Durst C65 Enlarger

I've just come into possession of a Durst C65 enlarger, which came with lens and negative carrier but not a manual - does anyone know where to acquire one? I can't seem to find one online, but it could be that my google skills are lacking! I could see that it seems to be in the same family as the C35, but couldn't get much further than that. Can anybody tell me how it's different to a C35?
I know very little about the enlarger, as I've only started to get into processing film and haven't made it to prints yet, but it was free so I couldn't turn it down! The lady who owned it was clearing out her fathers old equipment and she didn't know anything about it.

So firstly, is this a colour enlarger only? On the head there are two sliders which are red and yellow, but I'm unsure. The enlarger does turn on, but thinking the light seemed a little weak I opened it up and found a Sunbeam 40W bulb instead of the 55W version it was supposed to have - how does that affect things?
The enlarger head has a Neotaron 1:4.5 f=75 mm lens, which I think is different to the original. Is it a fairly capable lens? This was to be used with 6x6 film I think but I only use 35mm at the moment, does that rule it out?
It came with a Patterson System 4 film tank with one reel, a pack of Ilford Multigrade and a Jobo Varioformat masking frame. There's also an adapter for 6x6 negatives, and three filters (marked as c0.3, c0.5 and c0.15) and a circular red filter - I suspect it'll be a while before I'm able to confidently use this lot!
Apologies if this is a little garbled or too simple, I'm a total beginner with this sort of thing.

Any and all input appreciated, please go easy as it's my first post!

Neil Kelly said:

So firstly, is this a colour enlarger only? On the head there are two sliders which are red and yellow, but I'm unsure. The enlarger does turn on, but thinking the light seemed a little weak I opened it up and found a Sunbeam 40W bulb instead of the 55W version it was supposed to have - how does that affect things?
The enlarger head has a Neotaron 1:4.5 f=75 mm lens, which I think is different to the original. Is it a fairly capable lens? This was to be used with 6x6 film I think but I only use 35mm at the moment, does that rule it out?
Any and all input appreciated, please go easy as it's my first post!

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Not familiar with that model, but any color enlarger can be used for B&W. The Neotaron lens I'm sure will exceeds most photographer's capabilities. The original bulb may have been too bright (short printing times) for the owner, so may have been replaced with a cooler bulb. Should be fine as long as the bulb diameter is sufficient, which in smaller bulbs should be similar. Only an issue when you get to 5x7 Dursts enlargers. You should be able to find a manual for it if you google it. You should also try to get some books on darkroom printing.

My first enlarger was a C35. Some of the Durst lens were made by Schneider and other companies, my was a 50/2.8 with 'made by Schneider' engraved on it. Not sure about your lens but if it's clean then it will be fine to get started with at least. The C35 could be converted into a C65 by fitting the C65 light mixing box, and was an optional extra at the time.

As mentioned by Luis, you can use it for B&W. Dialing in different amounts of Magenta or Yellow alters the grade of Variable Contrast paper. There's a few ways about doing this.

The original bulb was called a MELAMP 55, and was a special thing that I couldn't get hold any more. I converted mine to use a halogen 'down light' globe. From memory the original wasn't very bright and my downlight solution was much better! I have done a similar conversion to my current enlarger and it seems to work fine however I don't use set amounts of magenta/yellow to achieve set grades of paper, I just dial in a bit more of whatever one I want to affect the print I'm making. I doubt the published values would work for my setup.

The C65 is the 6x6 equivalent of the C35 24x36 enlarger.

The manual of the C35 is on the net.

You may be surprised how bright the 40W lamp is in the dark. The round red filter is used under the lens to
adjust the easel for composition.
Red/yellow? maybe as more safelight filters. Red is good for ortho film and yellow/amber for some VC or graded paper.
That's a SWAG btw.
For 35 you're going to need a 50mm lens and carrier.

the "red and yellow" sliders are magenta and yellow. My C35 came with 3 (I think) cyan filters that could be placed in the filter draw for colour printing, not needed for B&W. Maybe that's the ones you mention, are they a bluey-green colour? You can use the 75mm lens for 35mm film, you'll just need to raise the enlarger head higher to get the same size print as the 50mm.

3 cyan filters as accessory filters for the drawer in D 15, 30 and 50 made part of the enlarger.

Thanks for your help everyone! I didn't realise that the only difference was that the C65 could use 6x6 negatives as well - I'll go and take a look for the C35 manual then.

Luis-F-S said:

Not familiar with that model, but any color enlarger can be used for B&W. The Neotaron lens I'm sure will exceeds most photographer's capabilities. The original bulb may have been too bright (short printing times) for the owner, so may have been replaced with a cooler bulb. Should be fine as long as the bulb diameter is sufficient, which in smaller bulbs should be similar. Only an issue when you get to 5x7 Dursts enlargers.

