5x7 enlarger - antique for sure

so our local craigslist had an ad that I couldn't resist. An entire darkroom of stuff for $100. The man died over 30 years ago and his 90+ widow passed a couple years back - this has been in the darkroom since he passed and these people are flipping the house and want the darkroom empty. I bought it all - the enlargers are big, they seem to be large format - the wooden one looks like possibly for 5x7 negs. Here are a few pics. There are books, boxes of film, contact frames other frames, processing tanks, lenses and boards -everything imaginable and vintage. Just for historical purposes I don't see that I'll regret spending the $100. I possibly can even use a lot of it - Here are the seller's shots of the enlargers.
so, did I make a good purchase? thoughts? am I nuts?

JessicaDittmer said:

so our local craigslist had an ad that I couldn't resist. An entire darkroom of stuff for $100. The man died over 30 years ago and his 90+ widow passed a couple years back - this has been in the darkroom since he passed and these people are flipping the house and want the darkroom empty. I bought it all - the enlargers are big, they seem to be large format - the wooden one looks like possibly for 5x7 negs. Here are a few pics. There are books, boxes of film, contact frames other frames, processing tanks, lenses and boards -everything imaginable and vintage. Just for historical purposes I don't see that I'll regret spending the $100. I possibly can even use a lot of it - Here are the seller's shots of the enlargers.
View attachment 49442 View attachment 49443 so, did I make a good purchase? thoughts? am I nuts?

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Hi Jessica,

I have enlargers similar to the the ones you have pictured here. The Omega D-II probably dates from the 1940's to the late 1950's It is known as the "push-pull" D-II because it does not use a crank to raise and lower the chassis. I have one of these that I found out was a wartime model produced for the Navy. Not particularly valuable these days, but it is a very good enlarger. I took mine apart recently and gave it a good cleaning, then I reassembled and re-lubed it, and finally aligned it and adjusted it. It now works as smoothly as it did when it was new.With the right condensers, lenses, lensboards and neg carriers, this enlarger will enlarge negs from 35mm to 4x5. Omegas are very common and parts and accessories are easy to find. If your lenses are Kodak Enlarging Ektars, you have some very good lenses as long as they are in good condition. Kodak Enlarging Ektanons can also be pretty decent. If they are Wollensak lenses, well, some people love 'em, some people hate 'em. I have a 162mm Wollensak Enlarging Pro-Raptar that I like.

I also have a wooden 5x7 Elwood, but it looks somewhat different from yours as there were quite a few variations. If you take the reflector off of the top of the enlarger, you should see see from one to four sheets of glass above the neg carrier stage. If you have multiple sheets of glass, one of these will be the diffuser. it is a peice of sandblasted glass that is heavily frosted toward the center, becoming less frosted toward the edges. This diffuser is vital to the successful use of the enlarger. The reason that the glass is more heavily sandblasted toward the center is to even out the light to eliminate hot spots in the the light beam. Most Elwoods that one finds for sale these days are missing the diffuser or it has been broken. This is not good if you want to print with the enlarger. If the Elwood is complete and in good condition, it can produce very nice prints. By the way, I paid $75.00 for my Elwood last year. I was fortunate that the guy I bought it from was a photographer who knew how to take care of it. He only sold it because he was building an 8x10 enlarger and needed the space for it.

All in all, I think you scored some good stuff. I don't think you're crazy. I KNOW that I am, however

Mike Sullivan

wow thank you for this information. I know the omega has some huge lens things in metal shells - and lots of film holders. There are a few lenses for the elwood too which I will look at more tomorrow. I have a wollensak on my 8x10 camera so I recognize the name. I'll look and see what is in with the enlargers ( we cleared the place clean so there is a bunch of stuff ) all kinds of glass pieces too. I'll take a look and see if it has the heavy frost glass.

