It can be as complex or simple as a light tight closet or for that matter a portable changing
darkbag. The room or bag needs to be light tight. You load the film into
a light tight tank and then may process the film in room light. You pour chemicals into
out of the tank and when done the film is hung to dry in a realitively dust free place.

 So realistically you can get away with very little money spent. Now alot depends on the
type of film, B&W applies to the above, color films require more gear and money spent
and alot lot more descriptive text. The info is out there and some here maybe more inclined
to expound on that.

 If your  interested in just Black and White, books like the Darkroom Cookbook & Film
Developing Cookbook can help. You can also search Amazon for Darkroom & Photography
and I am sure you will find lots of good set up books.

$0.00 to $20,000.00, depending.  It is like asking how much money does it
take to do woodworking - anything from a rusty saw picked up in the street
to a 24" planer and a Bridgeport.

If on a budget: for film only, $20-$40; for prints, another $50 plus an
enlarger ($0.00 to $20,000.00 - sometimes for the same enlarger).  It
is best to buy a used enlarger, some go for pennies on the dollar:
place a WTB add in the local newspaper.  Often you can find a geezer or
eager ex-wife willing to sell the whole kit and caboodle.  Check completed
ebay auctions for a range of current prices.

How much to build a house - same type of question.  Answer: 'How much
do you have to spend?' - then add 50%.

To do what, and how often.  It is possible to develop film in old
coffee and fix it in sea water (fixing takes a week or two, though).

You sit in the dark, waste time and money, and get a chemical rash...  Sort
of like sailing, or computers.

I would: search the Web and Usenet with Google (there _are_ FAQs all over the
place), go to the library and find some books, go to the bookstore and
buy a book ('Ansel Adams Inc.' and Kodak both publish good ones), and
visit the local photo shop.  Oh, and try http://www.ilford.com

 Colour ? B&W? Just film? Or prints to? Are you handy? Or the type that
likes to buy everything premade? Do you mind used? Or does the minty smell
of brand new matter to you? Running costs actually go down the more you do
things. One roll a year will cost you more per roll then processing more.

 Find a night school or college offering an introductory course. Doesn't
need to be anything fancy just enough to decide if you want to invest in the
equipment.

     Nick

A good book on darkroom building (including plumbing !) with examples of
very small darkrooms:
"The New Darkroom Handbook - A Complete Guide to the Best Design,
Construction, and Equipment" by Joe DeMaio, Robin Worth and Dennis Curtin,
Focal Press (ISBN 0-240-80260-8)

Some basics on film/paper processing on Ilford's site (more on their site):
http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/Film%20Hobbyist.PDF
http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/paper%20hobbyist.pdf

and my lab:
http://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/photo/mylab.htm

Good start,

I second the suggestion made by others that you ought to take a class
somewhere before taking the dive.

As for setting up a darkroom at home, my example is towards the low
end: I have an enlarger and timer set up in a closet. I load my prints
into a light-tight processing drum (was Unicolor, soon to be Jobo) and
bring them into the bathroom where I have chemicals and motor base.
Film is a similar drill: load into daylight processing tank in the
closet and process in the bathroom.

For the bathroom, I built a portable wooden sink that I set up
whenever I do processing. It sits on wooden legs that screw into the
bottom and it goes right on top of the toilet. The drain just drains
right into the toilet. It looks funny but it works great.

One thing you should be careful about is ventillation. In my case my
bathroom already has a ventillation fan so it worked out quite well.
Don't work with photographic chemicals without ventillation. Even the
relatively harmless ones, such as fixer, can make you dizzy if, like
me, you are esepecially sensitive. I'm also careful not to work in the
closet for more than 10 minutes at a time or so before opening the
door. It's light-tight and for all intents and purposes air-tight.

--Phil

"skozzy" <no.email@all.com.au> wrote in
There are others, but I like this Agfa course:

http://www.agfanet.com/en/cafe/photocourse/bwcourse/cont_index.php3

Jorge

news:409497f5$1$32558$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au:

You all have given me some great insight to whats involved. A course sounds
good, and those pics from Claudio of his room is very impressive.

I was mostly looking at the idea of being able to do my own prints inplace
of taking them to the shop to get done.