Are there no drawbacks? Of course there are. If you are not methodical, you
can fog the film, or double-expose it, or fail to record an image at all. The
cameras are, inevitably, bigger and heavier than point-and-shoots. You need
a tripod, but it needn't be anything very fancy: mine dates from the '50s
and cost me about $45. I've another I was given. I had to replace a couple
of locking screws, but so? Oh: and you need a black focusing cloth, though at
a pinch, a reasonably opaque jacket will do.
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Process the film in trays, just as you would paper. If you use
ortho film (non-red sensitive) or ordinary (blue sensitive only)
you can develop under a red safelight.
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The thing is, this was the way that the vast majority of serious photographers
worked for the first 70 or 80 years after photography was invented, and plenty
still work the same way today. It just isn't that difficult. If it were,
photography would never have caught on. So what are you waiting for?
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Or, to save space, use a Nova deep-slot processor...
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You can even use a Paterson Orbital print processor as a daylight
processing tank, for two sheets at a time. Then, you don't
even need a darkroom: you can load the tank in a changing bag.
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Agitate manually, though, because you may get streaks from overly-consistent
agitation using the motorized base.
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Once you have your negative you can scan it (any scanner with
a transparency hood will have high enough resolution)....
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Or
contact print it, using your enlarger as a light source...
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Or make a
traditional POP contact print, in which case you once again don't
need a darkroom.
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And
of course the big 5x7" negative is ideal for "alternative"
processes: this still life is printed as an Argyrotype from Fotospeed
(imported by Freestyle). As far as I recall I used the Gandolfi
with an old 210mm f/5.6 Schneider Symmar from the 1950s.
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Or would you
prefer architecture? (Interior of St. Augustine's Church,
Snave, on Romney Marsh; taken with a Linhof Technika V and 210mm
f/5.6 Rodenstock APO-Sironar on Ilford FP4 Plus.)
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