Darkroom on a Shoestring

     During my working life, I always built dedicated darkrooms in basements that I equipped with top notch enlargers and other gear. But after I retired, my Princess and I moved to a small one-level house in which there simply wasn't room for a darkroom. What could I do? Living life without my man cave would be like taking pictures with a broom. Desperate for an answer, I prayed to Filmonia, Goddess of Photography, at her home in Wetzlar, Germany for a solution to my problem.
      In minutes, an answer came to me. "You vil create a darkenzimmer in der poopenzimmer," trilled a voice from on high. That's when I immediately adapted one of the two bathrooms in our house for use as a darkroom.
      After making the room as light tight as possible, I searched for an enlarger and all the rest of the "stuff" one needs to process black and while film and create finished prints. By the way, I wanted to buy the equipment as inexpensively as possible.

   After a few days, I discovered the Bogen X-35 shown in the photo. This is an entry level unit that came with a film carrier that accepts 35mm negatives. It has a drawer for variable contrast filters and a decent 50mm Voss lens. The unit was New Old Stock (still in the box). I think I paid about $75 for it.
     The only problem I've had with this enlarger involved the height adjustment knob, which, because it's just 3/4" in diameter, required a lot of force to tighten it. I remedied this by making a larger knob that's 1-3/4" in diameter and attaching it to the smaller knob. I've marked it with a white dot in the photo.
      At just $5.00, the 8X10-inch Bogen easel resting on the enlarger's base was my all-time greatest "El Cheapo" find. Of course, at that price it was little more than a rusty relic. But after I removed the rust and repainted it, it works just fine.
        I found a stainless steel developing tank with two reels, three 5 X 7" trays, three tongs, a safe light, and a  GrayLab timer on the Internet at bargain prices. In my junk drawer I found a Weston thermometer. I discovered, also, a bargain priced set of polycontrast filters on the Internet.
       I bought a few dozen rolls of Kentmere Pan 100 B/W film, some Kentmere VC paper, and packets of Dektol, D-76, and Kodak fixer. After mixing the powdered chemicals with water, I store them in 12-ounce green bottles that had contained ginger ale.
       I didn't buy a stop bath because I use plain water to arrest both film and paper development, and I didn't buy Photo Flo either. That's because  I add one or two drops of Dawn detergent to a gallon of water to make an inexpensive wetting agent for film.
      I usually use the Dektol four or five times before I dump it. Because I test the fixer by placing a bit of exposed film into it and watching to see how long it takes to become clear, I don't use hypo check.
     This system seems to work quite well for me, especially since I'm printing only 5 X 7-inch B/W prints.   Here are a few photos I processed in my new, makeshift poopenzimmer darkroom. Thank you, Filmonia.

Leica M3 Canon 3.5/135mm

Leica M2 Jupiter 2.0/50mm

Leica M3 Jupiter 2.0/50mm

Leica M3 Canon 3.5/135mm

Leica M4 Jupiter 2.0/50mm

And Yet Another Leica M3

   I'm not really a Leicaholic, but I simply couldn't resist this camera, which is my fifth M Leica. Because it showed several dings and dents; had a self timer that was kaput; needed to be recovered; and lacked a frame preview lever, I was able to buy it for a decent price. In fact, I reasoned, the price was so low that even if I had to send the camera off to Youxin Ye for service, I'd be ahead of the game. I guess that's one of the perks that comes with being comfortably retired.
   Amazingly, despite the problems cited above, M3 #740961 has proven to be a winner. The viewfinder is clear; the rangefinder is accurate; the double stroke film advance is silky smooth; the shutter curtains are intact and free of pinholes; and the shutter operates as it should. Amazingly, the L seal is still intact.
  Luckily the inoperable self timer isn't a problem for me. I've never used one, and I don't plan to. Incidentally, because this M3 is one of the original versions (1955) the shutter speeds (1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 +B) differ from those on later models.

   Here's a photo of this venerable classic after I stripped the original corrupted covering from it. Not shown is the back door, which suffered from a severe case of chipped and peeling paint, which I corrected before I applied the new covering to it.
  Now for an interesting aside. The M cameras were originally covered in vulcanite, which is no longer available. Truth to tell, I don't know what today's coverings are made of, but I can't tell the difference between the old ones and the new ones. My source for these coverings is Aki-asahi in Japan. Good quality, fair prices; excellent service. For more about recovering your camera, see Make Your Old Camera Great Again in the 9/9/19 entry of this blog.

    This photo shows the same camera after I completed the recovering process. Mounted on it is a Soviet era Jupiter 8, 2/50mm lens that I picked up for fewer than $50 a while back.
   Some Leica lovers will scoff at this lens; gnash their teeth; and pull their hair out because "it doesn't belong on a Leica." But I've gotten good results with it, as shown by the accompany-
ing photos. This lens has a screw mount, but I attached it to the camera with a generic LTM-M adapter.

 








  Because I'm a frugal person who didn't want to spend $18 or so on a pair of flash socket covers, I used an inexpensive hole puncher to create little paper covers that fit perfectly into the openings. They are not very elegant, but they do the job for which they're intended. You can see them in the photo shown below. Incidentally, I've used the same little paper covers on my M1, M2, and another M3 that I own. Sadly, they won't fit on my M4.

      According to everything I've read, except for the missing preview lever and the changes in the shutter speeds, this early M3 is about the same as its later cousins. Be that as it may, I've found that there seem to be subtle differences between the two versions of the same camera. For one thing, the shutter on this older M3 seems to be a bit quieter than the shutter on its predecessor. And the film advance appears to be a tad smoother.
     Of course, I could be suffering from an over active imagination. But no matter. I like this early Leica M3 enough to plan to use it regularly in the future.