Fuji CSD690 - a lamp issue... is it worth buying?

Hello friends,

today I came across an well-used but good-looking Fuji color enlarger - an CSD690. It's equipped with two lenses, 50 and 105 EX Fujinons, and has a color diffusion head, built-in dichroic filters, and 6*6, 6*9 and 35mm glassless neg carriers. The cost of this system is around $300 along with its dedicated timer, but the enlarger seems to be using two unusual lamps, bipin base type (spacing around 5.5 mm) with aluminium coated reflector (about 51 mm outer diameter, about 36 mm high), 100V, 150W. Looks like a powerful halogen lamp, not a big deal... what do you think, is it still possible to get such lamps? And is this enlarger worth buying? I would love to get it, because it's definitely better than my old faithful Magnifax type II... maybe someone knows where to find such lamps with, say, 12V voltage, and to put just a transformer between the enlarger and timer?

Cheers, Zhenya

Get the part numbers for the lamps. I doubt the lamps were special made for the enlarger. My Durst uses the same bulbs used in various other items. None of them enlargers.

Just a FYI: http://www.donsbulbs.com is a very good site for finding out types of bulbs by measurements and what's printed on the lamp itself.

Dear friends,
thank you for you suggestions. Looks like those sinister 100V 150W lamps were made especially for Fuji, so I would probably better off with 12V 150W lamps and a transformer. But I didn't hear your opinion yet - isn't the system much overpriced, or I'm paying the right sum?

Cheers from Moscow, and much thanks for your hints - Zhenya

I'd be suprised if Fuji could have sold enough enlargers to justify custom bulbs. I could be wrong it happens all the time IIRC 100V is Japanese normal voltage.

The fuji lens came in various grades. If those are the best lenses then just the lenses are worth at least a 1/3 of the price maybe more. If it wasn't for the bulb issue I wouldn't think it was over priced. But I don't know what your local market is like.

Yes Nick, the unusual voltage seems to be an old heritage - maybe they had it in Japan as a normal voltage once, but it was just tooooo long ago

The local market definitely sucks - there's almost none of good foreign-made used equipment, it was available in the USSR only to very special places like Pravda party newspaper, and it was just destroyed there by a permanent heaviest workload. So the good color enlarger here is a REAL problem to get, let alone 4x5 enlargers - they were not bought here by anyone, so there's no way to have it second-hand

So maybe the lack of better proposals justifies the purchase... but first I would try to locate those 12V lamps and a good transformer for them, it could be a problem too.

Thanksm and good luck - Zhenya

Nick Zentena said:

I'd be suprised if Fuji could have sold enough enlargers to justify custom bulbs. I could be wrong it happens all the time IIRC 100V is Japanese normal voltage.

The fuji lens came in various grades. If those are the best lenses then just the lenses are worth at least a 1/3 of the price maybe more. If it wasn't for the bulb issue I wouldn't think it was over priced. But I don't know what your local market is like.

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FWIW, I just tried entering "150w 100v" as a search term in eBay and got several hits, with "buy it now" prices ranging from $0.88 to $25.00. Most of these had no photos or appeared to be "bare" halogen bulbs, without reflectors. I don't know how difficult it would be, or even if it would be possible, to put a "bare" bulb into an existing reflector. This auction looks like the closest match to what you describe, with a G7.9 base and a 57mm reflector. I don't know if it would be an exact fit for you, if the seller would ship to Russia, or if you could find others like it closer to where you live. Despite these caveats, it's a place to start looking, and the search at least indicates that bulbs with the electrical requirements you specify are still available.