Darkroom equipment

Are the people I see on Craigslist kidding just kidding themselves? I keep seeing ads for enlargers and darkroom equipment for sale at what I consider to be very high prices. I see two ads today, one asking $1000 and another asking $875.

I sold my Besseler Dichro enlarger and equipment years ago just when digital was getting started for $400, and felt lucky to get it.

Now I know there are still some people who will cling to film and the processing there of till their dying day, but you have to know their numbers are few..are these sellers being realistic?

Opinions?

The're dreaming. I sold my entire list of equipment (geared for color) when I bought an early production 20D. I got just over $300 for everything & I doubt I'd do as well today. The same applies to all the ads I see for Canon A series bodies, which were great in their day but I really don't think people will pay $150 + for an AE 1 let alone an A 1.

I gave mine away to my niece and a friend..

Which included a Beseler 4x5 enlarger complete with motorised focusing and head raisng, and a Meopta 6x6 dichroic head enlarger..

I still have my Durst M600 enlarger (35mm and 6x6cm), lenses, filters, all my stainless Nikor film tanks & reels, and all the trappings that go with that stuff. I know I couldn't get enough cash to pay for the sentimental value that stuff has, but it's getting so that the storage space is worth something too.

If anybody is really interested, gimme a PM.

I mentioned that I was looking for some film developing gear and someone on another forum sent me a box of gear, free.

I think film gear is now wanted by the collectors crowd and few students. From the prices of bodies are still expensive, I'm going to buy someday a Nikon F4s but the prices seem to been going up to about $300 again. The only gear I can see actually going up for a reason is the gear that you can add digital backs, like the Mamiya RZ67 series.

I donated a huge load of b&w darkroom stuff to a community college a few months ago so the kids could hopefully keep the darkroom arts alive.

I'm keeping all my stuff because I still use it and also after one of those movies comes true and the world ends, there'll be no digital.

I gave away my Darkroom equipment

I couldn't get any buyers so I gave away a Beseler enlarger with two lenses along with the full range of darkroom equipment trays, tanks, timer, etc.

Regarding the use of film in community colleges - WOW! If they really want to get basic - why don't they use wet plates or maybe even Daguerreotypes.

Or ever better, use chisels and hammers to carve the images in stone. Now those folks were real artists...

Seriously, I have been a photographer for well over 50 years - most of that time professional and I cannot see any reason for a college to teach outmoded technology like film photography. IMO, there is nothing you can learn using film that you cannot learn faster and better by using digital. You have instant feedback, the ability to shoot loads of images without a cash register clicking in your head and the chance to learn technology which you would certainly use in professional work.

Perhaps the old adage of "Those who can do and those who can't teach" might be appropriate when considering some (of course not all) community college photo instructors...

I've thought long and hard on that topic (teaching film & darkroom) and have to agree that it would be a real step backwards, and the student would be praying for that part of the course to end. About the only real world use I still see for film that I consider a normal use is in really cold environments such as the far north & the bottom of the world. I think film stands a better chance in that use (a lengthy visit vs a day or week there) if the cameras were properly serviced for the environment. Film cameras aren't as dependent on battery power, and I'm assuming had a lot less plastic where it might fail. Other than that I think digital is here to stay, more user friendly, & thanks to built in programs that replace learning the basics along with easy to use editing programs I have a hard time thinking today's youth would take kindly to having to go back in time just to learn photography for tomorrow.

Playing devil's advocate here - if they shoot film, they will learn to get it right in camera using the basic "pre-click" tools, by metering carefully. If they shoot digital and chimp the histogram until they get a good exposure, are they really learning to judge exposure?

cicopo wrote in post #10346522
I've thought long and hard on that topic (teaching film & darkroom) and have to agree that it would be a real step backwards, and the student would be praying for that part of the course to end.

There is some truth in this..

When I was studying commercial photography , a four year course in the 1980s, in the first year we had a full semester on Photography History.. Sometimes very interesting but mainly boring..

We just could wait to get into the college studio and get our hands on that wonderful 4x5 equipment

Times have changed..