Durst Laborator 138s with CLS 1000 - question(s)

swittmann · Mar 27, 2011

Dear all,

Yesterday I picked up a Durst Laborator 138s with CLS 1000 color head. What a HUGE enlarger, especially in comparison to my good old Meopta 5a!

Anyways, it came with a Trinobox 138 for large format negatives. I found a manual online and learned that I will need a Trinobox 69 for small and medium format. ( Don't have a LF camera yet )

The enlarger is not installed yet, but I would like to ask beforehand if it is possible to use the Trinobox 138 for medium format at least, until I am able to find a Trinobox 69 - what is the difference between those boxes? I am not familiar with this kind of enlargers yet, having worked with the Meopta (condenser + under-the-lens filters) for many, many years now.

BTW, it came with a Saunders V-Track. I am sooo happy about that because I have had so many issues with the Dunco... Looking forward to prints with perfect right angles!

Best regards,
Sandra, a.k.a. the woman who enlarged her old enlarger

K-G · Mar 27, 2011

Congratulations to a magnificient enlarger/easel combination. I use both myself but the Durst with condenser lenses. In general there should not be any problem to use a difusion box or condenser combination designed for large format when you work with a smaller format. In fact you may get more even ilumination over the entire negative. The only drawback is that you will need longer exposure time at a certain combination of lens aperture and enlargement. This is because the large format box will evenly distribute the available light over a larger area than the small/medium format box. With a medium format negative you only use the center part of the light coming from the large format box. Start working with the large format box as soon as possible and if you can find a small/medium format box that is an extra bonus.
Viel Glück !

Karl-Gustaf

jp80874 · Mar 27, 2011

Sandra,

Congratulations on your new equipment. The Durst 138 I bought was converted to 8x10 cold light by the former owner. I also use the V track 11x14 and the larger 20x24. Very nice equipment.

A web site you may find helpful is the USA Durst Distributor’s library.
http://www.durst-pro-usa.com/library.html

Besides the manual and brochure for the 138 you may also find many other useful articles. It has been a great source for me.

Enjoy,

John Powers

swittmann · Mar 28, 2011

Karl-Gustav and John,

Thank you so much for your encouraging answers! You guys are great

Can't wait to make my first prints with it. (I think I will call it Goliath )

Best regards,

Sandra

jp80874 · Mar 28, 2011

Sandra,

As the fisherman said, "If you think this one is large, you should see the one that got away (the Durst L184)."

Height of standard chassis: 90.50” / 230cm.
Height w/ Fully raised light head:108.25”/ 275cm.

My darkroom ceiling is 84” tall. My wife was considering building a closet in the room above to allow the head of the enlarger to rise up to peak height. Fortunately we found the 138 model that required no modifications to the room.

John

K-G · Mar 28, 2011

As you live in Germany it may be a good idea to check the company Kienzle Phototechnik , situated not far from Stuttgart. They manufacture their own enlargers and spareparts and additional equipment for other enlargers, among them the Durst 138.
On their web-site you can see some of the items, but send them a mail and ask as I know they have more on separate lists. I have bought parts from them for my Leitz Focomat IIC and everything worked fine. It may take a day or two before they answer your e-mail but for me everything was handled in good order. I enclose a link to them.
Keep printing !

Karl-Gustaf

http://www.kienzle-phototechnik.de/index.html

ic-racer · Mar 28, 2011

Yes the CLS1000 head looks pretty big on the 138 chassis, like it is ready to tip over! Later they started putting that 5x7 head on the L1840 8x10 chassis for more stability (called it the 1300, see photo below).

The Trinobox 69 will decrease the printing times when printing medium format negatives. This can be of benefit if doing mural prints, etc. Otherwise your 5x7 mixing box (Trinobox 138) can be used for all formats 5x7 and smaller.

They made Trinobox 450, 69 and 35. These are all two-component assemblies, requiring a matching upper and lower piece. Finding the matching pairs on the second-hand market can be difficult.
I don't have the specs for the CLS1000 head, but with the CLS2000 head, going from the 5x7in mixing box to the 6x9cm mixing box the light output gain is 0.8 stops. So you can decide if the quest for the Trinobox 69 set will be worthwhile for you.

gary mulder · Mar 29, 2011

Shipping will be the biggest problem. Those boxes are big and vulnerable. When looking you want a trinobox 69 - oben + trinobox 69 - unten + diffuser 69-1+diffusor 69-2. In Europe expect to pay 75 - 100 euro + shipping. Not extremely hard to find.

swittmann · Mar 30, 2011

Again, thank you very much, also for the links! You are right, Kienzle should be a great source for both material and information. BTW, they are located close to town where I used to live as a child... that is a nice coincidence.

It seems like the enlarger will not fit into my darkroom, which is located under the staircase, with a slanted ceiling... so most likely it will go to the living room which is the next room and where the wall is high enough.
Well, this will be some sort of temporary solution since we do not plan to live in this house forever, so it is ok for now. (Thank God for my patient husband )

The enlarger came with the TRIPLA lens turret and 3 lenses, one of them being a 80 mm Schneider Kreuznach, mounted on an adaptor. That lens has the same screw thread as my 50 mm lens, so I assume it should be ok just to switch the lenses for doing small/medium format - or will I have to use another adaptor like the Laratub N to bring the lens closer (?) to the negative? Please excuse my somewhat stupid questions...
There is no imprint on the adapter, so I cannot say if it is a Laratub or not. It looks a different from the one in the manual - mine is flatter. I can upload a picture of it, if it helps to identify.

