Dunco enlarger

[Trond]

I just got a Dunco Modell II-66 CVC with at Focotar 40mm for free! A nice little enlarger for negatives up to 6x6. It has both colour and mulitigrade filters built in, a feature I've never seen before.

Included was a Saunders 4-blade easel, a Peak grain magnifier, a large selection of trays up to 40x50 cm, and a lot of other bits and pieces.

The previous owner had unsuccessfully tried to sell the equipment for a long time, before he gave up. Better to give it away than dumping it on the garbage tip, he told me.

A good thing about this enlarger is that Dunco is still in business, so spare parts are readily available.

Trond

 

[Anscojohn]

Excellent! Do you have a darkroom?

 

[Martin Aislabie]

Congratulations - you have been gifted some very nice equipment

Use it well and produce some great photographs with it

Martin

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

Excellent stuff, the lens is fantastic, my vivid congratulations!
Oslo is a very nice city, i was there in 1981.
Ciao.
Vincenzo

 

[Trond]

Currently I use the bathroom as darkroom, and it works fairly well. We are planning to move to a house next year, because we need more space. One of the first things I will do then is to build a darkroom. I also have a very large IFF Ampliator 13x18 cm enlarger, and a nice Meopta Opemus IIa.

It's funny that now that I have more equipment that I could ever dream of only a few years ago, it's still just as difficult to make good photographs. Quality equipment does help on the technical quality though.

Trond

 

[ic-racer]

Nice. I found some pictures on the internet. Looks like a good enlarger. Is the column really offset to the corner of the baseboard?

 

[Trond]

My enlarger has the standard 90 cm column, the larger offset column is an option I believe.

Trond

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

The IFF Ampliator 13x18 is a fantastic and sturdy italian enlarger (IFF mean Industrie Fotografiche Firenze). Unfortunately, the IFF don't produce anymore the enlargers, from over 20 years.
Ciao.
Vincenzo

 

[Trond]

Yes, the IFF is a very sturdy and heavy piece of equipment. I'm currently restoring it, and it will hopefully be finished soon. SK Grimes is machining a part for me. I contacted IFF some time ago about their enlargers, and they told me that they don't offer any support, nor have any parts, for their enlargers.

Trond

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

Sad destiny for the IFF enlarger owners and very bad commercial policy.
Ciao.
Vincenzo

 

[Trond]

Sad destiny for the IFF enlarger owners and very bad commercial policy.

Absolutely! I also asked for documentation such as user and service manuals, parts lists, etc, and they didn't have any of that either. I find it a little surprising that they show so little interest in their own past and company history.

Luckily, the Ampliator is made to last several lifetimes of heavy usage, and is also relatively simple. I have for example repaired the lens stage counterweight and rewired the colour head without much difficulty.

Trond

 

[Trond]

I tested the Dunco enlarger tonight. It works well, and is very convenient to use. So this one will probably replace my old Meopta Opemus IIa.

Trond

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

This comforts me, because my next condenser enlarger will choose between the Dunco 67 or Kaiser VPC 7005.
Ciao.
Vincenzo

 

[RobertV]

Yes, Dunco is vey good. You have the CVC module, color and VC in one filter unit, very convenient. Last Dunco II systems are all 6x7cm, 90cm column or 120cm column or the pro with 120 column and side column for big enlargements. Best feature of the Dunco is the very efficient light system, 100W halogen only but short printing times. I upgraded from a Meopta IIa to a Dunco II 120 pro 10 years ago. I have it also with the Heiland split grade unit. Very convenient. I whish you a lot of success with this nice enlarger.

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

Thank you Robert.
Ciao.
Vincenzo

 

[Trond]

As Robert says, exposure times are short. So short, that I have put a ND filter on the mixing chamber.

Trond

 

[RobertV]

You can also put a ND 0,6 filter on your lens. I have Rodenstock; 40,5mm ND 0,6. Not necessary with B&W but with color RA-4 paper you need it. The smallest prints I am making is 13x18cm. You can also change the lamp Osram HLX 100W to HLX 75W but this is only a minor difference. Split Grade needs also a bit more light and with this system it doesn't matter when the times are short.

Best regards,

Robert