Enlarger options?

I've got an LPL 3300 at the moment and have noticed that the lens on it seems soft in the corners and given that I've bought a nicer camera and lenses relatively recently, the quality of the enlarger should probably match. I'd be happy to change the lens for something better but it appears that you can't remove it, which leads me to looking for a new enlarger.

What I'm after is primarily the ability to get and put on a good quality lens and it to be stable. i.e. a high quality 35mm enlarger. Other things that would be nice but not necessary are being able to easily do larger than 10x8 or if not easily wall projecting and perhaps the ability to do medium format though 35mm is the priority so if it means mucking about for 35mm, I'd prefer it to just be 35mm. Also, a colour head is not a requirement as I only see myself doing black and white.

What's commonly available in Melbourne and where should I be looking? Gumtree has some Meoptas and ebay doesn't seem to have much. Is it straightforward to upgrade the lens on a Meopta?

Hopefully I can help a bit,

Yes a new enlarger is a good idea, they do show up on ebay and Gumtree, I bought both my DURST enlargers at Government auctions over 10 years ago

I live in south Australia , you would have auction houses in Victoria thate do the TAFE and School Auctions the other place to look is the yearly Photo Fair

Vanbar also has enlargers for sale sometimes but they at retail prices

Lenses :- most 6 element "Brand name" lenses will work fine I personalty like El-Nikkor lenses the best, but Rodagon and Componon are just as good ebay is normaly the best place to find one

Hope this helps a little

I'm pretty sure you should be able to replace the lens on that enlarger. You can probably find another lens from a nearby APUGer. Otherwise I believe Vanbar do have some used lenses on offer.

The lens unscrews, your not trying hard enough. Also check the enlarger for squareness.

I had the LPL 3301-D which I believe is the one you have?

http://www.khbphotografix.com/LPL/LPL3301D.htm

It employs a simple screwmount thread and you just turn (unscrew) the lens from it.
Having said that, the enlarger is limited so a new one is a good idea. I have long moved away from it as I wanted to print larger than 8x10 and also Medium Format.

Good luck,
Ben

I would also suggest a better enlarger would be a good idea. Perhaps a 6x7 enlarger which will give you pretty much everything from 35mm through to most medium format negatives up to the 6x7cm format.

I would also suggest if you cannot get an enlarger with a dedicated B&W filter head, then an enlarger with a colour head would be the next choice. I would put an enlarger with no filtration possibilities, other than using a filter drawer, or under the lens filter holder as my last option. I have used all scenarios and currently run a 4x5" enlarger with a colour head, I could not envisage B&W enlarging with anything else, unless it had a dedicated B&W filtration head.

Having a diffused light source (as most colour head and B&W head enlargers do) is also my preference for printing in B&W or as I have done in the past, colour. The LPL range of enlargers were widely sold in Australia, often they come up in or near Melbourne.

The LPL 6700 enlarger came with two head options, colour and/or B&W. The 6600 which is restricted to 6x6cm is a filter drawer enlarger with a condenser head.

The LPL 7700 enlargers were the professional range and came with certain optional goodies, with the micro focus knob probably being the most often upgrade from the stock enlarger.

The Meopta enlargers are quite good, also quite cheap. From about the Meopta Opemus 5 model onwards, they were generally available in this country with the optional Meochrom colour head, or as a model only sold with a colour head, I'm not 100% sure. These were generally 35mm and 6x6cm negative models only.

The later models include some beautifully designed and very user friendly (from a darkroom user point of view) enlargers. The Meopta Opemus 7 was probably one of the nicest Meopta enlargers I have used. The one I had the use of and stored in my darkroom for a couple of years, ran a beautifully designed B&W head, essentially a very cheap semi professional enlarger.

Coming up in sunny downtown Melbourne, Box Hill actually, is the Australian Photographic Collectors' Society market. It is in the Box Hill Town Hall on September the 18th, 0900h onwards. There can be anything from none to a dozen enlargers there. About 3 years ago I had a share in a table there and we virtually gave away two enlargers.

Mick.

if 35mm only try to find a leitz V35 with the multigrade head. you can find them very reasonably priced at times. the lens is just fantastic on those.

Thanks for the replies.

