Topic: Darkroom safe light????

[astrobeck]

Hi all!
I need to retire my ancient darkroom safe light and was wondering what is a goto light these days?

My current light belonged to my late Mother and has been a real trooper for probably the better part of 50 years!

I want something that I could take on the road with me.
Ideas? Suggestions all welcome.

[Francois]

I know a lot of people go LED these days.
If you want to do it on the cheap and don't mind taking to the soldering iron (or just have Ethan do it), check out that contraption I built years ago
https://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=9563.0
The LED is just a few bucks online. The whole thing is super bright and runs on AAs, so it's not much of a problem.

I know some people use Xmas lights, bike lights, etc. But these need some testing.
If you don't mind going full Made In China, you can check the eTone store on Aliexpress. They're the manufacturers of photo equipment in the land of Mao.
I bought a few of their products over the years and can say that their quality is usually quite decent.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003737062368.html

[Flippy]

I switched to a Yankee safelight, fitted with an LED bulb, and screwed into a desklamp so I can pretty much put light wherever I need it, then swing it out of the way when I don't need it.



The advantage of this is you can get red, amber, and green filters for the Yankee safelight, you can use whatever brightness of bulb you want (within reason... I think these were originally intended for a 15w or 25w incandescent bulb, and I use a 40w equivalent LED), and it screws into a conventional lamp. You could even put it in a simple clamp light so it could be mounted pretty much anywhere. Easy to find on ebay, and they still make them if you want a new one.