darkroom printing with the intrepid enlarger

Testing out the new Intrepid Enlarger that just launched on Kickstarter!
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[@IntrepidCameraCo]

Thanks for doing this Matt! Great video!

[@TheBigNegative-PhotoChannel]

i thought i would never make my own analog prints, but this thing is so small and cool that i'm seriously considering it now. 😮

[@FelixCervantes]

I am in the process of clearing out my parents’ belongs and found my first enlarger that they gave me when I was about 12. It is in like new condition and found a negative that I took and processed by myself that in pristine condition of my mom that I thought was lost. It still had the color filters from the last time I used it.

[@ReimannPembroke]

This is really awesome! Dark room printing has become a bit of a lost art and its so cool that they made an enlarger that's so small! That will make it accessible to a lot more photographers! I remember doing dark room printing at my high school with gigantic enlargers and it was such a cool experience.

[@grahamrichards8531]

Size and weight: another great bonus is that it can be freighted worldwide (NZ in my case) without costing an arm and a leg.

[@rgrbrn]

It’s good to see Old School Matt Day back again!

[@FRONTPhotography]

Awesome Matt. Great to see you back in the Darkroom. Looking forward to seeing future works.

[@lucbeliveau3977]

I hope that there will be other darkroom videos. Two years ago I bought a complete used darkroom equipment in pristine condition for 400 bucks, since then I shoot film and print my photographs as I did 40 years ago, it' s magic!

[@CalumetVideo]

I have backed the project and looking forward to receiving my enlarger! This is one of the best ideas in analog photography. I think that I may just work more analog with printing instead of the hybrid shoot film, develop and scan.

[@tahaphoto]

Love that product and love this process! Thanks for sharing, Matt.🙏🏽🖤

[@spyratekodaks7494]

The good old Matt seems to be coming back!! Thank you for sharing!!

[@CraigBergonzoni]

Super cool! Can’t wait to try this out.

[@AlisterMalcolm]

Loving brands like Intrepid. This is the stuff the community needs!

[@adventureStaley]

Yeah, I'm totally getting this thing.

[@MohondhaY]

Thank you digital photography! 🙌🏼

[@Lysander-Spooner]

This brings back some good memories.

[@mathiash5000]

Wow, I just learned how to print the darkroom.Thanks, Matt!

[@hughwolfe1176]

Matt thank you for sharing this. My wife walked in at the beginning of the video and said “old school”. She knew exact what it was you were doing even though she’d never actually printed in a darkroom. I showed her the Kickstarter campaign as well as the prices she responded with “You need to buy one of these”. I’ve never had any darkroom experience in my life, although it’s always looked interesting and I do have my dads 1953 Contaflex.

[@hughwolfe1176]

See what happens when I watch Matt on KZbin, I spend money. I’ve never even been in a darkroom, (wait, that’s not completely true) never developed or printed film and here I am buying an enlarger. Matt I may have questions for you in a few months.

[@mattbray_studio]

@@hughwolfe1176 you'll love it. its so much fun

[@yasha8951]

Wow super cool to see you back in the darkroom

[@molliehewitt4497]

Looks gorgeous. I can't wait to receive it.

[@6wop]

love this soooo much matt!!!

[@TatianaHopper]

Really inspired Matt & really looking forward to try this out soon. This video just took me back in time to your older videos in the darkroom (developing & later with printing). Funny story I once showed your videos to my classmates in film school so that we'd learn how to develop B&W properly ahah

[@beepboopimarobot2841]

(Shh.. just sneakin' in some words of appreciation for your content. Great stuff!)

[@chrischivers6232]

Man I miss the darkroom. Spent about 6 months doing it during my degree and loved it. Cant wait to set my own up.

[@jimgoodin-analogphotography20]

Nice demo and good to see an affordable enlarger option.

[@thedondeluxe6941]

Backed on Kickstarter! Can't wait to get mine! :-) This really looks like a great product for us city dwellers with small apartments.

