Durst Enlargers

Hi! I need to find someone who is very knowledgeable on 8x10 Durst Enlargers. I have a Durst Enlarger that I purchased from Durst-Pro-USA back in 1999. Jens Jensen who owned the company passed away some years ago and I don't know who to ask.I have a ZBE 2000 Watt Digitally controlled head.Its sits on a chassis that has motors for the Lens stage, the head and focusing. I need to know if a Durst CLS 2000 Watt manual head will fit on my chassis. I have included a few views of my present enlarger.Any help at all will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Dave

I think it is a "YES" but do you know the exact model of Durst you have? I can't say for sure from the picture. I'll have to look through some old catalogs to know. The 'interchangeable' Durst heads mount with 4 bolts in the same location on all the enlargers.
So, if it can take the CLS2000, then the CLS1840 and the Condenser heads should all fit too, in case you can't find a CLS2000 head. There was a CLS1840 head on ebay recently, but no power supply or mixing boxes.

I can confirm the CLS2000 is a 'manual' enlarger head, using wheels and levers to change the filtration. But, there are still a lot of electronics in the head. For example there are TWO powerful blowers wth a heat-sensing circuit and an electronic shutter.

What happened? Did the ZBE head stop working?

Also, due to the way the head sits on the enlarger, one could probably adapt many heads to that enlarger. I have seen Omega F heads and Ilford 500 heads and Aristo heads with various commercial or home-made adapter plates.

Grillage said:

Hi! I need to find someone who is very knowledgeable on 8x10 Durst Enlargers. I have a Durst Enlarger that I purchased from Durst-Pro-USA back in 1999. Jens Jensen who owned the company passed away some years ago and I don't know who to ask.I have a ZBE 2000 Watt Digitally controlled head.Its sits on a chassis that has motors for the Lens stage, the head and focusing. I need to know if a Durst CLS 2000 Watt manual head will fit on my chassis. I have included a few views of my present enlarger.Any help at all will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Dave

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Hi! The "Head" I have is a ZBE Futura. It has 6 lamps and is rated at 2000 Watts. I NEED the 2000 Watts that is why I want the CLS 2000 Watt head. My stand or Chassis I THINK is the 1900 Chassis. or the 1840. Not sure. I would prefer a totally manual or Mechanical chassis ans there are no electronics to break down. My Futura head is working at this time but I wanted a more mechanical one in case mine breaks down as I don't believe anyone can repair it! If you have any further information I really would appreciate that!! Regards, Dave

You should be able to adapt any head to the any Durst chassis. Getting a ZBE head repair will be difficult to find, at least in any affordable sense. Stay away from the old CLS300 2000W Durst head; it won't evenly cover 8x10, and is very hot running and expensive to maintain. The newer 2000W head uses an expensive hard-to-find bulb, and involves some fancy electronics. Why do you need that much wattage? That kind of heat was the achilles heel of the ZBE design to begin with.
They engineered it for back in Ciba days, which was otherwise very slow printing in big sizes, masked.

Hi Thank you for replaying back to me. Even with the Head I have its not enough light at time for 20x24 Prints. I like to stop down only 2 stops from wide open. This is only for B&W but I like the fact the CLS head has density correction. My digital head has increments in a tenth. Like I can dial in a density of minus 10 with a magenta of 2.7! I do want a 2nd enlarger for the possibility of doing Horizontal protection. What would YOU recommend for a light source? I am not too sure on a Cold Light Head for variable Contrast papers. Thanks again! Dave

I think your enlarger looks like the one in the picture I posted so maybe the 1900 and NOT L1840.

Drew has good ideas above and in addition, realize the CLS2000 head is the OLDER design. The 1000W CLS1840 is the later more modern unit. It only has a single fan and the 120V lamp is easier to obtain. Plus, if the power supply ever fails, you can wire that lamp directly to the mains and remove the shutter. As Drew pointed out, 1000W is usually enough wattage.

CLS 2000 head electronics are not any more reliable than what you already have.
Most electronic components aren't available anymore and 2000W lamp is not available.

