Holy Moly, is this real?

Marco B · Apr 23, 2009

Hi all,

Just stumbled upon this document on the Durst site (of course no analog enlargers anymore there), that documents a bit of history about the company.

My eye fell upon the picture on page 2.

Gaspppp!

See the text "1942 The Dimensions are growing"

Now where did I leave the jackhammer to make room for this in my darkroom? :confused:

Also notice the hilarious remark about the "aesthetics" of the thing :

"Apart from the function, the aesthetics also needed to be pleasing so special mixtures of lacquer were refined and refurbished for the surfaces."

Marco

eric · Apr 23, 2009

Wow that is huge. The largest enlarger I had the pleasure of moving was a HUGE Salztman. Took 5 or 6 strong men to move.

jovo · Apr 23, 2009

I think the way the picture was made, the size of the enlarger is misleading. As the fellow standing in the picture is behind the enlarger base, it looks like it's actually not overly large, and is a close-up of the thing. After all, a 30x40 centimeter negative is about 12x16 inches.....not exactly a monster.

Marco B · Apr 23, 2009

jovo said:
and is a close-up of the thing. After all, a 30x40 centimeter negative is about 12x16 inches.....not exactly a monster.

That is what I had been considering, until I noticed the visible shadows / reflections cast by the man and control column on the enlarger's base... I think it IS real...

BobNewYork · Apr 23, 2009

I want to drive my enlarger to work too!!!

Bob H

Nick Zentena · Apr 23, 2009

Marco B said:
Also notice the hilarious remark about the "aesthetics" of the thing :

"Apart from the function, the aesthetics also needed to be pleasing so special mixtures of lacquer were refined and refurbished for the surfaces."

Marco

What's so funny about that? It's an Italian company. Bella Figura

ic-racer · Apr 23, 2009

Modern version :

Marco B · Apr 23, 2009

Nick Zentena said:
What's so funny about that? It's an Italian company. Bella Figura

Yes, you are right , but shouldn't that also mean Italian engineering quality?... that can hardly be said of Durst enlargers

Durst must be an exception in this respect than. But wait... it seems Durst might have more of a German heritage after all, being located in Brixen far up north in Italy in probably the German language region of Italy...

BobNewYork · Apr 23, 2009

Many years ago, R.J. Reynolds were a client of mine. They told me that they would buy only
Italian made cigarette -making machinery because of the quality of their engineering. An Italian company was the only manufacturer which could make the machinery to the tolerances required. Apparently, in the volumes made by RJR, if cigarettes were just a fraction of a millimeter too long it cost the company $3 - 5 million per year. Perhaps Durst also made the cigarette machinery??!!

Bob H

archphoto · Apr 23, 2009

Ic-racer: I would need a new darkroom !!!!!
What a beast.......

Feel a GAS attac comming up: ULF, ULF, ULF.................

Peter

36cm2 · Apr 23, 2009

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8330/4.3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I've worked for Ferrari, Piaggio and Moto Guzzi and I can assure you that Italian industrial quality is alive and well beyond the bella figura. Of course, a little style never hurts.

Nicholas Lindan · May 1, 2009

Marco B said:
Italian engineering quality?

Italian engineering quality can be superb. Roman civil engineering still stands as some of the finest.

Dead Link Removed

Not too bad in modern times:

Unfortunately, at the low end of the scale it has acquired a reputation for being neither reliable nor beautiful. It does seem mad that the company that made this is seen as the salvation of the US automobile industry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_engineering

mike c · May 1, 2009

With that enlarger you could change oil and tires on cars on the side if work got slow.

Marco B · May 1, 2009

36cm2 said:
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8330/4.3.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I've worked for Ferrari, Piaggio and Moto Guzzi and I can assure you that Italian industrial quality is alive and well beyond the bella figura. Of course, a little style never hurts.

Yes, you are absolutely right...

Still, if I had to make an analogy or parallel between the Durst Enlarger's indestructible build quality, like my L1200, and a moving vehicle, I would more likely think of a German Leopard tank, than of a well designed and build high performance Ferrari supercar... but that's just a big compliment too for Italian engineering!

But I know, listening to Italian RAI radio podcasts that quite a lot of good Italian scientists and engineers are actually regrettably working abroad, due to the unfortunately unfavourable job opportunities in Italy for some. Seems there are a few new programs set up in Italy to create opportunities for young talented Italian scientists to return or continue their work in Italy.

Nicholas Lindan said:
Italian engineering quality can be superb. Roman civil engineering still stands as some of the finest.

Yes, the fact that some of these aqueducts still serve their original function after two millennia, is just incredible...

Whatever we Dutch may have in water related engineering skills, won't save us from being wiped from the planet in another two millennia if global warming continues at it's current pace and melts Greenland and the Antarctic to rock bottom...

Nicholas Lindan said:
Unfortunately, at the low end of the scale it has acquired a reputation for being neither reliable nor beautiful.