The enlarger I have is the 3300 which appears to be extremely similar to the 3301D, which indicates you can remove the lens. I've given it a go but I can't find how I'm supposed to remove the lens without having to hold the plastic illuminated aperture ring. Given the difficulty to remove it, the fact that it's limited in capability and that is is currently working, I'm disinclined to continue and risk breaking it as it means I do have an enlarger as things stand.

Something I've just realised is that I'll need to make sure I can fit the enlarger as my bench space is actually pretty small, but that's for me to measure.

What's the advantage of using a colour head instead of draw/under lens filters? The filters I have at the moment are under lens but I think there's a part missing to attach the holder so I've been blutaking the filters to the lens, which is obviously no good for split grade but has been working fine for me so far. Do the filters degrade over time in a colour head? I've heard that multigrade filter sets do, though mine that was Dad's from the 80s still seems to work well enough.

I have been to the Box Hill meeting a couple of times in the past. My problem is more that I'm not sure how to assess an enlarger. What brands are common in Melbourne? LPL and Meopta mainly? If I do a bit of background reading into what should be common and what I'm after, it should help me when looking at Box Hill or online.

The color or VC (Variable Contrast B&W) heads mean you have a diffusion enlarger which uses a diffused light source giving you even illumination. The good thing about these is that you don't have to use a filter, can just dial the contrast in and go. It is also a lot less prone to show scratches / blemishes that are on the negative due to the nature of the diffused light source.

The other kind is called the condenser enlarger which requires you place filter under the lens. A condenser enlarger also gives a harsher light / shows scratches etc more and has higher contrast. Also usually provides shorter printing times.

I myself like a condensed light source better as I prefer contrastier prints but it is absolutely down to your own preference. I also prefer the under the lens filters as I often print with split-contrast meaning I need to change the grade while printing a paper and the below lens filter can be changed easily. Turning dials on the head or a knob can slightly knock the enlarger / negative around which is not a great thing while you are printing.

Having said that I now have a Diffusion enlarger (Beseler 23CIII-XL with VC head) which I really like but miss the contrast I used to get on the old LPL I used. I have a large stock of pre-graded paper so I don't use any filters when printing these and get lower contrast on the VC head.

Ben

So good and bad news.

Bad is that I measured how much benchtop space I have and it's about 52cm deep by 38 wide, so it's not really big enough for a bigger enlarger. Good is that I managed to remove the lens from my enlarger. It seems that I'll be just trying to improve the quality of the 10x8s I do and if I want to go bigger I can hire a public darkroom.

Thanks for the help

Glad you managed to get that lens off. Try to buy a 6 element El-Nikkor 50 2.8 or something similar. You'll get great quality prints.
I used to really like that little LPL but as I built my own darkroom, i could fit a larger / more stable enlarger.

Good luck!
Ben

If you join Melbourne Camera Club there is a darkroom which you can hire at $5 a day which will allow you to print up to 4x5 at 16x20 inch.

I picked up an EL Nikkor 50/2.8 for 60AUD at the Box Hill Camera Market yesterday and gave it a go in the evening. Without having paid too much attention it does seem better.

Good to hear that you found a better lens, El Nikkor lenses are some of the best made, you should see a increase in contrast and a sharper image above 8x10 with less light falloff in the corners

Enjoy

Johnkpap

Carriage said:

I've got an LPL 3300 at the moment and have noticed that the lens on it seems soft in the corners and given that I've bought a nicer camera and lenses relatively recently, the quality of the enlarger should probably match. I'd be happy to change the lens for something better but it appears that you can't remove it, which leads me to looking for a new enlarger.

What I'm after is primarily the ability to get and put on a good quality lens and it to be stable. i.e. a high quality 35mm enlarger. Other things that would be nice but not necessary are being able to easily do larger than 10x8 or if not easily wall projecting and perhaps the ability to do medium format though 35mm is the priority so if it means mucking about for 35mm, I'd prefer it to just be 35mm. Also, a colour head is not a requirement as I only see myself doing black and white.

What's commonly available in Melbourne and where should I be looking? Gumtree has some Meoptas and ebay doesn't seem to have much. Is it straightforward to upgrade the lens on a Meopta?

Click to expand...

It is hard to beat newestDurstorMeoptaenlargers. They all alone you to Exchange lenses. Unfortunately, the used market is depleted by know. The good ones are all gone by now; good luck in search.

Someone has listed a Leitz Focomat IIc on $Bay I would give it a go if I lived in VIC !!!

Johnkpap