hi william: now that would be quite a cool things to be able to do :) have a portable darkroom inside my camera !
i'm working on a 1/2 scale model of the camera (4x10" with a 233.8mm diameter pinhole) and i'll see if i can get some of the kinks out of my design. ... thanks! john John, You need to spend an afternoon in Tijuana brother. The reason for this is that all along the main drag Avenida del Revolucion you will see burros painted with white zebra stripes attached to decorated wagons. Near by will be three guys and a funny painted wooden box on a tripod. The box is wooden, the lens on the front is from old Kodaks. Inside are a box of photo paper and two rectangular tin boxes hanging below. These men take photos of tourists wearing dumb hats with "Drunk again" "Borracio" "El gringo" on them. They shoot paper negatives, The sides of the cameras have safelight glass and they look through the backs at a film plane about 8-10 inches inside the camera. I think there must be a piece of glass in there. They check the framing, focusing is by hyperfocal distance, and then cover the lens, place a piece of photo paper in the film plane, holding it there with a hinged piece of wood. Take the photo--about 2-5 seconds. They process it right in the camera. Developer and then fixer. (if you fully develope you won't get fixer swirls) Then they place the neg on a board in front of the lens, stick a close-up diopter lens over the camera lens and copy the negative to get a positive. in the last photo we had done the donkey/zebra was added with a cut out piece of negative added to our negative. The donkey was there, he was just out of focus--he always is out of focus. You come back after about 20 minutes to pay the $5 and get your two pictures. The third guy then offers you 3-5 more photos for $10. It's always good to haggle a little and give them an extra $2 for 1-2 more. And always in the little framing folder they put the photo into it says "Souveneir of Tijuana Mexico" and "If you don't like the picture blame the ass" To make a long story have a point. I would think that if you wanted to risk it keeping film in at least two halves of a three part photo box would probably work. If you have a ground glass-Keep your darkcloth over the back of the camera as much as possible. A good compromise would be inside the two halves add a platform of black cardboard that would raise the film off the bottom. This way if any light leaked down into the box it wouldn't have much chance of bouncing up into the film. Your box with the spring lid is better idea I think. I have a paper safe in my darkroom facing the door to my backyard bathed in hot California sun. I've never ever had a problem-except when I've left a test strip keep the door open. A black plastic photo paper pouch would probably also work-but might block your exposures. You really should check out the TJ guys though. I wonder if there's a website about this type of photography. Someone could make a great movie about the first guy who painted stripes on his burro. He must have monopolized all the business for a day or two. (btw the burros are well treated. They don't even pull the cart to and from the barn. One of the men do it.) ---William Nettles _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
