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Anyone else fascinated with enlargers?

mehguy

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2015
Messages
577
Location
Canada
Format
35mm
This may be a weird topic but I'm finding myself being absolutely fascinated with the different manufacturers of enlargers as well as their history. I have the urge to start collecting different types of enlargers too. Does anyone else feel this way? For some reason, I'm fixated on LPL for, although it might be the same reason I find the 70s and 80s era of japanese electronics fascinating as well.

Also enlargers being manufactured in the modern day are very cool as well. It'd be super cool to have something like a recently produced LPL, where it seems like they're winding out enlarger manufacturing (unable to find stores that stock them, increasing of prices, and the fact that Beseler seems to practically own the enlarger market), and to own one of the last ones off the production line. As well as unboxing a brand new enlarger would be super cool.

Has anyone ever visited a factory where they produce enlargers? Especially in modern day. I wonder what kind of machinery they use as well as the amount of people they employ?

Am I the only one like this? There seldom seems to be much information online about enlarger manufacturers.
 
Nothing wrong with an enlarger fetish. Some people collect stamps, which sounds boring as hell to me. Some people collect windup toys. I only have 3 manual typewriters but I could see that number growing if I find more nice ones for $20 or less.
 
I have a thing for enlargers too - what I don't have is the space to collect them.

I have a Leica Focomat v35 (that I rarely use these days) and a Beseler 23C II/XL. I use the Beseler almost all the time because I have a good complement of accessories for it and it supports several formats. I wouldn't mind trying something a bit higher quality - like an LPL, for example - but I'm currently of the "if it ain't broke" mindset and would rather make prints than fiddle with more enlargers. But the LPLs and Omegas do interest me and I wouldn't mind giving one a go at some point.
 
Since I can pretty much "do it all" with a single enlarger that supports up to the max size I care about, and since I don't have infinite darkroom space, I actually have no desire to collect enlargers. (Unless I'm missing something.)

Then again, I might have to someday collect "interesting" enlarger heads to facilitate testing for some of my controller projects.
 
dkonigs said:
I actually have no desire to collect enlargers. (Unless I'm missing something.)
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Let me clarify my earlier post: I don't really have a desire to collect enlargers either. What I would like to do, though, is to try several so that I can choose the one that works best for me in the long term.
 
Multiple controller projects? I'm aware of only the Printalyzer.
Two controllers means two enlargers.
 
foc said:
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See the spelling by the british importer. We discussed this for cameras a few days ago.


In the USSR a variety of these enlargers out of the box were made. Either using their cases as groundboard or containg such inside.
Kodak too offered such.
 
BMbikerider said:
They won't be distributing may LPL enlargers now, They only sell ones for large format.
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I don't understand your post, as the one I linked to on their store is a medium format enlarger, and their information site still says that they are the Canadian distributor for LPL enlargers, and lists that enlarger as a current model.
 
Yes I too admire enlargers, just like cameras, the detail of all the aspects of engineering and functionality of the design. There is not a lot history though about them. There is some history about the Simmons brothers, particularly Alfred Simmons their chief engineer:
http://www.khbphotografix.com/omega/OmegaStory.htm
There is some limited info about The Durst brothers on the internet. There is virtually no info on who designed the Beseler enlargers as Charles Beseler died in 1909.
I own two Omegas, B22 and a B8, a Beseler MCRX, and an older Durst 606. The Beseler MCRX and the B22 get the most use now.
 
BMbikerider said:
They won't be distributing may LPL enlargers now, They only sell ones for large format.
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The great thing about those 4x5" enlargers is that they're still a reasonable size and work quite well for all smaller formats too. I got one just so I could handle everything from one unit.
What's also kinda weird, is that everyone actually selling them seems to pick a different price, with huge variation from vendor to vendor. (Even if none are what I'd call cheap.) Just look at theirs, versus what various US places sell under the "Omega" brand (which is essentially the same product).
 
logan2z said:
Let me clarify my earlier post: I don't really have a desire to collect enlargers either. What I would like to do, though, is to try several so that I can choose the one that works best for me in the long term.
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I think a lot of us wish we could do that. The problem is that our community is so geographically dispersed that a "community try-it-all workshop" is something I don't think most of us will ever have the luxury of actually going to. So instead it comes down to just scouring for advice from people, and hoping their impressions match your tastes.
 
albada said:
Multiple controller projects? I'm aware of only the Printalyzer.
Two controllers means two enlargers.
Click to expand...

Okay, maybe I just used plurals as a figure of speech. Its really just one main project. However, it does bring up an interesting point. There are basically two ways to actually control an enlarger:
  1. By toggling the power to an electrical outlet on and off (what the majority, including my LPL, tend to do)
  2. By using some proprietary-to-the-enlarger control box. (everything from the Ilford MG 500 head to Intrepid's latest LED enlarger project do this)
If you have type 1, you can basically use any timer you like. If you have type 2, you're pretty much forced to use the vendor-supplied unit unless you're lucky enough to have something timer-manufacturers have reverse-engineered and added explicit support for. (The Ilford MG 500 may fit this category, but most other choices probably don't.)
 
I have 3 enlargers set up (up to 6x6, a 4x5, and a 5x7). I also have four more up to 6x6 enlargers - one is an old Leitz, which I like, except for the glass negative holder. I have another 4x5 enlarger I got from a guy emptying his father's darkroom. I gave away (to a thrift store) a General 35mm enlarger. I offered a small Omega enlarger for the cost of shipping on a forum a few years ago - no one took me up on they offer. All these people develop film and don't make prints - I don't quite get the point.
My 5x7 enlarger is the size of a small spacecraft and houses an 8" light bulb that I'm afraid to touch lest it finally, after 70 years, give up the ghost. The guy I got the enlarger from got it in 1950, roughly, and the bulb was in it then. Actually, come to think of it, I've really only taken his word that the bulb is that big - I've never looked. The power supply for the thing has tubes.
 
You buy the one you think you’ll like and if it doesn’t work out you try something else . Why most of us have several enlargers. At today’s used prices you can try several without spending a fortune. Of the five enlargers I have, two are set up, and 3 in storage, although two are kept for parts.
 
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Neighbors spend their time fixing up classic cars, motorcycles, and speedboats. I refurbished classic old enlargers. But collecting them - nope. I use em. I've turned down dozens for free, and would have needed to rent a large storage space if I had accepted them. Most were real deal big commercial enlargers. It took six men and a large flatbed truck to move the last one I actually installed here. My very biggest enlarger was built in place by myself. I pity whoever has to move this stuff when I pass away. This is earthquake country, and most of the gear is securely bolted down. I currently use four enlargers, that's enough. Three of them have 8X10 film capacity, the other one is for everything smaller. In a few minutes, I'll be doing an RA4 print enlarged from an 8x10 internegative, in turn enlarged from an old 4X5 original chrome. .... not quite that simple; there was intermediate contrast masking involved too, plus even a color separation neg for sake of printing the same image on black and white paper. Lots of fun stuff.
 
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And here I think of my 5x7 Elwoods (3 in total) as light and compact compared to my 5x7 Besslar (commercial) and way smaller/lighter then their bigger brother, my Elwood 8x10's (2 in total).
In the photo you see two of the 5x7's, the common diffusion head and less common condenser head (in the spot where they may finish up) and one of the 8x10's support arm and (most of) head, sitting on the floor in the horizontal projection position. I still need to build another building to continue emptying this one to then finish out as the darkroom it was planned on being...
 

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