I have a 5x7 Elwood that I print with and made my own diffuser, wasn't real tough and enlarger works just fine.

markbarendt said:

I have a 5x7 Elwood that I print with and made my own diffuser, wasn't real tough and enlarger works just fine.

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Hi Mark,

How did you make your diffuser? Thought I'd ask in case I ever do something stupid and accidentally break mine.

JessicaDittmer said:

wow thank you for this information. I know the omega has some huge lens things in metal shells - and lots of film holders. There are a few lenses for the elwood too which I will look at more tomorrow. I have a wollensak on my 8x10 camera so I recognize the name. I'll look and see what is in with the enlargers ( we cleared the place clean so there is a bunch of stuff ) all kinds of glass pieces too. I'll take a look and see if it has the heavy frost glass.

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Hi Jessica,

Glad I could help! The huge lens things in the metal shells are probably the other condenser sets for the various enlarger lenses. You might want to check out http://www.classic-enlargers.com to do some more research on the Omega. It is run by a guy named Harry Taylor who rebuilds and sells Omega enlargers. The guy is a walking encyclopedia on Omegas. He also has a forum on his site called "Ask Harry" where he'll answer any question concerning Omega enlargers. Your particular enlarger is a D-II, NOT a D-2. If you should call Harry for info, be sure to refer to your model as a "Omega D Roman Numeral Two" when speaking with him, as this is how he distinguishes your model from the later D-2 models.

Mike

ah thanks! I had another question, what should I use to clean the wood framed contact frame? It has the glass front and a hinge back - I'm going to use it for 8x10 but I think it is an 11x14 or so - there is a bit of the glass missing but it is big enough that the 8x10 will have plenty of room for contact printing. Not sure what to clean it with to use it. I want to start basic and contact print 8x10 negs. then go from there. I'll mark this thread for that info on Harry. Sounds like he's going to be a great source!

What I did was put some griinding compound between two panes the right size and rubbed them together. Placement of the compound and the pressure you apply can get you the extra diffusion in the middle.

The first attempt didn't have quite enough so I ended up doing both sides of both sheets. I spaced the sheets with paper clips in the enlarger.

The other trick was aiming the non-standard bulb, a 200watt soft white incandescent. Tried a 300 watt and actually broke the top sheet with the heat. The pane was I believe cut too large. They aren't supposed to fit tight, gotta have room to grow.

It can cook a negative too.

Originally these came with a top sheet of heat absorbing glass to protect things below. That type of glass is expensive and the stuff I found wasn't anywhere near large enough.

So I do my best to avoid long on times and allow plenty of cooling time.

thanks! there were all kinds of glass in boxes so we took it all in case. some big some small and some quite thick. I'm going to dig thru some of the boxes tomorrow.

JessicaDittmer said:

ah thanks! I had another question, what should I use to clean the wood framed contact frame? It has the glass front and a hinge back - I'm going to use it for 8x10 but I think it is an 11x14 or so - there is a bit of the glass missing but it is big enough that the 8x10 will have plenty of room for contact printing. Not sure what to clean it with to use it. I want to start basic and contact print 8x10 negs. then go from there. I'll mark this thread for that info on Harry. Sounds like he's going to be a great source!

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I usually take the glass out and wash in the sink with soap and water with a sponge. Wear gloves so you don't cut your self or drop it. Then drain the water off a bit and place on a terry cloth bath towel and dry both sides. Inspect for any scratches or nicks in the glass before replacing in the frame. Or if it is not too dirty, you can use windex and a lintless wipe.

Jon

You can find an Elwood instruction book at:
http://www.cameraeccentric.com/html/info/elwood_1.html

thanks! a good cleaning is in order! chuck- thanks for the link, I'll go check it out!

i got heat absorbing glass from my local glazer.
it wasn't very expensive at all, and i just slide it where the flap door
is on my d3v ... not sure if yours has a flap door, its for
the aux condenser for small format enlarging ...

Thanks, I'll have to ask local.