Beginner enlarger Dirst Graduate 230 of F30

redtreephoto · Jun 23, 2015

I have the opportunity of buing a completely new Durst Graduate and electronic timer or an older Durst B30 with easel, trays, safelight, developing tanks for the same money £50. What would you recommend? This is my first enlarger

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summicron1 · Jun 23, 2015

Durst didn't make bad stuff, but the B30 looks really low-end, and an electronic timer is not bad. I'd go for the graduate and pick up the trays and junk elsewhere. Keep an eye around, you can find that stuff really cheap/free. That way you can also buy what fits your needs...such as 11 by 14 trays instead of 8 by 10 -- the larger trays are a lot nicer to use even for smaller prints.

How to get free photography stuff?

Let folks at church/work know you want to set up a darkroom, for example, it is highly likely someone else has one they are itching to get rid of.

Jim Jones · Jun 23, 2015

I used a Durst B30 for a while. It was alright, especially with a Nikkor enlarging lens. However, $163.50 sounds like enough to buy a much better enlarger. Like Summicron says, there are enlargers around for the asking in some places.

redtreephoto · Jun 24, 2015

Thanks folks.

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summicron1 · Jun 24, 2015

check around craigs list and things like that -- I regularly see entire darkrooms for sale for $200 or less, sometimes far less. A little bit ago a guy who knew i do that stuff was cleaning out a house and gave me the entire darkroom he found -- cute little Durst enlarger included that i passed on to a friend.

I found a leica enlarger at a thrift store once.

RobC · Jun 24, 2015

Durst stopped making enlargers 10 years ago so I'm wondering how you are managing to buy a completely new Graduate 230 which isn't even the last model of that enlarger.

I would suggest that a Durst M670 is an entry level enlarger. However, so long as you understand that the Graduate is a very basic piece of kit with limitations and if it has all its parts inlcuding filters, then I suppose its OK as a starter/learner kit.

AgX · Jun 24, 2015

I was completely puzzled by that term "graduate" in relation with an enlarger.
The only graduate I could think of in a darkroom was a beaker.

You guys are speaking a foreign language...

RobC · Jun 24, 2015

AgX said:
I was completely puzzled by that term "graduate" in relation with an enlarger.
The only graduate I could think of in a darkroom was a beaker.

You guys are speaking a foreign language...

Perhaps you better download the following and have a look at the very first enlarger "GRADUATE" in their last offering.

Durst Catalogue

The F30 is very old and a tiny little enalarger for 35mm only. Extremely basic with a very small basebaord. It went out of production in 1978. The B30 ceased production in 1988.

AgX · Jun 24, 2015

How embarrasing... I got that catalogue even as original print...

But somehow always overlooked that enlarger. (And never came it across in real life anyway.)

DREW WILEY · Jun 24, 2015

True commercial Durst enlargers can be had for free or almost free sometimes. I'm talking about things that cost anywhere from $15,000
to $50,000 or more new. And if that's the case, there are piles of solid used Omega and Beselers out there that will probably last another lifetime. But you need to be sensitive to size, shipping issues, condition, and cost and availability of lamps and spare parts. But if something
does come up free, might as well grab the best. Ironically, there are a lot more commercial Durst units out there than amateur ones. They
were built to last. Yeah, maybe overkill for a beginner. But what the heck, you might want to move up to larger film some day.

redtreephoto · Jul 21, 2015

Thanks everyone. I'm based in the UK. I listened to your advise to avoid 35mm so bought in the end an LPL 6700, and a few darkroom tools. Sadly not as cheaply as you seem to be able get in the US.

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Beginner enlarger Dirst Graduate 230 of F30

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