But she has only used digital camera seriously. So Google and I help her find a source for film and processing to a print and scanned to a file. But when it was time to set the exposure without electronics in the camera progress came to a screeching hauls. I should mention I live in NY and her in WA. So the next time I visited a brought along an exposure meter and we filled up a roll and sent it off. Since then the camera has served as a decorative artifact along side her grandmother’s pink typewriter. I guess I had taken it for granted that she might not know how to trade off f/ number and shutter speed. BTW she is an optometrist by profession and definitely know more about the optics of the human eye than do I.

jgudpns Loc: Pensacola, FL

Cool - I'd appreciate (and pay postage)!