Well I drove up to see it, I left a deposit, I have to convince my wife I need this beast. The thing is huge, He is going to give me all sorts of extras, Old paper to play with, chems, I am also getting a Huge Fiber paper dryer for $40 bucks. This man has 4 Huge enlargers in his gargae. He has 2 Omegas one with the same color head, and another one but cant remember the brand (he isnt selling that one). He has everything for it, the Color head is a little dusty but I can cealn that I think. The filters have dust on them, Going to have to see what it takes to clean them up.
One thing he told me was, he never used the Auto focus of the 504, he has always used it in manual mode. He said he is the second owner and the original owner bought 2 when it was new. That man went digital way back and sold this 504. I am a bit over whelmed with what I have here. It is going to take a long time for me to understand it. I was looking to up grade from my P&B 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 condenser enlarger. The neg holders on the 504 are great, the holder takes glass plates or various other sizes from 35mm to 4x5. I main am going to develop B&W for now but may play with color 35mm in the future. He also told me I can buy a B&W condenser head for a 504. This had me thinking can I use this color head to properly develop my B&W shots, I believe this one is a defuser head, it uses little defused boxes and a quartz bulb as the light source. I may have bitten off more than I can chew. When he turned it on and I saw the size of the table, I was sold. It is simple an amazing machine, if I need it or not!
Any and all info of what I have gotten my self into would be very helpful. Thanks AKf