Matt, in a word, speed.
The DeVere enlarger is/was built for speed, as well as quality, it can deliver both.
In the commercial world of enlarging when most of these machines were being built and used, cranking out high quality print after print, was what made the money.
Glass carriers, slow you down alarmingly!
In the eighties I was cranking out around 300 colour prints a shift, I was in one darkroom doing this day in day out. There was seven other people in seven other darkrooms doing the same thing.
The colour prints were all from colour trannies, (colour slides). In the graphic arts trade they were called colour stats. These colour stats were enlarged to a line drawing which was for a layout of a colour magazine, colour advertising brochure, etcetera, you get the picture.
These colour roughs, which were anything but rough, went to board meetings where the layout and colour balance of the printing (press) was discussed forever, until lunch time arrived, then a five minute hasty discussion settled the discussion.
All of these prints were made from individual pieces of film which were supplied in all conceivable formats. Anything from movie film upwards. Most however were either 35mm, 6x45, 6x6, 6x7 & 4x5".
Basically, we managed to print daily, what a lot people do in a year in their home darkroom! Surprisingly, the quality of the work was amazingly high. You soon learn how to knock out high quality stuff in minutes, not hours.
The best enlargers for this work that I have used, are the DeVere enlargers with their two focusing wheels at the front of the baseboard. Next comes the Beselers and their terrific lens carriers which could be rotated, which is a blessing for the vertical 6x45 format frames. These are the two workhorse enlargers that were sold in great numbers in this country, with the DeVere edging out the Beselers due their phenomonal build and the precision with which that was caried out.
I can tell you that our enlarger heads, went up and down like yo yo's, every day all day! One could hear the rattling of the chains constantly, as you were standing at the end of the processor waiting for your batch of (perfect) prints.
If though, we needed an enlargement as good as you could get, one immediately wacked in a set of glass plates, in an enlarger that was perectly aligned. We had two enlargers set aside for huge standard enlargements, a 4x5" and a 5x7" they were both capable of almost legendary quality.
Once you have a set of glass plates in an enlarger, dust amongst other things, does become more noticeable, so far greater preparing is a requirement. But the rewards are there when you enlarge your negs in an aligned enlarger in good glass plates.
When using my own DeVere enlarger, I use glassless for 99% of my 35mm work. One of the little tricks I use, is removeable magic tape. By taping the film on either side of the film carrier and stretching it flatter, I obtain a degree of flatness that is acceptable for all of my work prints up to 12x16" paper. One has to be careful though, that you don't stress the film in a direction different to what the neg carrier does.
For any of my really good prints, I use glass!
Lambrecht and Woodhouse are correct.
Mick.
