We live in a good age for analogue photography problem-solving. For years the one thing everyone agreed on was that you could not make prints without a darkroom. Daylight developing tanks solved film processing without a darkroom decades ago, but printing still needed one. Now someone has solved that too.
The Jaggle Berlinova is a daylight printing system. It lets you make analogue enlargements from your negatives in full daylight, at your kitchen table, with no darkroom required. I tested a pre-production prototype, made a satisfying number of mistakes, had the designer phone me up and gently tell me to stop messing around, and came away genuinely impressed.
This is the honest review. Mistakes and all.
What it is
The Berlinova was created by Wicher van Lambalgen, who runs Jaggle, based in Berlin (hence the name). It is a self-contained daylight enlarging and printing system. The whole thing works on the same principle as a daylight developing tank: you load the light-sensitive material in the dark (inside a changing bag), then everything after that happens in normal room light because the material is sealed inside a light-tight chamber.
The system, from top to bottom:
- A light source at the top
- A negative carrier, standard stuff, holds your negative
- A filter holder for multigrade contrast filters
- The Berlinar lens, a 50mm f4 enlarging lens specifically designed for this system, in an M39 mount, with an adjustable aperture
- A spacer cone to set the projection distance (the system is fixed-focus, so no focusing needed)
- The paper carrier and mixing section at the bottom, which holds the paper and is where you pour the chemistry
The paper carrier works like a large format film holder. You slide the paper in, close a dark slide over it, and build the rest of the system on top. When you are ready to expose, you pull the dark slide, expose the paper to the projected negative, then close the dark slide again. There is a second dark slide underneath the first, which you open to let the exposed paper drop down into the developing chamber below. Close that, and you pour developer, stop, and fixer in through the top, agitate, pour out, and open up to a finished light-safe print.
No darkroom. No safelight. No enlarger the size of a fridge. The whole thing fits on a kitchen table.
![PLACEHOLDER: the assembled Jaggle Berlinova standing on a kitchen counter, showing the full stack from light source to paper carrier]
What you need to supply yourself
The Berlinova is the hardware. You bring:
- Your own negatives. The prototype I tested does 35mm. More on the format question below.
- Paper in the right dimensions. The version I tested does 4x6 inch prints. Ilford and Foma both make ready-cut 4x6 paper, or you can cut down larger sheets.
- Your own chemicals. Standard paper developer, stop, and fixer. I used the standard Ilford chemistry, which is easy to get and easy to use.
- A timer. Your phone will do.
- A changing bag. For loading paper into the carrier in the dark. Any photographic changing bag works. Wicher sells them as part of the Kickstarter if you do not already have one.
The first session, in which I make a mess
I want to be honest about how this went, because it is instructive about both the product and the process.
The prototype arrived with no printed instructions (it is a pre-production unit). Wicher had emailed me detailed instructions on how much chemistry to use and how to agitate. I did not read them. This was a mistake, and it shaped my whole first session.
Test strip first. The correct way to find your exposure. Pull the dark slide out in increments, exposing successive strips of the paper for increasing times, so you get a single strip showing a range of exposures. Develop it, see which band looks right, and that is your exposure time.
I poured in roughly the amount of developer that looked about right (rather than the specific amount Wicher had told me to use), agitated more enthusiastically than I should have, and got a fair bit of spillage. Stop, fixer, same approach. The test strip came out and suggested an exposure of around 1.5 to 2 seconds.
First actual print. Loaded a fresh sheet, exposed for what I thought was the right time based on the test strip, developed. Came out blank. I think my test strip increments were off (I had not done a proper one-second base increment, so what I read as “one second” was actually two, and the whole scale was shifted).
Second print. Adjusted, tried again. Better. Pretty happy with it.
Between every print, because I had been slopping chemistry around, I was having to take the whole system apart, wash it, and dry it before reloading. This took ages. My turnaround time was terrible. I assumed this was just how the system worked.
It is not how the system works. It is how the system works if you ignore the instructions, which I was doing.
![PLACEHOLDER: the first successful 4x6 print of one of my daughters, made on the Berlinova]
The phone call that fixed everything
I stopped printing overnight. The next morning I had a lovely chat with Wicher, who wanted feedback on the system and was happy to talk me through what I was finding difficult.
To paraphrase the conversation generously: I would find it a lot easier if I stopped messing around and did the things he had already told me to do.
Specifically:
Use the specified amount of chemistry. 100ml for the 4x6 format, 175ml for the 5x7. Not “roughly enough,” the actual measured amount. The chambers are designed around those volumes.