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I thought that non enlarger specific bulbs would not produce light of sufficient quality or that it would not be uniform enough, is that not the case? Can you recommend any particular darkroom books?

Nige said:

My first enlarger was a C35. Some of the Durst lens were made by Schneider and other companies, my was a 50/2.8 with 'made by Schneider' engraved on it. Not sure about your lens but if it's clean then it will be fine to get started with at least.

The original bulb was called a MELAMP 55, and was a special thing that I couldn't get hold any more. I converted mine to use a halogen 'down light' globe. From memory the original wasn't very bright and my downlight solution was much better! I have done a similar conversion to my current enlarger and it seems to work fine however I don't use set amounts of magenta/yellow to achieve set grades of paper, I just dial in a bit more of whatever one I want to affect the print I'm making. I doubt the published values would work for my setup.

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The lens has a Rodenstock badge on it, and it seems to be intact and clean. I took the light box mostly apart and cleaned the dust out as well (being very careful of course!). I've managed to find somewhere to get the original bulb, but it's £30 - a little steep for a student. I might try with the current bulb and see what happens.

Nige said:

the "red and yellow" sliders are magenta and yellow. My C35 came with 3 (I think) cyan filters that could be placed in the filter draw for colour printing, not needed for B&W. Maybe that's the ones you mention, are they a bluey-green colour? You can use the 75mm lens for 35mm film, you'll just need to raise the enlarger head higher to get the same size print as the 50mm.

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Apologies for the poor naming! They are indeed, quite scratched up but I assume that doesn't matter too much when they're before the lightbox. The stand it comes on allows raising the head very high, so I think I should be able to manage

Thank you to everyone who's replied, its very much appreciated!

John Koehrer said:

You may be surprised how bright the 40W lamp is in the dark. The round red filter is used under the lens to
adjust the easel for composition.
Red/yellow? maybe as more safelight filters. Red is good for ortho film and yellow/amber for some VC or graded paper.
That's a SWAG btw.
For 35 you're going to need a 50mm lens and carrier.

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Will the 40 W rating not change the published exposure values considerably? I suppose I could get around that by making a bunch of test prints to see how it ends up. As Nige pointed out, they're magenta and yellow - shows how new I am to all of this! How do you mean by SWAG? I have a 35mm carrier with it, which slots in perfectly. Hopefully I can get around the lens by raising the head a little higher. We'll see when I eventually set up a makeshift darkroom in my bathroom, though it'll have to be late at night because there's only one bathroom in my house. I'm having to control my itchy trigger finger with all this stuff, my fiance will NOT be happy if I fill the house with darkroom paraphernalia

If your plan is to print 35mm you should find a 50mm lens. You will get more magnification on the baseboard for the same enlarger head elevation. And if your plans may someday include 6x6 be on the lookout for a carrier for that size I am certain that that item will become increasing hard to find in the future.

darkroommike said:

If your plan is to print 35mm you should find a 50mm lens. You will get more magnification on the baseboard for the same enlarger head elevation. And if your plans may someday include 6x6 be on the lookout for a carrier for that size I am certain that that item will become increasing hard to find in the future.

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Are the mounts for enlargers specific to that manufacturer? Or are they common mount? They will eventually include 6x6 I hope, but luckily it came with the correct carrier - I've been lucky!

Neil Kelly said:

I thought that non enlarger specific bulbs would not produce light of sufficient quality or that it would not be uniform enough, is that not the case?

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It depends on the optical design of the enlarger and easily can get complicated in theory...
If modification is easy it might be worth a try.
The less spot-source the design is, the less variations in lamp design will matter.

Enlarger lamps of the classic design have in contrast to household bulbs a spotless opalized hull and their filaments are overrrated, to highten photographically effective output.

Projection Halogen bulbs, whether sole or in dichroic reflector are also overrated and in contrast to their household equivalents have filaments not perpendicular to but coaxial with the optical axis.

The 40W will give slightly shorter times than the 55W. A lot of people find that a slightly dimmer
bulb give better control over exposure control.

Sometimes, at sizes where the head is closer to the paper you can have times as short as a few seconds.
I end up between 10-15 seconds, maybe a bit longer.

You'll find most suggest stopping an enlarging lens down about two stops gets better performance than
using it at either extreme of it's f stop range.

Neil Kelly said:

Thanks for your help everyone! I didn't realise that the only difference was that the C65 could use 6x6 negatives as well - I'll go and take a look for the C35 manual then.

I thought that non enlarger specific bulbs would not produce light of sufficient quality or that it would not be uniform enough, is that not the case? Can you recommend any particular darkroom books?

Click to expand...

Try it, if not uniform, try something else or put a piece of milk glass in the light path.

I'd start with the Zone VI Workshop by Fred Picker. Around $4 used. Then I'd try to find the 3 Ansel Adams Books, particularly Vol 2 & 3, the Negative and the Print. Lastly, look form some Darkroom books in used books stores. They're all pretty worthless.