Large Format Photography Australia

This is the second thing I hate. Getting my water to (close to) 20c. I'm thinking about getting a fish tank heater. What do you guys use or is it just a case of a bit of cold, bit of warm, bit more cold, bit more warm, that'll do etc.? I was incredibly lucky in my old place in New Zealand where the water came out of the tap at 20c exactly. It was like heaven.

I've not had much of a problem in 25 years.

Winter tap water is 18 degrees, in summer time 22.

So a little hot or a little cold, out of the fridge, as required and it's good to go.

Though I should clarify that I have only ever worried about getting film developer solution to close to 20C.

Depending on the film, I can be a bit anal about it as well. If I am shooting modern emulsions (I.E., Ilford/Kodak), I try to get the dev pretty much spot on and then just go with the rest (as long as its not ridiculous). But, when shooting EFKE and older type emulsions, I try and get all temps pretty spot on.

I do do a bit of hot/cold/hot/cold and so forth, but in the summer, I do set up a tempering bath and try and stabilise things a bit. My tempering bath is just a plastic tub filled with water and Ice bricks as required.

I've been pretty much using water as it comes out of the tap and compensating time depending on how much over/under the water is (usually slightly over - 21.5 to 24). I have the Massive Dev Chart app on my iPhone and it has a time compensation feature. While I've been getting reasonable results lately (I think!), I wonder if I should just try and get it on 20c using a tempering bath. The problem is, is time. My darkroom is a temporary affair and it gets built when I go to process film and pulled down afterwards and so setting up a tempering bath is a little bit of a pain.

Oh, for a garage/shed/spare room!

Have you considered a small wine fridge?

These have a thermostat that allows up to around 18 degrees to be dialled in. While 18 is going to slow things down a little, it is not too far from 20 and will allow repeatable results all year around.

Or, buy a Jobo CPP3!!

Being based in Sydney, I do all my processing at 24ºC. The water from the tap is as near as damn it to 24º in summer where I live and that means I only have to fart about during winter. It is much easier to warm the solutions than to cool them.

In winter, my containers of chemistry stand on top of brewer's mats and if I switch them on in the morning they'll be up to temp in the afternoon.

I am currently using a Jobo ATL 1500 for 4x5 and it is automated to run at 24º for B&W.

Of course you could always buy a tempering unit and plumb it into your darkroom. But it is costly to buy and costly to install.

I just use water baths. I also only use glass graduates and beakers which come up or down to temp much faster than plastic ones. I'm pretty anal about always devving at 20C and then usually just keep the others with 2C...

Jon