Durst M605 - Bulb question

Hello, this is my first post, nice to meet you all!

Having not been in a darkroom since I left college 8 years ago I'm a little rusty so bear with me.

I've been given a Durst M605 Colour enlarger and other darkroom equipment by a friend and set it up yesterday to make B&W prints. I had it all ready to go and on the first test strip the timer stopped working halfway through. I changed the fuse in the plug and all worked fine again. Made a few prints successfully. Then when making a new test strip, when pressing the button on the timer to expose for a few seconds the enlarger bulb didn't light up. The timer seems to be working still (it has a little red light and which comes back on after the set exposure time) so I think the bulb in the enlarger head may have gone.

I downloaded the manual but can't work out how to get to the bulb! Having looked in other threads it seems that I need a 100w tungsten halogen bulb. Does it need to be a certain size? Does anyone know where I can get one in London (or online?)

Any tips much appreciated! Thank you.

If you look at the top of the head, there should be a panel retained by one or two "screws". Give them a quarter/half turn and the panel should just lift off.

As for the lamp, expensive, but on most high streets: Dead Link Removed
Silverprint may well have stock, or you could try a specialist lighting store - Go for a Xenophot rather than a long-life lamp (shouldn't be more than £3-£4 each).

Thank you! I thought it would be a screw bulb instead of the 2 pins, so this is really helpful.

I'll have another look at the head this evening, I figured it must be fairly straight forward but I was worried about breaking it!

I like your darkroom! People seem to think that you need a particular timer that costs hundreds of dollars, an uber-expensive Schneider lens, or fancy trays and easels. No, you don't. I get by w/ an old Nikkor, some inexpensive cat litter trays for processing, and some push pins in my baseboard to keep the enlarging paper from shifting. No complaints so far on my print quality.

Just three points to add to current posts, moharlequin. 1. Unless prices have come down £3-4 seems a bit low. I paid nearer £7 a few years ago from a company called, I think, Tech Lamps and at the time they were competitive but maybe Maplins can undercut them

2. When you remove the ceramic two pin holder have a look at it to make sure it hasn't cracked or suffered from overheating. Over time you get arcing inside the holder and even if there is no sign of a problem give the inside of the pin holes a scrape with a very small round file or even a darning needle to clean the insides of the holes. It is even just possible although unlikely that the lamp problem is caused by the ceramic holder and it is not a burnt-out lamp

3. Durst recommend 100W but if your exposure times are short at say f8 or f11 then switch to a 75W as any dodging and burning is much easier with longer exposure times.

pentaxuser

I have Durst 305 enlarger. Mine is just for leica format, but I think in both enlargers are equal bulbs. Mine bulb is projector lamp EFP ,12V, 100W, GZ6,35-25.

Your philips timer is very durable and accurate machine. Mine white example have been used more than 20 years in professional lab and today it still works OK.

Halogen bulbs last a long time but they get the efficacy decreasing year after year of use. If your exposure time gets VERY long, change the lamp ans see the result!

And of course, when you find the right bulb buy two (at least).

MartinP said:

And of course, when you find the right bulb buy two (at least).

Click to expand...

.. or even more.

I got the problem some time ago with my L1200. It has just been the time our bureaucrats talked about special bulbs to be forbidden and the prices increased dramatically. I found the bulbs rather cheap on ebay. Now I have enough until the end of time. ;-)
I even have a bunch of these ceramic sockets for my Laborator.

horst

Yes, the regulations on light bulbs are somewhat odd. They don't completely 'smell' right to me as the typical cheap fluorescent, bought based on price by an average person, lasts less time than the filament lamps it replaces while having an awful colour quality and it's also more unpleasant when disposed of. Eventually I suppose the CFLs will be replaced by LED based lighting, but that will take some time.

Even though the special-purpose bulbs for instrumentation and things other than household lighting are not banned, the infrastructure for producing them is largely gone now. Fortunately, the bulb required by the OP is a halogen bulb in a reflector, and these are still widely produced.