Durst Graduate Enlarger

cliveh · Oct 12, 2022

This is now the only enlarger I have in my darkroom, bolted to the wall. I think it is one of the best 35mm enlargers I have ever used. Do others agree?

ic-racer · Oct 12, 2022

Never heard of it, tell us more. Is there a number designation? Maybe a picture or two to figure it out.

My big list of Durst manufacture start/stop dates jumps from "F" to "H" with no mention of "Graduate."

cliveh · Oct 12, 2022

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ic-racer · Oct 12, 2022

Ok, it is a beautiful contemporary enlarger. I found this in a Durst brochure titled "Number 1 in the Lab," IX63075. These are the only two pages of information on the enlarger.

Paul Howell · Oct 12, 2022

I had a Durst 6X6 enlarger as my second enlarger for years, it was well built, easy to use. After 10+ years I finally stripped out the gear that cranked up head up and down. When I looking to replace for some reason could not find a Durst but it found a LP and Axiom which are pretty good.

AgX · Oct 13, 2022

The Graduate was the very last entry-level enlarger from Durst.
That it does not appear in their final servicing list ist weird, but may confirm my saying that even at Durst themselves they lost overview what models they all built over those years...

miha · Oct 13, 2022

cliveh said:
This is now the only enlarger I have in my darkroom, bolted to the wall. I think it is one of the best 35mm enlargers I have ever used. Do others agree?

So what did you do with your De Vere?

koraks · Oct 13, 2022

It looks remarkably similar to the M305 I once owned, but that one had a dichroic color head. What's the difference?

Yes, it was a great little enlarger as long as there was only 35mm to be done with it. That turned out to be not the case in my darkroom, so eventually I had to let it go.

ooze · Oct 13, 2022

cliveh said:
This is now the only enlarger I have in my darkroom, bolted to the wall. I think it is one of the best 35mm enlargers I have ever used. Do others agree?

No.

It was my first enlarger. It is usable of course, but I didn’t like the plastic carrier. Also, because of the straight column and not enough lens to column distance my easel always knocked into the base of the column; which can solved, as you did, by wall mounting.

ic-racer · Oct 13, 2022

AgX said:
The Graduate was the very last entry-level enlarger from Durst.
That it does not appear in their final servicing list ist weird, but may confirm my saying that even at Durst themselves they lost overview what models they all built over those years...

Perhaps the Graduate was not yet discontinued when that list was circulated.

cliveh · Oct 13, 2022

miha said:
So what did you do with your De Vere?

I sold it to a guy in Paris who was setting up a community darkroom.

miha · Oct 13, 2022

They still exist (community darkrooms)? Methinks De Vere you had is far superior to the Durst you kept. But if Durst suits you better and doesn't get in the way you kept the right tool. After all, an enlarger is an enlarger.

AgX · Oct 13, 2022

ic-racer said:
Perhaps the Graduate was not yet discontinued when that list was circulated.

But that listing (made up few weeks before the press release on cancelling the enlarger manufacture) explicetely lists some other enlargers still available.
Thus it must have just been overlooked.

AgX · Oct 13, 2022

miha said:
They still exist (community darkrooms)?

There are worlds outside ours...

Actually I never heard of community (public) darkrooms before joining Apug.

cliveh · Oct 13, 2022

miha said:
They still exist (community darkrooms)? Methinks De Vere you had is far superior to the Durst you kept. But if Durst suits you better and doesn't get in the way you kept the right tool. After all, an enlarger is an enlarger.

I totally agree and the De Vere was the best there is for large format and the work I wished to do with it. But now I just want a simplistic condenser for 35mm black & white and as I never use contrast control, I don't need a colour head, or filters for the Graduate.

DREW WILEY · Oct 13, 2022

Well, not a single "real" Durst is on that list. Those came out of a whole different Commercial division. But they also take up a lot of floor space, and were obscenely expensive in their heyday; so it's understandable why some people prefer something dedicated to small work exclusively.

AgX · Oct 13, 2022

All the Laborators are listed.

ic-racer posted just a small excerpt to show that the Graduate is missing.

miha · Oct 14, 2022

AgX said:
There are worlds outside ours...

Actually I never heard of community (public) darkrooms before joining Apug.

Over here we had a few, but they vanished 20 years ago already.

Randy Stewart · Nov 22, 2022

Over the years, Durst found themselves selling to the high-end, high-priced market, befitting the quality they provided. However, the need to be profitable compelled them to market some very inexpensive models toward the end. Plastic substituted for metal castings, like for this model. This designed to appear to be of the same family of medium format Durst enlargers, but the cold fact is that something like and Omega B-22 xl can be had for a similar price used, and it will work rings around this plastic junk.

gone · Nov 22, 2022

I had a Durst enlarger once. Not sure what model, it could do 35mm and 6x6. It was very well made, but not a "pro" model. Unfortunately, the cost of a couple different lens boards was as much as I paid for the whole enlarger!

I said to heck w/ that, and drilled out the one lens board I had so I could mount 50 Nikkor on it, then used a regular lens nut on the back to hold it on. That worked fine, and the negative carrier held the negs nice and flat. It maxed out at 8x10, but you could rotate the head, put it up on blocks, etc and make really big prints if you wanted to.

A friend had a similar Durst, and he took his lens board to thrift stores to find plastic cups that were close enough to the right OD. Then he drilled a hole in them and mounted his lenses. What would have cost him over $70 for the Durst boards ended up costing about $2 and only a small bit of work.

AgX · Nov 22, 2022

Randy Stewart said:
Over the years, Durst found themselves selling to the high-end, high-priced market, befitting the quality they provided. However, the need to be profitable compelled them to market some very inexpensive models toward the end. Plastic substituted for metal castings, like for this model. This designed to appear to be of the same family of medium format Durst enlargers, but the cold fact is that something like and Omega B-22 xl can be had for a similar price used, and it will work rings around this plastic junk.

Durst from the start served high-end users, but also amateurs, with only few budget models. I got one of their 80's enlargers with the head mostly from plastic, but in its class to me it reflects the Durst quality.
You likely refer to the Magico. A true budget model by design. I never came it across, but back then based on photos it looked questionable to me, ecspecially the baseboard connection. But Durst had an upgrade for this, and a very recent, extensive review on this model is very benevolent on it.

Durst Graduate Enlarger

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