Well, I think this was mainly in my youth... in the 70's and 80's Italian and French cars used to have a reputation here of rusting very quickly... well, can we blame them considering the weather? If you lived back than in Italy or Southern France, the world probably seemed sunny all year round

While we here up north had to endure the next stage of a severe cold... Hatsjuuu!

Marco

Kirk Keyes · May 1, 2009

Nicholas Lindan said:

Hey, that's next year's Chrysler. I think it's going to be called the "F-car".

I hate to think what's going to happen to Jeep in all of this. Mercedes should have kept Jeep and sold the rest off, but Chrysler knew they were worth more with Jeep...

Domenico Foschi · May 2, 2009

You guys are not telling me that Chrysler is better than Fiat, right?
I have never been a fan of FIAT, but Of Chrysler neither.....

Stephen Frizza · May 2, 2009

I miss printing on the HL2501 that truly was the best mural enlarger out there. But my all time Durst favorite is still the CLS2000.

Mick Fagan · May 2, 2009

Stephen, I agree about the CLS2000 being the best Durst enlarger, it is technically, the best enlarger I have ever had the pleasure of using!

I just loved that shutter blind.

Mick.

removed-user-1 · May 2, 2009

(Hate to divert this conversation away from Italian cars!)

I used to work at Delmar Printing in Charlotte, NC. In addition to dozens of package printers, we had one Chromega F for printing composites. This was a very large piece of equipment, I thought the maximum negative size was 11x14 but looking online I read that it is 10x10. It had its own darkroom, with a sign on the door that said simply "Godzilla Lives!" Here's a picture of this model: http://www.khbphotografix.com/omega/Current/Images/ChrFmed.jpg

TimVermont · May 2, 2009

Marco B said:
Yes, you are right , but shouldn't that also mean Italian engineering quality?... that can hardly be said of Durst enlargers

Durst must be an exception in this respect than. But wait... it seems Durst might have more of a German heritage after all, being located in Brixen far up north in Italy in probably the German language region of Italy...

Someone who knows more of the history of Sud Tirol (South Tyrol) should chime in here. There was/is something of a separatist movement in the area. My grandmother had an early 6x9 Durst enlarger that said "Durst, Bolzen, Tirol" on the nameplate and all the control markings were German only.

Tim

Marco B · May 3, 2009

TimVermont said:
Someone who knows more of the history of Sud Tirol (South Tyrol) should chime in here. There was/is something of a separatist movement in the area. My grandmother had an early 6x9 Durst enlarger that said "Durst, Bolzen, Tirol" on the nameplate and all the control markings were German only.Tim

Go to the Durst website, and you will notice there is German language as well. It is just a minority language group in Italy, concentrated in the far north (like Chinese or Spanish in US maybe?, although that is not so much regionally dispersed maybe). Often, border regions tend to be "diffuse", in the sense of mixed language...

And borders in Europe tended to be far more fluid than most people think nowadays looking at a modern map, and not just because of wars. Huge chunks of land swapped on a decades or even years basis, as strategic marriages and treaties between, and death among!, members of the nobility, monarchies, and republics were made.

The "The Hague municipal historic museum" runs an animation of the "Dutch" borders from something like the period of 1000 to 1900. I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw it. And I think the historians that had to make up this animation ended up with a severe headache even thinking about, and having to determine, what should be considered as a part of the Netherlands at a certain point in time...

The concept of a "state" with (more or less!) fixed borders is just a modern invention...

So it may well be some historical artefact, like part of the Habsburg monarchy.

Marco

nicefor88 · May 3, 2009

That's a nice piece of equipment. I want the same in my bathroooom

ic-racer · Sep 5, 2011

Nicholas Lindan said:
Italian engineering quality can be superb. Roman civil engineering still stands as some of the finest.

Dead Link Removed

Not too bad in modern times:

Unfortunately, at the low end of the scale it has acquired a reputation for being neither reliable nor beautiful. It does seem mad that the company that made this is seen as the salvation of the US automobile industry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_engineering

I just saw this now. That top one (the black one) is a Chevy.

Marco B · Sep 7, 2011

Durst brief history PDF seems to have been moved. It can now be found using the link below for anyone interested:

http://www.durst.it/fileadmin/user_upload/Durst/pdf/Durst-History-2010-EN.pdf

Marco

MDR · Sep 7, 2011

History until 1919 South Tyrol was part of Austria, after the peace treaty of St. Germain it became part of Italy. The language used in ST was 100% Austrian German. In 1939 the population of ST was offered by Hitler to return to the Reich quiet a lot declined. The Tyrolians were actually hoping to return South Tyrol to Austria but Hitler and Mussolini had other plans. Only after WWII did South Tyrol have a larger italian speaking population. Even tough the majority of todays STyrolians speaks italian there is still a large separatist movement. And most of the South Tyroleans are bilingual.

Holy Moly, is this real?

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