Fully functional omega enlarger, with safety lights, easels, timer, Ilford and Kodak contrast filters.
Omega enlarging heads.
Bible on films. These are essential reference books on film processing charts, push film charts, etc. Each 0.5 Celsius off or 10 seconds off when you process your film means a huge difference in consistency so you can't live as a photographer without these books.
Slide duplicator for Pentax K mount.
Film loader, useful when you don't have a darkroom to load up film into the development canister.
Filters for black and white landscape (there is a FL-D filter[Hoya] that is also no longer necessary anymore in the digital age).
Bulk film loader. I used to buy T-Max in bulk where I would load up film manually. I think 100 yards of T-Max 100 went for about $35 (and slightly more for T-Max 400) on Adorama back then.
Film development necessities. Of them all, the thermometer is the most important tool to measure for consistency. I used to develop in bulk so the bulk loader was useful.
Good 'ol color development drums and chemical jugs.
Develop, stop, fix trays. Tongs help me keep away from touching chemicals.
I've always loved photography and dreamed of buying a home so that I could setup my very own darkroom. But after the digital age, I'm glad that there's no need for a darkroom anymore. Every darkroom I've been to always smell and the liquid chemicals are a total pain to deal with. Yes I still miss taking pictures with film cameras (you actually need skills and confidence to operate a fully mechanical camera esp. shooting slides). But I don't miss the darkroom. Apparently not many people miss the darkroom as well; people out there don't want these equipments anymore. I barely made enough money selling these old equipments on eBay to cover up for shipping expenses. For example the late-1970 Omega enlarger that I bought for only $100 from an estate sale (from people who had no idea how to use them) went for about $250 in 1990, now sold on eBay for barely $50. Shipping alone was $40, minus PayPal transaction fee and final eBay listing fee... I'm not so sure that I even recuperate a dime on it.
The funny thing about these darkroom equipments is that I thought they would stay with me until I die. The same types of enlarger and development techniques have been around for almost 100 years and that's how photography has been done, and that must be the way it'll be for a long time, so goes the thinking. However the digital revolution of 2002-2008 changed it all in less than a decade. In 2002 we saw how crappy digital quality was, to digital quality that well surpassed much of film's qualities(1) in 2008. In another word in less than 6 years, consumer digital advancements surpassed what pro film advancements over the past 100 years.
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(1) much better high ISO quality.
It is a well known fact (H-D chart) that digital is still not better than film in terms of preserving highlights, yet. I have a feeling that it will not be long when that day comes.
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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