I had installed FEL (1000W) lamp in it and used it like that for some time.

At present, I disconnected all electronics and original lamp. 100W white LED was installed in place of old lamp and mounted on old PC CPU heatsink with fan.
It works fine, however, my usage and testing of it is limited. Whole head and dichroic filters stayed in place.

Extent of my testing is making B&W tests on Ilford paper according to their recommended values for dichroic filtration using step tablet.
Results are comparable to my other dichroic enlargers used the same way with corresponding difference in contrast.

Didn't use it for color, so can't really say if it works or not there. Since this testing was limited to one paper and one method, I can't confirm if it performs properly in all situations.
Personally, I'm satisfied with the results for B&W work and can use it without going through repair on electronics for CLS 2000 again.

2000W on this head when it works is a lot and times are really short.

My exposures for 11x14 prints (my most common enlargement) are about 6 seconds at f22 or f32 with the CLS 2000 head. I'm pretty lucky to get six spare lamps 2 spare reflectors and a spare power supply when I bought mine.

Grillage said:

Hi Thank you for replaying back to me. Even with the Head I have its not enough light at time for 20x24 Prints. I like to stop down only 2 stops from wide open. This is only for B&W but I like the fact the CLS head has density correction. My digital head has increments in a tenth. Like I can dial in a density of minus 10 with a magenta of 2.7! I do want a 2nd enlarger for the possibility of doing Horizontal protection. What would YOU recommend for a light source? I am not too sure on a Cold Light Head for variable Contrast papers. Thanks again! Dave

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You might want to look into the Heiland LED system - if it's for B&W, they cover about the same contrast range as the Ilford MG heads with high output. Not a cheap option however. The mating surface on which the head sits on Durst's big enlargers is flat enough that most enlarger heads can be adapted to fit pretty easily.

Something is way off and underpowered about this discussion. My 2000W old Durst head would punch a 30X40 inch Cibachrome with attached .60 mask in about 15 sec at f/11. That's means anything like an RA4 print would hypothetically need a mere fraction of a second, or any VC print would also need massive supplementary neutral density filtration to slow way down to even a few seconds. Even the old CLS 301 1000W unit is overkill for anything 20X24; but it's a comparatively easy unit to rewire to bypass the power supply if necessary. For the US models, only the fan actually needs 240 voltage; everything else can be split off and run 110 direct.

The only reason I even need such bright light is to make initial composition and focus easier with orange-masked color neg film, often with supplementary silver masking too. Even big 30X40's are a piece of cake. Like to split print? Even my 8x10 cold light will punch a 20X24 print from a masked, pyro-stained neg in about 15 sec through a deep blue 47B filter (way more dense than any magenta VC filter) - that is, if I stop the lens is stopped way down to f/32 just to slow the exposure enough!

ic-racer said:

I think your enlarger looks like the one in the picture I posted so maybe the 1900 and NOT L1840.

Drew has good ideas above and in addition, realize the CLS2000 head is the OLDER design. The 1000W CLS1840 is the later more modern unit. It only has a single fan and the 120V lamp is easier to obtain. Plus, if the power supply ever fails, you can wire that lamp directly to the mains and remove the shutter. As Drew pointed out, 1000W is usually enough wattage.

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I do really need the 2000 watts. Some of my 20x24 prints need that much light and usually prefer to stop down 2 stops from wide open. I wish I could find the best Light source. Thank you!

Lachlan Young said:

You might want to look into the Heiland LED system - if it's for B&W, they cover about the same contrast range as the Ilford MG heads with high output. Not a cheap option however. The mating surface on which the head sits on Durst's big enlargers is flat enough that most enlarger heads can be adapted to fit pretty easily.

