Hello, my name is Tim and I'm an addict

[T B]

In my case I am addicted to 50mm lenses of which I have more than I can easily count, including three Pentax 50mm 1.4s. On the advice of my councillor I am slowly weaning myself onto 40mm.

More seriously, I made an account here as a result of the 35mmc post. I'm a mostly-film photographer and more significantly printer, who used to make prints at NLD in London. That stopped in 2020 and I am now slowly trying to put together a darkroom at home so I can make prints again. Currently I can process film (boring but necessary) but not quite yet make prints. With luck in a few months.

I am also west Devon's greatest living cow photographer.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Welcome Tim.
Gosh, I didn't realise that was an actual affliction!
Let me see...
...just Pentax 50mm's, you say?
3x 1.4
2x 1.7
2x 1.8
3x 2.0
I don't have a rash or sniffles or anything like that, though, so I think I may be OK.

 

[T B]

It's like bankruptcy: slow at first and then very sudden. And I mustn't talk about my M-mount 50mm collection (hands begin to tremble, scratches arms & shuffles off muttering 'it's not that bad, it's all under control, now where's my medicine, I just need to see my man, where is he, he'll sort me out, it's not that much really ...' .)

 

[Ralph Turner]

Lolol. Well, I count myself lucky, then, as I must have quite a mild mutation of the affliction.. in my case 50mm enlarger lenses. 1x 6-element Componon-S, 2x 5-element, 2x older 6-element f4 Componon, 1x Jessops 6-element, 1x El-Nikkor f2.8N. As you see, my symptoms are fairly mild and there was a reason for each of them (that’s what I tell myself, anyway- ). I’m not sure there’s any know cure…

 

[Ralph Turner]

Sorry, where are my manners? Hi Tim! Look forward to seeing what some of those 50 mils can do

 

[Pete Askew]

Welcome to RPF, Tim. I'm afraid you have come to the worst possible place if you are looking for a cure, but if you are looking for others that are more severely afflicted just to feel normal...

 

[T B]

Lolol. Well, I count myself lucky, then, as I must have quite a mild mutation of the affliction.. in my case 50mm enlarger lenses.

[Being serous now.] Enlarger lenses are a different thing slightly I think. At NLD there were just huge numbers of them (I used to keep my favourite one stashed in a special drawer), because I think when all the art-school & other darkrooms closed in the early 2000s these things got thrown out in large numbers, & they didn't take up as much space as enlargers so it was easier for Seb (the force behind NLD) to keep lots of them. Actually of course that's really the same reason: lots of lenses for film cameras probably got very cheap. Even the Summicron I have was pretty cheap compared to what it would be now (and why didn't I buy the M2 it belonged to... stupid).

I suspect that era is now over and darkroom stuff will now be expensive again when it's not already been thrown away. I've been looking for a decent size easel (the rest of the darkroom is big enough to just about do 20x24 prints so I want a 20x24 easel) and they're very expensive now. I thought they'd be free!

Sometime (in RPF?) I need to ask people what the good enlarger lenses to look out for are and check the ones I have. I'm not sure I have a good 50mm at all, and although I've got a decent 105 and 150 I think (for medium/large format respectively), printing 35mm with those at any size would be a pain.

 

[Pete Askew]

I might be decommissioning my darkroom in the UK (near Fleet in Hampshire) as I haven't used it for a while and the darkroom is no used mainly for other operations (it is part of the laboratory I run). I have a second in Germany and that is staying though. So, I might have same equipment available later this year.

DeVere 504 with Ilford Multigrade head, easles, Rodenstock enlarging lenses, Ilford dry-to-dry processor, Jobo film processor, etc. It would be a wrench and so I have not made the decision completely yet, but I have not used the UK one for quite some years so...

 

[Ralph Turner]

@Tim Bradshaw when I got back into film about 4 years ago the Nikkor was the only one I had, which I’d kept hold of from when I had a darkroom of sorts in a spare room. B+w was never a big thing for me back then as I much preferred shooting slides. When I did print, though, the Nikkor was excellent, tack sharp. When I came back to film and tried using that lens for camera scanning purposes it didn’t fare quite so well at such close distances, hence the slow but steady influx of other enlarger lenses to try.

 

[T B]

Please let me know (I don't know if DMs are suported here?) if you do this. Although I have enough enlargers (2), I made all my best prints on DeVeres and might be tempted to dispose of the 5x4-capable enlarger I have. I probably wouldn't need the processing stuff though, so it might be better for you to try and find one buyer for it all. If there's a big easel though I need one of those.

 

[Pete Askew]

I'll let you know when I have made a decision about if / when I do decide to decommission the darkroom in the UK.

 

[Brian Moore]

Hi Tim. Welcome to RPF. I love cows. (In a platonic sense.) I love taking pictures of them, too, though I don't get the opportunity often and I'm certainly not on same the level as West Devon's greatest. Honored to have you aboard.

 

[Ivar Dahl-Larsen]

I humbly welcome you albeit I am not elevated into the welcoming committee. But I take my chances of expressing great interest in a printer and photographer who appreciates Pentax to such an extent. Hope you'll have a splendid time here.

 

[Geoff Chaplin]

Sorry Tim, but your a mere beginner!! My 50mm lenses: Summicron (2), Summitar, Summar, Elmar (3), Jupiter 8 (2), Industar (3), TTartisans, Zeiss Planar, Zeiss Sonnar, Pentax-M (2) .... = 17. I think that's all but I've got the feeling I've forgotten one or two.