Portable darkroom PM1

To make comfortable the experience of work outside.

The PM1 portable darkroom is suitable to work with plates up to 20×25 cm.

This darkroom is a strong wooden and aluminium flight-case with an internal foldable structure to keep open a big blue light proof tent. Inside darkroom you can find a work table of 37 x 85 cm with a hole enabled for a sensitizing tank. Down of work surface table you can find an auxiliary space which makes easier to move buckets, holders and bottles between these two surfaces. A methacrylate red window will provide a lot of red light inside darkroom. The blue tend is made with a great quality fabric, totally light proof, fire and wear.

PM1 is so light to carry thanks to a wheels mounted out of the flight-case. You will need less than 4 minutes to assemble and disassemble in very kind of floors.

 

Technical information


  • Size closed: 30 x 40 x 91 cm / 12” x 16” x 36”
  • Size open: 40 x 91 x 205 cm / 16” x 36” x 81”
  • Weight: 23 kg
  • Work surface area: 37 x 85 cm / 15″ x 33,5″
  • Time for assembly / disassembly: 4 minutes

 

Purchase information


  • Finished: 4 weeks
  • Price: 1300 € 
  • Shipping: Worldwide
  • Payment: via PayPal or bank account

First payment 40% before project starts up. Final payment 60% before shipment.

If you have any question please contact us.

Need help? Contact us

If you have any question, don't hesitate to contact us for more information, to place an order or request a budget.

Let's talk

Portable darkbox PS2

To work comfortably with wet collodion plates.

The PS2 portable darkbox is designed to work with wet collodion plates up to 13x18cm.

This darkbox is a strong wooden and aluminium flight-case with foldable blue tent inside. A large window in the top of suitcase allows access inside when it’s open. This window is designed with two pieces of red acrylic that slid along two horizontal guides. Through this big window you can introduce holders, tanks, buckets or bottles and, at the same time, allow the entrance of filtered natural light inside.

In the suitcase there is a blue fabric fixed along all it perimeter. Two carbon fiber rods are adapted to the curved profile of this blue tent and they can removed and placed easily at suitcase internal corners.

The inner walls and the base are lined with PVC, suitable to work with liquids and easy to clean. The double work surface is spacious and comfortable, designed to work in orderly way with sensitizing tanks, holders and bottles during all the process. You can look inside through the red plastic band, stitched on blue fabric. Two big sleeves allow full mobility with safely that no light seeps inside.

 

Technical information


  • Size closed: 70 x 35 x 26 cm / 28″ x 14″ x 11”
  • Size open: 70 x 35 x 61 cm / 28″ x 14″ x 24″
  • Weight: 15 kg
  • Time for assembly / disassembly: 2 minutes

 

Purchase information


  

  • Finished: 4 weeks
  • Price: 800 €
  • Shipping: Worldwide
  • Payment: PayPal or bank transfer

 

If you have any question please contact us.

Restoration

Conservation and restoration projects of early photographic equipments.

Watplatewagon has been specialized to offer restoration and conservation services for wooden cameras and technical equipment related to nineteenth century photographic processes: daguerreotype, calotype and wet plate collodion.

Our customers are photographers who use antique cameras to practice these earliest photographic processes and private or public collections and institutions who have in custody valuable photographic equipments.

We take care of any photographic equipment of nineteenth century and early twentieth century, making technical and diagnostic reports as well as conservation or restoration projects if it was necessary.

We restore wooden structures and guides with a high-quality craft varnished process. At the same time we restore brass parts, bellows, frosted glass and reintegrate pieces that have been broken or lost over time.

With our work we are intended to refurbish the original functions of these antique objects respecting the old patina that time and ancient uses has provided on them.

What we do:

  • Conservation state reports of photographic technical equipments from XIX and early XX.
  • Conservation and maintenance protocols as well as recommendations in order to do a proper storage, transport and exhibition.
  • Restoration projects with interventions plan, executional calendar and description of tools and materials used during the restoration process. Restoration proposal will be preceded for an exhaustive conservation state exam, taking in consideration the needs and demands of the owner, the respect for these antique objects and historical and economical value.

 

If you have any question please contact us.

Case study: The Daguerre-Giroux camera


On 15th June of 2015 we began the restoration of Daguerre-Giroux camera serial number 178, owned by the Reial Acadèmia de les Ciències i les Arts de Barcelona (RACAB). With this camera we also was restored the plates box and the chemistry bottles box, that were part of this original laboratory set for the daguerreotypes process. Unfortunately the original plate holder, the mercury fuming box and the rest of equipment was lost.

Known as Le Daguerréotype, the Daguerre-Giroux camera was the first photographic equipment commercialized to make images with daguerreotype technique, the first photographic process invented by Louis Daguerre and patented in France on 1839.

Case study: Blanxart daguerreotypes laboratory


On 7th July of 2014 we began the restoration of an original and almost complete laboratory to make daguerreotypes. The laboratory and its photo archive they remained for years in the Blanxart family house and is currently in custody by the Arxiu Fotogràfic of Barcelona. This public institution has promoted the restoration and has made available to the photographic community for study and documentation of professional historians.

This laboratory was designed to work with 1/6, 1/9 and 1/16 format plates.

We work with the hypothesis that this is a Lerebours equipment from 1840-50, but this is not a verified information yet.

Need help? Contact us

If you have any question, don't hesitate to contact us for more information, to place an order or request a budget.

Let's talk

Adapted plate holders

We adapt any film holders to work with wet plate collodion process.

 

 

 

 

 

In Wetplatewagon we transform any film holder to adapt them for wet collodion process.

Tell us your film holder model and plate size which with you want to work and we will send a budget with total costs for this service.

If you have any question please contact us.

Need help? Contact us

If you have any question, don't hesitate to contact us for more information, to place an order or request a budget.

Let's talk

Reduction frames

Acrylic frames adapted for any film or plate holder.

 

 

 

In Wetplatewagon we make methacrylate reduction frames to adapt different plate formats in the same plate holder.

These frames can be used with aluminum and glass plates up to 3mm thickness. Four transparent plastic tabs on each corner allow to stand plates easily without leaving marks on the image. Four brass parts keep plates attached in methacrylate frame, preventing movements in the plate holder during the exposure process.

The cost of this service depends of size and how many reduction frames do you need.

 

If you have any question please contact us.

 

 

Need help? Contact us

If you have any question, don't hesitate to contact us for more information, to place an order or request a budget.

Let's talk