Anyone know about Lentar enlargers?

[gone]

Just bought a Lentar L 35 enlarger on fleabay, and can't find any info on it. The enlarger looks sorta like a Bogen T 35. It's 35mm negs only, and has a small size overall w/ an under the lens filter. It was only $50 shipped w/ a lens, 8x10 easel and one of those small round timers that don't usually work, so my expectations are low. As long as it will make decent smallish prints.

 

[bdial]

There were a pile of very similar enlargers with various names, "Lucky" is another. I'm not familiar with the Lentar specifically, but all it has to do is hold the negative pretty flat with the carrier, lens and baseboard pretty close to parallel. Ideally, precisely flat and parallel, or adjustable to be so, but that may not be in the cards, as these were mostly made to be amateur machines. For small prints it should do a reasonable job, and upgrading the lens will be easy if it has a 39mm mount, should you want to make improvements.

 

[Paul Howell]

As noted by bdial Lentar was consumer's level enlarger, had a few nice features such as the off set of the enlarging head means that you print up to 11X14 with running the ease into the column. l. What will be critical is the lens, as I recall the lens is 3 element, 3.5 which should do fine for smallish prints, up to 5X7, maybe a 8X10 if stopped to F8 or 11. As these were not heavy duty machines you will need to check make sure that it's in alignment, get a small level and check to see the negative stage is square with the base board and easel. From what I've seen the the lower 1/2 the head and arm that connects to the column is two pieces with a large plastic knob that allows the head to be turned 90s to shoot at a wall for very large enlargements. You can use that knob to bring the head in alignment in one direction, side by side but not front to back. Sometimes I've had to fuss the an easel to bring it into alignment with alignment head. The picture I've seen online looks like it has a filter drawer maybe 4X4 VC filters can be used. If your prints dont look sharp enough you may need to upgrade your lens to a 4 or 6 element lens.

 

[gone]

Thanks for the cool info. The word "Lucky" usually means just the opposite when it comes to budget stuff, so I will probably get what I paid for. The price was right anyway. I've used a fair number of Federal enlargers, so having to fiddle and adjust things is second nature for me.

 

[Paul Howell]

If you used Federals you'll find the Lentar an improvement. If you need VC filters check out Ultrafine, they carry an in house branded set for a lot less than Ilford

 

[gone]

You're right, the Federals aren't user friendly when it comes to raising and lowering the head. They're also very time consuming and difficult to get one leveled and aligned. But they're budget priced, and once you get them set up they're capable of sharp prints w/ negs up to 6x9. Thanks for the tip on the filters, but there's a Freestyle order arriving today w/ some in it. I had some iffy experiences w/ Ultrafine 120 film some years ago w/ the frame numbers showing up on the negs. Hopefully they've got the quality control issues sorted out.

 

[Paul Howell]

I converted a federal to a point source, picked a 2 condenser model, up to 6X9, had a bulb that could raised and lowered and used a 120v transformer, rewired for a halogen clear bulb, worked really well, but so sharp, and the grain, the size of golf balls. Finally sold it to someone who said she really liked it. I still have a Stowaway Jr. 180 degrees from a point source, diffusion, built in 2 element lens which with the right negative works wonders. I need to set it up, I have a pile of 6X6 and 6X9 that I want to print soft.