How many enlargers do you have?

I have three as of now.
-Beseler/Minolta 45A
-Nikor 6x7
-Vivitar 66
Think Im going to buy a new color head for my 45A tho.

Robert Hall said:

You got me beat Vaughn.

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Actually I do not use any of them much anymore...occasionally to print a 6x6 negs or two for fun. But I do own 5 UV light sources that I use for carbon printing and platinum printing (one NuArc, three 750W self-ballasted Merc vapor lamp set-ups, and a double lamp system (two side-by-side 175W ballasted merc vapor lamps). And the university has a couple 'pizza oven' style UV light systems (BL bulbs).

I have surprisingly few

One Durst CLS2000 (8x10") Vertical Enlarger
Two Durst 2501 AF (10x10") Horizontal Enlargers
Two Durst L1200 with the Ilford 500 Multigrade head (4x5")
One LPL 6x7 (not sure of the model as I Dont use it)

The largest size I can print by hand is 72inches x 245inches

oh...

an I just threw out about 30 enlargers..... can't keep'em all.

what's left?
too many - but I have students who tends to be happy when I donate an enlarger to them...

12 enlargers set up inthe darkroom - about the same waiting to be used (among them 4 Durst laborator 138)...

Simon R Galley said:

About 30

But I usually only print on the DeVere 504 with MG500 head.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology limited :

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Just the one now, a DeVere 54 converted to LED (documented somewhere here).

I did have an LPL/Saunders 6700 but I gave it away to a local school who wanted to enlarge their darkroom facilities.


Steev.

i have 3 , a bessler23, a bessler 45 and a bogen

7 Total. 5 different models of the Beseler 4x5, 1 Beseler 23CXL, 1 Durst 1200, 2 color heads for the Beseler 4x5s, 1 color head for the 23c.

Fujimoto G70 (6x7) and a Liesegang Rajah IV (9x12) that I use - and one Meopta 6x6 green metallic, kept just because of its beauty.

It's good to see I'm not the only lunatic here.

I have one-point-something enlargers!

The primary one is an Omega B8 acquired in early 2006 for which I have managed to amass the supplemental condensers, an assortment of negative carriers and El-Nikkor 50mm, 80mm and 105mm lenses. I haven't come up with the 'official' lens cones for the longer lenses, but stopped looking after I fabricated some out of copper-clad laminate and sheet copper. It handles 35mm, 6x6 and 6x9 which pretty well covers me these days.

I also have a Graflarger back that wandered into my hands as salvage decades back. After replacing the disintegrating power cord a few years ago, it appears to light. I have made two sheet metal brackets to attach it to my B&J Press 4x5 in place of the spring-loaded ground glass, but don't currently have a way to suspend the camera in the darkroom (hung under a tripod would be too awkward and tedious. One-of-these-days(tm) I'll work out some sort of wall bracket so I can enlarge an occasional 4x5, but I don't really use that format except for pinhole stuff.

I also have the remains of a crude but somewhat functional enlarger I cobbled together decades ago for Minox. And I still kick myself for not bidding an ePrey auction a while back for a gizmo that mounted in a 39mm enlarger lens thread and used the enlarger as a light source to enlarge sub-miniature stuff. It had its own negative carrier and a focusing lens mount and seemed like a cool idea. It was a commercial product, but I've never seen one before or since! (And I think it went for only a few dollars.)

In the 1960s I had two seriously crude homemade enlargers for 35mm and 4x5, but there is naught left thereof.

I have just over 10 at the moment. Anytime I see medium format to large format darkrooms go for peanuts close by, I pick it up. I find students to mentor every now and then, so I find a good home for a complete darkroom that will see use.

Robert Hall said:

It's good to see I'm not the only lunatic here.

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Far from it it.

Durst L1200 Multigraph
Durst L1200 with Color Head
Durst Pro with Aristo Cold Light (a workhorse - I bought it used in the early 1980's). I will probably give this one up down the road... eventually.

Durst 138SP with Color Head (in temporary storage)
Durst M601 with Condenser kit and Color Head (in deep storage - one of my first enlargers, purchased in the early 1970's; I can't give it up. If I ever have more space, I will set it up again).

P.S. Once in a while I check eBay for a Leitz V35 with the VC head!

Six. (Four in storage.)