[@Andrew-wb7wn]

I already have an old half broken down enlarger, and it works, but, man this does sound pretty niceee- Like contrast filters, all of the stuff for color, and some other stuff added with the surpassing of 150k pounds on the kickstarter

[@CJWareLRPS]

ok this is on my too buy list, i've developed film myself at home but never done dark room printing mainly due to the size of the machines etc but this would fit my small space perfectly :D , definitely something to invest in for doing videos on my youtube channel with

[@pollux4447]

If you want a great safelight, just use red LED stripes. They are the safest you can get, because the just amit red light and don't filter white.

[@IainHC1]

Nice tip :-) Thank you :-)

[@mattbray_studio]

have you tested it in a darkroom? does it work with ilford papers? that sounds great for when i set my darkroom back up. any particular LED strips to recommend? thanks

[@pollux4447]

@@mattbray_studio I have tred it. Any LEDs strip should do the trick, but if you want to be shure, there are some on Amazon that are specaly made for darkroom work.

[@mattbray_studio]

@@pollux4447 thanks

[@agylub]

I always wondered why paper does not come in 3:2 aspect ratio. For alignment I had a glazier drill a 12mm hole in a piece of mirror. That goes on top of the enlarger, another piece of mirror on the easel. Look through the hole down to the baseboard and alignment is easy

[@andrewcphan]

*Turn my hat around* Ah, the epitome of every darkroom session I have.

[@aboutphotography]

Great video! Thank you!

[@DannerPlace]

I have a darkroom, but I will buy an Intrepid for travel use ASAP. 100%. I will make a stand for it. Also, the Nova slot processors for prints are coming back, and those will be the perfect mate for the Intrepid in a compact space, like apartments and college dormitories.

[@ahhrealghosts]

This video was oddly soothing to watch..

[@FilmPhotographyChannel]

This adds a new dimension because printed photos show more detail and wider tones than scanning to a computer. This is really interesting.

[@IncendiaHL]

I wonder if that is still the case, when it's illuminated by LED. What do you think?

[@tomleiningerphoto]

Just file out the negative carrier and and you are good to go that easel is fine.

[@parkermillican]

Great video 🔥🔥

[@Stego86]

I guess I want one now

[@Alptraumification]

I will so buy this thing

[@_jprater]

Gotta love the night vision of the SL2s #FTA

[@thomas_dries]

I was literally just wondering when you were going to make a video about this 😂

[@alfredozappetelli1473]

Hello Matt, tks for your interesting videos. Following your videos I bought an Intrepid Enlarger, I'm waiting for it to arrive, according to your tests up to what print format it could arrive, 40x60, with a 6x9 negative. Thank you

[@randzb.techtalent]

Nice sir....

[@beez1598]

I pulled the trigger on this. I had to sell my only digital camera to cover it. Im all analog now!

[@seralegre]

oh, to focus you just need to add one red filter so you dont waste the paper!!

[@josephhagins4631]

Awesome video! What rolling stand are you using? I’m in need of one for my darkroom!

[@grahamrichards8531]

Is this light source, which sounds very exciting, the equivalent of an old school diffuser enlarger? ie. no condenser.

[@garvinkelly]

the timer/ filter controller and led light source is super cool but the rest seems impractical to me. It seems like it would be a nightmare to level the film carrier to the easel. This will cause major headaches. The negative carrier is also not good enough imo. Hopefully they will make better versions as time goes on. I would be very interested in buying a led light source with that controller to use with my Omega D-2V enlarger. They should make kits for modernizing the most popular enlargers

[@KingofStreet3]

This is great, don’t have to rearrange an entire room for this. Will still have to learn film tho. But for the price, not bad at all

[@IainHC1]

Have you try split grade printing with this yet?

[@alfredozappetelli1473]

I'm waiting for the intrepid Enlarger, but how can you adjust it in height, on the instructions talking about a tripod or even the solution you showed.

[@alfredozappetelli1473]

Tks for the video, do you think I could use my LTM lens on, for example a Canon 50mm 1.4 LTM to print 24x36 film?

[@SD_Alias]

If mounted on a sturdy reprostand it might work. But such a wobbly stand or tripod is no fun to work with…

[@FlosBlog]

So, a sage light only can be used for printing and not for developing?