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Do you know if the LED system can give a contrast range for zero to Five? Or possibly more? Also will one of their heads fit on the Durst Enlargers that have been mentioned? I believe I have a 1800 model base. Thank you! Dave

Grillage said:

Do you know if the LED system can give a contrast range for zero to Five? Or possibly more? Also will one of their heads fit on the Durst Enlargers that have been mentioned? I believe I have a 1800 model base. Thank you! Dave

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Read the Ilford report I linked in my post - it essentially offers about the same range as the Ilford Multigrade 500 system heads. Regarding fittings, you'd need to contact Heiland, I imagine they'd happily make you a suitable adapter plate etc. What film/ paper combination are you using?

I did not have a job when I got my Durst, but now that I do have a job, if my Durst would fail, I'd get the 8x10 Keinzle. Check it out half way through the video. Price list I saw shows about $15,000 with VC LED head. That is a bargain as the Durst CLS1840 was about $40,000 in the late 1990s.

After viewing that video again I think one solution to the diminishing supply of good used 8x10 enlargers and the demise of Durst USA for parts and supplies is people might buy those Kienzle enalrgers new. After years of not having any parts or service, my life would be much less stressful as Keinsel has spare parts and service. The entry price is not too far off for those older folks with retirement money.

ic-racer said:

After viewing that video again I think one solution to the diminishing supply of good used 8x10 enlargers and the demise of Durst USA for parts and supplies is people might buy those Kienzle enalrgers new. After years of not having any parts or service, my life would be much less stressful as Keinsel has spare parts and service. The entry price is not too far off for those older folks with retirement money.

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The other thing with the C252 Kienzle is that you can have a nearly infinite range of options - bench, wall, floor standing, all with a choice of 2 column lengths (or custom if you want) plus a range of head options (condenser, Halogen, colour dichroic, multigrade dichroic, colour & multigrade dichroic, motorised split-grade, some closed loop/ computer controlled options & the Heiland LED as a factory option) with a range of lamp outputs running from 250w upwards. You can also get wall projection, motorised head/ baseboard etc - and if all that's not enough there's the T2525 which has even more options.

De Vere are also making small batches of 5108's currently as well.

It is finally happening. In about four weeks I will hopefully be able to pick up my brand new C120 4x5 Enlarger from the Kienzle workshop. It doesn't have LED illumination but is a combined color head and split grade head with the Heiland controller. At least I think it is a combined head. I'll see.

I ordered the film holder prepared for film registration, so I can buy the punch and contact frame later without having to have something sent back and modified. For the moment I'm going with the 4x5 diffusion box at the moment. I can still buy a medium format one if it is too weak. My current LPL7700 has too much punch for my taste. That's why I felt the 100W model should be good enough. I even ordered the extra stepless aperture to add neutral density if needed. Higher power lamps require a fan and the extra cost is significant.

A brand new 135mm Rodagon is part of the package.

Film photography is a bottomless barrel, indeed...

Please start a thread on that, it sounds like a fascinating project. Not many times in a lifetime does one buy a new enlarger. For me it has only been once in 1975 when I bought a brand new Minolta Mod III, All others since then have been purchased used or were gifts.

Durst USA was not a reliable source. He never did ship what he owed me. Ironically, I got a $24,000 Durst enlarger for free from somebody that bought it from him earlier, and then retired. Actually, I was offered over 20 commercial 8x10 enlargers for free, but had no place to store them, so nearly all the rest went to landfill. I didn't pick the most expensive one either. I wanted something I had the personal skills to refurbish and maintain.

I still can't figure out why anybody would have an issue with a mere 20x24 print and a 2000W head. Anything that powerful was designed for huge mural work. Something is terribly wrong. Any garden variety 250W colorhead can easily punch a 20X24. I even did enlarged azo prints with an ordinary Chromega 4x5 250W colorhead, and that's allegedly a slow contact paper. When I had a 2000W Durst color mural enlarger, the cooling fan alone used more wattage than a big industrial table saw. Maybe all the guts and filter coatings of that ZBE unit spalled off due to heat, and the internal feedback circuitry has sensed that and cut some power. Their average filter lifespans were only six months before needing replacement - the owner of ZBE told me that in person! The heat issue is why I designed an 8X10 additive colorhead of my own that cools far more efficiently than anything one could go buy. But I'm not even using it right now. No really big prints this season.