harald
Hi everyone.
One more question.
What do you use to time your positive processing?
I started off with a small alarm clock, but it turned out to be very impractical – it has a RED second hand, which you can’t see in red light. Also, there’s no alarm after a set time, and as I’m still concentrating too much on the image, I quickly lose track of the time.
How do you sort this out in practice?
Many thanks for your replies.
Best regards, Harald.
uworischki
I don’t use a timer; positives are developed in the tray by eye, so if the image turns black too quickly, it’s been exposed for too long anyway. Depending on the paper and developer, the development times will vary, but you’ll get a feel for when an image is ready after a few attempts.
Uwe
Gast
Krupps make small digital kitchen timers. You can even set two different times and they beep when they’re done. And if it ever falls into the developer, just take the batteries out, let it dry, put the batteries back in, and carry on. In my opinion, to achieve consistent results, you really should use a clock.
Regards, Sven.
Gast
I have a small digital kitchen timer with a four-digit display. There are two things that bother me about it:
1. The digital display isn’t backlit, so it’s hard to read. A backlight that’s safe for photographic paper would be great. But it would need to be possible to switch it off to save battery life.
2. The buttons are too sensitive (soft rubber with too fast a repeat rate). What I mean is: when I type in 60 seconds, it can easily happen that I suddenly end up with ‘6:00’ or ‘66:00’ instead of ‘60’. The photos tend to be slightly over-exposed...
Unfortunately, I haven’t found a truly satisfactory device yet.
Regards,
Georg
Gast
Hi Georg,
The Krupps ones have a really large display that’s still easy to read even in red light, 25W. The great thing is that you only have to set the time once. Then, when the time’s up, if you press the stop button twice, the timer resets to the original time. I love these things; we’ve got them all over the house now... :angry:
Gast
Hi,
Pop into Fiedmann – there’s bound to be one somewhere near you. About two weeks ago, they were giving away these kitchen timers as promotional gifts,
They’re brilliant – ideal for the lab and for boiling eggs. I picked up four of them straight away. :-)
Best regards, zipakt
Gast
Hi Georg,
The Krupps ones have a really large display that’s still easy to read even in red light, 25W. The great thing is that you only have to set the time once. Then, when the time’s up, if you press the stop button twice, the timer resets to the original time. I love these things; we’ve got them all over the house now... :(
Hello "urnes",
I had a look on the Krups website, but there’s nothing like that there. Could you perhaps give me some sort of model number? Maybe there’s something like that on the casing.
Many thanks!
Georg
Georg
Oops, always having to log in! (I forgot, sorry)
Georg
Dolcedo
Another suggestion: an electronic metronome (available from music shops – it doesn’t have to be expensive).
Set the tempo to 60, and the device will produce exactly one beat per second. You can then simply count along... The advantage is that you can concentrate on the image and don’t have to keep glancing at the watch, which is sometimes hard to see in the dark anyway. It just becomes a bit impractical with long exposure times...
Best wishes and happy creating,
dolcedo
Gast
Last week, Tchibo had a brilliant kitchen timer on offer for €7.99. It’s really easy to read, simple to set, and when the time’s up, the display resets to zero (ideal for timing things one after the other in several bathrooms for the same duration, such as setting two hair dryers for 30 seconds each).
But what I like best is that the clock doesn’t need those environmentally harmful and expensive button cells; instead, it makes do with a micro cell (I hope that’s the right name – I mean the battery that’s one size smaller than a AA). So you can also use rechargeable batteries and save yourself the cost of buying batteries altogether.
I bought two of these timers straight away.
Here’s the link:
http://www.tchibo.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfi...ductSKU=0001264
At least in Tchibo’s online shop, the timers are still available to order; I don’t know if you can still find them in the shops.
Regards
Georg
Gast
You could also use a stopwatch, like the ones used in sport; it’s handy to wear around your neck, and you can get mechanical ones with luminous numerals or digital ones.
It’s also very good for film development.
Oleksander
cfb_de
Hi everyone,
I use a cheap Roth lab timer (one of those things that shows the time, has two timers and beeps – costs about fifteen euros) and my Palm for more complex tasks, with a beep every few minutes so I don’t forget to agitate the film during development. The software is by Jan Exner and it’s absolutely brilliant!
Best regards,
Franz
Gast
Hi Georg,
Is the Tchibo timer just an "egg timer", or can it also count up (stopwatch)?
Thanks,
Andreas
