Suppliers in Germany

mr. roarke · Nov 22, 2006

Greetings! This is my first post to this forum.

My wife and I just graduated with photography degrees. I have other work, but she is anxious to go into business for herself. She is very partial to flim photography, and we want to set up a darkroom in our new house.

The question is: Where are the photo pro shops in Germany? We are in the Rheinland-Pfalz state, about 30 min from Trier, 1.5 hours from Keiserslaughtern/Ramstein, and 2 hours from Frankfurt.

We're willing to drive a fair distance once or twice to buy equipment, but we need somewhere close for regular needs such as chemicals. Or we need to find a supplier we can order from and have things delivered. I don't want to buy an enlarger sight-unseen, even if it does cost 5 bucks on eBay.

On another note, for those of you who have darkrooms in your bathrooms, what do you do to help with ventilation, especially if you don't have one of those little vent fans already built in?

Thanks for all your help, and I look forward to spending more time on this forum!

terri · Nov 22, 2006

Welcome to TPF!

I can't answer about German suppliers, but I will make sure our German moderator, LaFoto, sees this post and she might be able to help you.

Enlarger aside, I would recommend buying as much as you can online. There are very good suppliers in the UK and I doubt you'll have any trouble with your basic darkroom needs. Silverprint in London ships worldwide, I believe. eBay really can be a good place to look for things like safelights, trays, focus aids, timers, etc. Just employ the usual precautions when dealing with sellers, and you should have no problem and get pretty good deals.

Darkroom ventilation is always of utmost importance. My own darkroom is in a converted upstairs bedroom, and I simply step out frequently, since I prefer to inspect prints by natural light anyway. There are ventilation kits available that will properly vent to the outside, but you may not be willing to do this to your home's bathroom!