8x10" enlarger - print a whole 35mm film at once?

[cmo]

Many years ago, a lab in Hamburg, Germany, offered "super contact sheets". A normal contact sheet, but HUGE.

Would it be possibe to use an 8x10" enlarger to do this?

 

[markbarendt]

I don't know, but that is a really cool idea.

I guess it would depend on the holder.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Yes, an 8x10" enlarger with a glass neg carrier is traditionally used to make enlarged proof sheets.

 

[Ian Grant]

If you get a Paterson 35 Contact printer and took the glass out of the plastic hinge it makes an easy holder for the negatives, Hinge it to another piece of glass. I've seen it done, and also a similar 120 version.

Ian

 

[Mick Fagan]

This is how we used to print our own colour negative prints.

Using a glass neg carrier and the film taped, we would use 16x20" paper for a whole film, the only negative was the fact that invariably one had the odd over exposed or underexposed frame.

Basically we would do our normal print first, then guesstimate the difference for the under and over negatives. Generally we did it in three sheets, occasionally four sheets.

As it was standard practice to run 16x20" or 24x30" colour paper for test prints on our mural enlargements, these prints were considered collateral damage

Mick.

 

[George Collier]

Another variation on this is using a 4x5 setup to do 9 images at a time, which fits nicely into a 36 exposure roll, and you don't need glass. The negs are not flat, but flat enough (I use an extra stop down on the lens for DOF). It isn't worth the extra trouble for all subject types, but is quite useful for some, like portraits. I tape the final 8x10's hinged back to back, so they read across like 3 rows of 6 images.
You can also scan a whole roll, but then you don't have contrast and exposure information.

 

[MartinP]

Short answer is yes. I used to do this regularly for a few customers when I worked in a lab. If the exposures are reasonably consistent (eg. studio work) then the clients of our customers seemed to appreciate the extra size and the out-of-the-ordinary nature of the 16x20.

These days I suppose people use macbooks instead :-/

 

[blanconegro]

An 8x10 will only project 30 frames on a glass carrier and although it takes a fair amount of time to say print 20 sheets, they do look great. You could also batch up any extra strips on to one sheet. If printing through sleeves (not really an issue for sharpness) the printfile are the best I've used, thus far. Have fun!

 

[Mick Fagan]

Blanco Negro, admittedly I have only used Durst and DeVere 8x10" enlargers, but both were able to hold 6 strips of 6 = 36 frames on their glass plates.

One then just did a projection onto the baseboard and printed onto paper.

Do you run a wide angle lens with limited coverage on your enlarger, or is there some other restriction?

Mick.

 

[blanconegro]

Hi Mick, I use DeVere 10x8, but I use neg sleeves to protect the clients negatives from excessive handling and to speed up the process, hence only 5 strips of 6 frames.
Chris

 

[brianmichel]

I would love to see something like this!

 

[bill@lapetelabs.com]

At our lab we frequently produce blowup contact sheets with the anti newton glass carrier, our Durst 184 (8x10) enlarger, and a 300mm. Print sizes range from 11x14 to 20x24 and we are able to burn and dodge the prints to create an even, overall exposure. We load the film (35mm or 120) between the glass plates and carefully close them, using a old strip of film to adjust the strips to make them line up correctly. With the film placed directly between the plates and not in a negative sleeve, the film can be lined up tightly and the entire roll fits, plus the film is sharply projected on to the paper. We fit 6 frames by 6 strips of 35mm or 4 frames by 3 strips of 120 in the carrier. Once the film is loaded we can make as many prints as we want and re-size at will.