Heiland Compact LED Darkroom Safelight
Introduction
Proper darkroom illumination is indispensable.
Well-known darkroom electronics supplier Heiland from Germany offers a compact, yet high-output safelight for black and white work.
The Heiland Electronic compact safelight in its cardboard packaging.
Review
Box contents: Manual, safelight, power supply, screws and wall plugs
Specifications
Monochromatic red light (wavelength 630nm)
LED
Slightly brighter than the well-known Ilford SL1
optional voltage converter for USB-connector & power bank
Build Quality & Size
Many newly produced safelights are cheaply made products not living up to professional standards. The demanding darkroom user had to look on the used market for old, high quality products.
Heiland’s product is completely different: The “Made in Germany” quality shows. While it is very light and tiny, it appears to be very durable.
The Heiland Compact Safelight
The Heiland Compact Safelight is approximately two film boxes long and one film box wide.
Illumination
The all-important question is: Does this safelight provide enough illumination?
The short answer: Yes!
The long answer: My darkroom workspace is about 15 square meters and when placed next to the enlarger it sufficiently illuminates the room. It is unbelievable how efficient this small safelight is.
The Heiland Compact LED Safelight in action.
Verdict
As analog photographers we can spend our money on a lot of sexy things: A new experimental film, fancy camera straps, soft releases and another used camera.
But there is also the stuff that really makes our lives easier and our workflow better: Like this excellent darkroom safelight.
It is just perfect for temporary and small darkrooms. Only for larger darkrooms I’d consider buying two of them or a long LED strip light by Heiland.
