Durst L1200 mystery part....?

Just received my dismantled but complete Durst L1200 enlarger. I have been able to assemble it just fine except for one part I can't quite figure out:

It's a thin black metal frame, 154mm x 154mm (square) on the outside with an 85mm x 108mm rectangular cutout and it's 0,6mm thick.

Any suggestions?

Underneath the plate where the negative carrier slides over there is a slot where this part goes.

8 years before the obvious followup question...

What is this for?

Seems like it would impede 4x5 negatives, since it's so much smaller than that, and is just mm below the negative.

Duncan

frobozz said:

8 years before the obvious followup question...

What is this for?

Seems like it would impede 4x5 negatives, since it's so much smaller than that, and is just mm below the negative.

Duncan

Click to expand...

there's different size ones to match different mixing boxes/film formats . You can easily cut out your own from a piece of black card.

OK, that would make except that isn't that what the Femomasks are doing already? And if this is required when changing formats, wouldn't Femomask sets come with this part too? I see no mention of it in any of the documentation. Plus, Durst never missed a chance to slap a weird name on something and charge hundreds of dollars for it, if it was something you needed to change when changing film formats ;-)

I still don't even understand its purpose.

Duncan

try a print with it in and with it out. Then you'll know the difference it makes.

Got one enlarger with, and a second without this plate - To be honest, I see absolutely no difference in print quality.