[@thenexthobby]

If you leave it setup on a dedicated copy stand I’m not convinced misalignment should be assumed. On the other hand, a repurposed bathroom isn’t ideal either. Some things this seems to have going for it that most used enlargers do not include the ability to do both B&W and color without a condenser head change, a different control structure (that may or may not be better), the ability to do most medium format for less than the size of a dedicated 35mm enlarger, and oh yeah it’s For Sale. I’ll still troll for a used enlarger first but I don’t have any illusions that’s gonna net me something both cheaper and better.

[@gregderozier3846]

Can anyone tell me what happened to Matt’s piece on scanning film with his Fujifilm camera? Seems to have disappeared...

[@butcherneck]

Hmm... I've almost never had an issue with dust while printing, but when scanning... that's much worse.

[@mattbray_studio]

same. i thought it was strange when he said that because my experience is like yours, WAY worse when scanning

[@mkshffr4936]

Which type of head? I have heard condenser can be a bite in the shorts.

[@doctordutch]

How much?

[@yan01232]

would like to see a print from the intrepid vs a scan printed the same size!

[@nickfanzo]

Darkroom prints and scanned inkjet prints are different animals

[@rgrbrn]

@@nickfanzo totally Agree, different animals, different habitats, different tastes.

[@nickfanzo]

I’d be concerned about movement on such a small device and alignment

[@agylub]

The main contributor to movement in my experience has been cooling fans which this system does not have. Alignment is an issue with any enlarger

[@nickfanzo]

@@agylub alignment is an issue with any enlarger until you align it and shim it well. This would always be in fluctuation, this to me, being an issue

[@DennisF252]

Seen this a few times now. What a bad idea IMO, one of the main thing an enlarger has to do is ensure that the head and baseboard are perfectley square and parallel, which is why they come set up on a column/ copy stand.

[@copperdomination]

Using this thing with a tripod in the average bathroom sounds like no fun. The legs will need to be pretty far apart to avoid casting a shadow on the paper. Or, tilt the center pole and re-level the head every time you need to raise or lower the enlarger head. And, if the tripod is not sitting on a very level surface, the bubble levels are useless. How level is your counter? Even with a copy stand, you must ensure the enlarger head is offset far enough from the pole to accommodate the easel. 8x10 may be pretty easy. 11x14? Select your copy stand carefully. The enlarger head and timer look like a very nicely designed unit. It's a shame they don't offer the entire enlarger as an option. Perhaps they realize that keeping the head square with the easel is no simple task. Matt's setup certainly looks like a lot of work to set up, tear down and level the head.

[@kenziehurlock]

It's so weird to me that if the photo gets wet after it dries it gets ruined even though it's made wet. I've always wondered how this was done and it's so much more authentic than scanning film digitally.

[@randallstewart175]

Well, the Kickstarter will cost you $300. Then you have to get some sort of jury-rig stand to put it on, call that $75, and a lens (we'll make it a fairly good one, $75). So that's $450. You can buy probably 90% of the small (35mm) to medium format enlargers (used) which were ever made, with lens, for less than that, in most cases, a lot less.. And you do not have to realign the whole rig every time you change print size, a point not mentioned by either Intrepid or Matt Day. Intrepid's marketing line for this little bit of stuff is "we've rethought the enlarger". If they mean that they had produced an issue ridden bit of hugely over-priced stuff to suck in newbies who do not know better, trading on their "new kid on the block" company name, I guess you can call that a "rethink". What gong to happen is that a lot of newbies will suck in for this, with the urging of Matt and YT guys like him, will try to set it up and make a few print. They will find themselves screwing around with the rig more than they are making prints, realize that they are out a lot of money, get pissed off and drop darkroom printing all together. Thanks, Matt.

[@isaackimball5635]

I agree that alignment could be an issue but the pros outweigh the cons. For trips or vacations, this is a godsend. hahaha have you ever tried a road trip with a beseler 23c? I haven't looked into the specifics of the mount for the physical enlarger but it looks like Matt is getting along just fine with that standard C stand. This is also extremely helpful for the analog community Ilford and kodak are going to be selling chemistry and paper like hotcakes.

[@lightcamera2521]

Digital photography has removed the cruelty from film photography. Stay with digital photography. As Szabo has stated GELATINE !!!!!