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Durst m805 color head

Jepperxx

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Aug 7, 2021
Messages
37
Location
Denmark
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Medium Format
Hi there. I just aquired a nice durst m805 with a colorhead as i love doing ra4 prints. Its working as should but the only things wrong is that the reflector panel seems to be stuck. Its supposed to open for illuminating the 4 scales. Does anyone know something about this matter maybe? :-D
 
I should say that it doaent seem broke or anything ..just totally stock!
 
I'd open it up and inspect it. The durst x05 series is fairly sturdily built and also fairly straightforward in its mechanical construction. Odds are it's a rather simple problem with an easy fix.
 
Thanks koraks! Im not the type that opens up camera ans so on.. or im was the type that opend up things but couldnt get it together again so i have stopped opening up things now.. im afraid you are right . I will think about it . Its not that crucial because i set the filters before turning of the light but it would be nice having it working .
 
One way or another, it's not going to fix itself, so someone opening something up at some point will be required. So either you need to get over your fear of screwdrivers, or you need to find someone in Denmark who's willing to help you with this / do it for you.
 
.. and the fear of springs jumping about when opening ..mostly fear of unknown springs i guees
 
Can't help you with that. When working on decades-old equipment, there's always a risk of doing something wrong. If you can't live with that, go digital and use photoshop...sorry.
 
So i unscrewd the front and could varify that all the bulbs ( 4 ) are working as should but the plastic lid ( reflector) that should open , is totally stuck . So does anyone know if this should slide , open horisontly or any other way. I ask because it maybe can be glued and if i have to use force its crucial to know which way it open?
 
Hi! Mine was stuck too in the beginning, and it still needs some lube. Anyway I never use it, as the light is to powerful for my little darkroom.
Here's the panel, closed and open..
 

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Wauw you are geat IBicus…just the thing i was looking for… Ill try and lube it… thanks so much!
 
Btw…now that i have a fellow companion in using a durst m805 color…do you by chance know what the neutral density filter / knob is doing ..how to use it. Ive read the maual many times but still dont understand. As i read it it works exactly like using rpthe aparture ring on the lens. ..but im unsure
 
..how exactly do you use this in practice ( if you use it) ?
 
Ok i understand. How do you use it in real life ? Say you want to make a color print and you got your magenta/yellow filter settings for a certain negative?
 
You use it if (and only if) you find the exposure time becomes too short and you need to reduce the overall amount of light that hits the paper.
 
…ah ok. Thanks . I think i understand now. Ao instead of messing eith the time on the timer one could use this. So i think its a good idea allways to start out with zero ? (Or / and maybe experince will lead one to start out somewhere else ..say 30 )
 
Well anyway …you have been a great help. Thank you. I will replace my beloved durst m605 color with this now . I could hope that my filter settings from the m605 on portra 400, and cinestill 800 t ( the film i use the most) would fit exactly on the m805 but i doubt it. Ive used very long time and much paper/ chemistry to nail those settings on especially 50x50 and 40x40 prints.
 
Jepperxx said:
So i think its a good idea allways to start out with zero ?
Click to expand...
I'd say so, yes. Most enlargers don't have this feature. I haven't so far come across a situation where I really needed it myself.

Jepperxx said:
I could hope that my filter settings from the m605 on portra 400, and cinestill 800 t ( the film i use the most) would fit exactly on the m805 but i doubt it
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised if you got quite close, if not exactly on the same spot. Then again, does it really matter? I find a little finetuning is required anyway from scene to scene, depending on lighting conditions and subject matter.
I can sympathize though; I've just done a light head swap on my enlarger and filter settings will be very different from the previous version. It's OK, I'll survive. Takes only a couple of days to get used to the new response.
 
I couldnt agree more. And yes… it differs from negative to negative , scene to scene and its ok not to say very ok with some challange in finetuning. Snd i dont think either that im going to use the density knob very much. Actually it was one of thecreasons i bought it thinking it got to do with some kind of contrast tuning but no. Now i found out that i can do 50x50 print on the baseboard instead of mounting the paper on a metal plate with magnets the wall as ive done until now with the m605. So its big plus not having to do that anymore in total darkness. I just bought to flat metal bars i will mount with tape on the basebord with 50 cm space. That way i can feel my way in the darkness placing a 60x50 paper in between these bars. A voila i can project a 6x6 negative there ( i cant find a whats it called in english ? - the frame we usally mount the paper in , in that big size) .
A light head swap on your m805 or another enlarger?
 
Tape on one side so that i can lift the relative heavy metalbars and just slide the paper under hopeing to keep it relatively flat
 
Such neutral filter is used when one wants to reduce light output without closing the aperture excessively and by this introduncing too much light diffraction.

But I am ignoramt on something other: the working of this flap (reflector) underneath the scale wheels is not even mentioned in the manual. What is it expected to do? And is it actually intended to be flipped?
 
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