8x10 contact prints - are you satisfied?

[Luis-F-S]

It was good enough for Edward Weston wasn't it?

 

[Wayne]

Weston could have printed on garbage bags and it would have been better than 99% of anyone else's work

 

[DREW WILEY]

Ha! I Ever seen any of Weston's negs actually enlarged? Most of them just wouldn't look good at that point. They didn't have to, because that was not his objective to begin with. Other than book reproductions, which aren't large either, his goal was an expressive contact print. For those of us who might enlarge as well a contact print a given neg, the rules are different. But even contact printing can be done better with better equipment than
Weston had. I'm speaking of the technical side of this, not aesthetics. We also have the choice of wonderful VC papers and not just single grades;
all kinds of tricks, in fact, that Weston and his peers never knew about. Now annoy Roger... Up the street they just threw away two dozen pro enlargers, including a dozen Omega 8x10 units, all kinds of Omega and Beseler 4x5 color units, and only kept the Durst 8x10 and 5x7 floor standing
units until I could pick out what I wanted to haul off. There are a couple of Dursts left; but I sure as hell don't want to haul another 600lb machine
up two flights of stairs, and then have to remove of section of wall in my own lab again just to fit it in. One Durst autofocus "desktop" unit is still left;
but that one is being reserved for sale, at $75K plus shipping. Just what you need, Roger! Actually, I would have outright given you my old Omega
4x5 colorhead; but by simply moving it, something in either the power or supply or head popped and would need to be rewired. Funny how something
like that can last for decades, but one severe jostle down the line equates to a repair. Nowadays it's easy enough to find a much new Omega head
for next to nothing. Now my old Omega stand (fully black Formica laminated) has my former office black leather chair parked next to it, an old variable angle Durst baseboard attached (also refurbished with black Formica), and a fancy German color matching light above - now my dream retouching station. Reincarnation! The old Omega chassis is still attached, covered in black plastic, and could itself still be revived with a new head
or cold light. As if I needed yet another working enlarger!