Enlarger suggestions please!

If someone can show me a picture of a dichroic filter 'faded' in the area that is in the light path, and not faded in the area where it is held in the enlarger, I'll write it up in a scientific journal!

Likewise I'll gladly accept anyone's 'faded' dichroic filters that are headed for the trash.

gamincurieux said:

I thought of the Laborator 1200 because they're relatively plentiful & they are a serious lab enlarger that would've been doing big stuff.... but yes, remains to be seen if it comes out far enough away from the column.... though in theory it should come out a lot further than it does on the M605, huh? Enough to do 16x20 at least. Surely. The weight of it might buckle my bench legs! I'm wondering if filter fading over time is really a serious consideration.

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Durst L1200 in a small kitchen? Do you have any idea how big this enlarger is? That won't work. Also, any idea how heavy the L1200 is? How are you going to move it in and out of the kitchen every time? That will get old, real fast.

Find a way to mount your enlarger to the wall and remove it when you move out. Patching up a few holes in the wall is no big deal. Wall mounting is the way to go anyway.

I have a Durst Ce1000 (4x5) mounted on a roller cart. The cart is framed with 2x4 lumber and the sides and bottom are 5/8" mdf. The cart is 19" high and the baseboard is screwed to it. At max height, the top of the head is 78" off the floor and the lens center is approx 10.5" from the face of the column. A Saunders 16x20 4 blade works fine. A 20x24 wouldn't due to the width of the blade against the column. It is also dead easy to move it around on one floor, forget stairs.


A D5XL column is approx 53" long and gives something close to 20" from the lens center to the base of the column with the head at the top.
I've got one that is destined for the recycling depot as it isn't worth rebuilding(worn out focusing rails).

The kitchen is permanently set up as a darkroom, there's no moving in & out of any equipment.

gamincurieux said:

The kitchen is permanently set up as a darkroom, there's no moving in & out of any equipment.

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OK

One more reason to mount the enlarger to the wall, but make sure to keep chemicals and food well away from each other.

gamincurieux said:

I thought of the Laborator 1200 because they're relatively plentiful & they are a serious lab enlarger that would've been doing big stuff.... but yes, remains to be seen if it comes out far enough away from the column.....

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The column to optical centre of the lens is 310mm and the usable baseboard area is around 640x570mm - I think you'd struggle to make much use of a 20x24" easel on an L1200. That said, they are a solid bit of kit and well worth having if you can find one at the right price.

As to the weight, around 45Kg depending on the head and column length.