Extension arm vs. El-Nikkor 63mm

Hello,

Sometimes I would like to crop my negative a bit more than my enlarger lets me do. Durst made an extension arm for my M605 so that its head can be raised a bit higher. Another option is to go look for a EL-Nikkor 63mm to get a bit more of a wide angle projection compared the standard 80mm I using for my 645 negs. I'm leaning towards the Nikkor as the extension arm makes the enlarger a bit top heavy. On the other hand it can also be used with 35mm to make bigger selections. Any thoughts?

My only thought is that either of those beasts may be a unicorn as far as finding one, though I can't say for sure. I understand the WA enlarging lenses are darn scarce.

When I had a Beseler 67, I took it from the base plate and mounted it to sort of a plywood box to get it 8" or so higher overall (also made a bracket to fasten the top of the column to the ceiling). I did that to go bigger than 16x20 (the ceiling mount really stabilized things), and if I wanted to print small, I had a wooden support to get the easel up higher. Could work if you have the ceiling height to get the enlarger up higher, with a few bucks worth of wood vs. tracking down a rare part. Many roads to Rome and so on...

Finding a 63mm EL Nikkor is not impossible, just pricey. Getting it to cover 645 is the "Unicorn" part ...

I have both a 63mm f/2.8 Nikkor and 60mm f/4 Bogen WA I can sell.

Such is the discussion about standard length column vs. XL column.

The problem with the DURST is the vertical column. Raise the head beyond a certain point, and the image hits the column. IOW, you cannot print the top of the image, cuz the column prevents the easel/paper from getting the top of the projected image. This is why Omega and Bessler have tilted columns. As the head is raised higher, the head moves farther away from the base of the column.

I think the DURST extension, also positions the head farther from the column.

Wall mounting the DURST column on a projected bracket would deal with this issue.

I would first try to find a solution that does not involve buying other lenses.

For instance: can you turn around the column? If yes, put two wooden beams underneath the baseboard. High enough so your easel can slide under the base board. This will give you more possibilities without doing anything structural or spending much. Don't forget to put a weight on the base board so the enlarger is stable.

Wall mounting turns many enlargers into very able machines. My Durst L1000 became a fully professional enlarger on the wall mount.