Best regards,
Sandra

frotog · Mar 30, 2011

jp80874 said:
Sandra,

As the fisherman said, "If you think this one is large, you should see the one that got away (the Durst L184)."

Height of standard chassis: 90.50” / 230cm.
Height w/ Fully raised light head:108.25”/ 275cm.

My darkroom ceiling is 84” tall. My wife was considering building a closet in the room above to allow the head of the enlarger to rise up to peak height. Fortunately we found the 138 model that required no modifications to the room.

John

The cls 1000 head on the 138 chassis needs just as much head room as the 184. How do I know? Not only do I have two of them but I've also got two 2-1/2' deep square holes in my darkroom ceiling.

swittmann · Mar 30, 2011

frotog, that doesn't sound encouraging for me now... The ceiling in our living room has a height of 2.70 m (8.86'/106.3''), so from your post I learn that this is not enough. The manual says that it needs about 2.45 m (8'/96.5'') with CLS 1000. It would be a shame if I couldn't use it and had to sell it again

ic-racer, I just saw the pictures of your L1840 enlarger at the LF forum. Impressive! I will read the thread later.

jp80874 · Mar 30, 2011

frotog said:
The cls 1000 head on the 138 chassis needs just as much head room as the 184. How do I know? Not only do I have two of them but I've also got two 2-1/2' deep square holes in my darkroom ceiling.

The conversion I bought (made by Michael Mutmansky) was not with the cls 1000 head. It was a 12x12 inch Aristo cold light so he and then I could print 8x10 negatives.

There are two pictures of the conversion in my gallery. One is mislabeled Durst 108 rather than 138.

John

ic-racer · Mar 30, 2011

jp80874 said:
The conversion I bought (made by Michael Mutmansky) was not with the cls 1000 head. It was a 12x12 inch Aristo cold light so he and then I could print 8x10 negatives.

There are two pictures of the conversion in my gallery. One is mislabeled Durst 108 rather than 138.

John

John has a great setup. His 8x10 Durst conversion is a lot smaller than the 5x7 1300 Durst!

Renato Tonelli · Mar 31, 2011

I have one of these beasts (l138SP) that I have not set up yet. I had been lusting for one for some time. I still need to locate a suitable timer for it (and a working space).

jp80874 · Mar 31, 2011

Renato Tonelli said:
I have one of these beasts (l138SP) that I have not set up yet. I had been lusting for one for some time. I still need to locate a suitable timer for it (and a working space).

Peter Spangenberg also has one of these. We are both very happy with APUG sponsor RH Design timers.

Good friend Nicholas Lindan is also a sponsor on APUG. He designed and makes the Darkroom Automation products. I bought my RH Design before I knew Nick. My understanding is that both products are very good.

You are on your own finding working space. There was a LOT of negotiation at the Powers' house before that appeared.

John Powers

jp80874 · Mar 31, 2011

ic-racer said:
John has a great setup. His 8x10 Durst conversion is a lot smaller than the 5x7 1300 Durst!

Thanks Dale.

John

K-G · Apr 3, 2011

I don't know what the Laratub N is but on my own Durst I use a Seipla 25 for the 80 mm lens and a Latub 2 for the 50 mm lens. The Seipla is just a recessed lens mount adapter ( aproximately 25 mm deep ) but the Latub is an ingenious piece of mechanics. It is about 50 mm deep and equiped with a mechanism to remotely control the lens aperture from outside the tube. I have tried the 80 mm on a flat adapter but that doesn't work. Neither is the Seipla sufficent for the 50 mm. Of course there is allways the possibility to print 35 mm negatives with the 80 mm and 6X6 cm negatives with a 150 mm lens if you are satisfied with smaller prints. If you don't want to make a big hole in your ceiling, you can lower the head of Durst and at the same time lower the board with the easel on as this is adjustable. It may end up with you sitting on the floor or standing on your knees when printing, but no suffering is to great for a good print. As you live near Berlin it may also be good idea to get in contact with the staff at Fotoimpex in Berlin. I don't know if anyone is a Durst expert but from my experience they are a great gang, headed by Mirko Boedeker. I will enclose a link.
Good luck !
Karl-Gustaf

http://www.fotoimpex.de/

ic-racer · Apr 3, 2011

K-G said:
I don't know what the Laratub N is but on my own Durst I use a Seipla 25 for the 80 mm lens and a Latub 2 for the 50 mm lens.

The Laratub is 8" so it fits in place of the Unipla that holds those smaller lensboards.

swittmann · Apr 6, 2011

Thank you again!

Fotoimpex - I always go there for my papers, films and chemicals. It is a great place indeed. I may ask there, too.
BTW, they moved to another building, just a few meters away from the old shop.

The Laratub N was mentioned in the manual for the L138s as the lens tube for lenses between 50 and 80 mm.

BTW, my husband and I set up the enlarger last Friday and it does fit We switched it on and all seems to work fine. It is just somewhat noisy due to the fan inside and the voltage stabilizer, but that was no surprise. I also noted a little delay of maybe one second from starting the timer until the enlarger lamp actually switches on, but it also switches off with the same delay, so that shouldn't be an issue (I hope).
We disassembled the enlarger again because I first have to get rid of my huge, old (and empty) fish tank, as this is the place where the enlarger is going to stand. I truly look forward to working with it!

Best regards,
Sandra

ic-racer · Apr 6, 2011

swittmann said:
I also noted a little delay of maybe one second from starting the timer until the enlarger lamp actually switches on, but it also switches off with the same delay, so that shouldn't be an issue (I hope).

The lamp comes on about a second before the shutter opens. Then the shutter closes after the same delay of a second.

Durst Laborator 138s with CLS 1000 - question(s)

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