Agitate gently. Enough to get the chemistry over the surface of the paper, not so much that you drench the top section of the chamber. My enthusiastic sloshing was the entire reason I was having to dismantle and dry between prints. Gentle agitation keeps the top section dry, which means no cleaning, no drying, immediate reload.
Use a smaller aperture for more controllable exposures. I had not checked the lens aperture and had been shooting wide open at f4, which gave me very short exposure times that were hard to control. Stopping down to f8 doubles the exposure time and makes the whole process much more controllable.
Armed with the instructions I should have read in the first place, the second session was transformative.
The second session, doing it properly
Loaded a sheet. Exposed at f8 for about 10 seconds (longer, more controllable). Measured exactly 100ml of each chemical. Agitated gently. Poured out.
The print came out perfect. And, crucially, the top section of the chamber was bone dry. No dismantling, no cleaning, no drying. Just reload and go.
That is the secret. Follow the chemistry volumes and the gentle agitation, and the system works exactly as designed: a clean, repeatable, daylight printing process with a fast turnaround. My mistakes had been making it look fiddlier than it actually is.
![PLACEHOLDER: the perfect second-session print, showing clean tonality and a dry chamber workflow]
The 5x7 version
I also tested the 5x7 version, which has a larger base section and a larger top section but works on exactly the same principle. The middle components are shared between the two formats. There are markings on the filter tray (4x6 on one side, 5x7 on the other) so you can see which format you are set up for depending on which way round you assemble it.
The 5x7 was, at the time of the video, a stretch goal on the Kickstarter rather than a base reward. Same workflow, bigger prints.
I did manage to start pouring developer before releasing the paper into the chamber on my first 5x7 attempt, which is exactly the kind of mistake the instructions are designed to prevent. Released it just in time. No more amusing screw-ups after that.
What I actually think of it
I really like it. Some honest caveats and context.
It is not a one-touch solution, and it is not meant to be. When the Berlinova arrived it felt like a complete kit, which made my brain expect a push-button print machine. That is not what it is. It is a darkroom for people who do not have a darkroom. Anyone who has used a real darkroom knows that printing is not push-a-button-get-a-print. It takes effort, thought, test strips, and trial and error. You make mistakes. The Berlinova has the same learning curve any printing process has.
For context: the first time I used my actual darkroom (after a 20-year gap) I was about 15 sheets of paper down before I got a print I was happy with. With the Berlinova I made about three mistakes before getting a good print. So on that measure, the Berlinova is actually a gentler introduction to printing than a conventional darkroom.
The prototype is 3D printed; production will be injection moulded. The unit I tested is a high-quality 3D print, but the production version (which Kickstarter backers would receive) will be injection moulded, which means better tolerances and a nicer finish. So the prototype’s rougher edges are not representative of the final product.
Wicher was still refining the design. He genuinely asked for my feedback and was incorporating improvements. So the production version would have been better than what I tested, including any improvements based on my fumbling. I joked that the production box might say “read the instructions” on it somewhere because of me.
It is genuinely innovative. I love that the analogue photography market is still producing genuine innovation like this. Daylight printing is a real solved problem now, where it was not before, and that is worth celebrating regardless of any one product’s commercial fate.
What would make me buy one
I will be honest about the limitation that matters most to me: at the time of testing, the Berlinova only did 35mm negatives. I shoot very little 35mm. Almost everything I do is medium format and large format.
If Jaggle made a 120 version (and Wicher suggested this might be possible without major hardware changes, potentially just a new top section), I would be all over it. I want 120 negatives and I want the 5x7 base. The day a 120-capable version exists is the day I buy one.
Even with the 35mm limitation, I was tempted, because despite technically having a darkroom in my garage, setting it up is a big job: clearing out everything else stored in the garage, getting all my gear out, unfolding tables, setting up plumbing. With the Berlinova I could make prints at the kitchen table in daylight without any of that. The convenience is real.
Honesty note
Worth stating clearly: Wicher was not paying me for this and I was not asked to say anything positive. I did not even get to keep the unit (I had to send it on to the next reviewer). This was a genuine, independent test. The fact that I was planning to back the Kickstarter myself, with my own money, despite already having a darkroom, is the most honest endorsement I can give.
Addendum
Since this video was made, the Jaggle Berlinova Kickstarter did not reach its funding target, so the daylight printing system did not go into production in the form reviewed here.
That is not the end of the Jaggle story, though. Wicher is still designing and selling interesting analogue photography products, and the Jaggle website has plenty worth a look. The spirit of innovation that made the Berlinova worth reviewing is very much still alive there, so if the idea of clever, well-designed analogue kit appeals, it is well worth browsing what Jaggle currently offers.