2 I use (Leitz Focomat 1C XL, Ilford C700)

4 I could use if I set them up (Meopta Magnitarus 5X7, Devere 54 wall mount, Meopta Axomat 5, Mepota Magnifax 6x9cm)

5 I could use if I needed to (student 35mm enlargers I bought/saved for $5 each less lens)

4 In the Camera Collection (Zeiss Ikon, Durst from the 50's with Agfa Color head, Russian UPA6 in a suitcase, Kodak Miniature bakelite enlarger form the 30's)

None.

Yet.

More than God —or Goddess— ever intended one human to ever own . . .

I hereby confess before you, my peers, that I am a compulsive enlarger buyer — or, sometimes, a ready and willing receiver of enlarger donations from fellow —or I should say, former!— printers who are curing themselves of the same disorder (aka: a "sucker"). This has of course been exacerbated by the drastic price drops in used enlargers that corresponded with the rise of digital photography. Not my fault.

My only reasonable explanation (or excuse) is that —as a former Durst tech rep— I know the quality behind certain enlargers. It's impossible for me to resist snapping up a Durst M605, complete and pristine, when it's only 40 euros, or when a friend tells me that he's about to throw out an enlarger and asks, "Do you want it?", I answer, "Certainly not I have too many as it is what kind is it?".
Him: "A Focomat with the lens".
Me: "I hate you for this when do you want me to drop by?"

Just last week I missed obtaining an 8x10 Kienzle which belonged to a famous French photographer. As I understand it, it was being given away (honest). But it went instead to another sucker. Whew! That was close. Anyway, I dont have anymore space in the kitchen for that! (...though, on second thought, with a high enough wattage lamp, perhaps I could've bake cookies in it).

But seriously, since I see a lot of young people walking around with film cameras at the moment (OK.. sometimes just as a fashion accessory!) I was thinking recently that it'd be a good idea to teach darkroom printing and —at the end of the course— include a small enlarger in the (low) price, as well as free follow-up advice. This would be to encourage these younger photographers to continue developing and printing at home...and maybe in a small way help preserve our craft and pass the torch along (as well as contribute to keeping film alive!).

Just an idea, for the moment ... Otherwise, it'll soon be "Swap Meet Heeere I come!" (cause I ain't got time for flea-bay).

Christopher

Oooooh... a Kienzle. mmm

Well, personally, I wonder what happened to Enlzilla. The one bigger than my car that Sean got a hold of several years ago.

Dang...we are about to toss out a Durst M605...so it goes

and, no, I can not sneak it out and give it to someone...it has a university property tag on it...

Vaughn said:

Dang...we are about to toss out a Durst M605...so it goes

and, no, I can not sneak it out and give it to someone...it has a university property tag on it...

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Always sad to hear these things; my college also "tossed" several 5x4 enlargers, rather than sell them. Even offered to buy them, but they refused and they were taken to the tip.

Never understand why educational/government institutes do this - surely some cash is better than none?

Thankfully their last clear-out went to auction, but anything that didn't sell - you guessed it, got dumped. Crazy - I would have happily taken the 10 6x7 enlargers off their hands, but they refused to sell to me; seems some rules aren't made to be flexible, rather idiocy reigns.

Dang
I would have loved to get a M605 to replace my M600.
Oh well, that would be a 6 hour drive to get up to Humbolt County. a bit too far to drive.

Although with proper disposal paperwork university (and company) equipment can be sold to others. But the beurocracy is what it is.

ozphoto said:

Always sad to hear these things; my college also "tossed" several 5x4 enlargers, rather than sell them. Even offered to buy them, but they refused and they were taken to the tip.

Never understand why educational/government institutes do this - surely some cash is better than none?

Thankfully their last clear-out went to auction, but anything that didn't sell - you guessed it, got dumped. Crazy - I would have happily taken the 10 6x7 enlargers off their hands, but they refused to sell to me; seems some rules aren't made to be flexible, rather idiocy reigns.

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Just because someone is educated, does not mean that they can figure out how to get out of a bed in the morning.

Omega D5 with a home-brewed LED head
LPL 7700

I'm looking forward to buy a 8x10 enlarger (the smallest possible) but they are not very common here in New Zealand

Sirius Glass said:

Just because someone is educated, does not mean that they can figure out how to get out of a bed in the morning.

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Love it!

A Durst L1200, Leica V35, Leica 1C with Ilford MG head and a Beseler 23C, guess that makes four. Like to have a Leitz 11C, but too expensive, and nearly won an Agfa like Sean has but missed out, I believe that they are really good.