Just score this minolta color enlarger modIII.

[Radost]

Anybody familiar with this? I won on an online bid for $12.

 

[MattKing]

The cooking pot is not an associated accessory!
I have a couple of friends who either have used them, or are using them, and are quite impressed.
And they have the opportunity to use a lot of different enlargers.
They give me the impression of being as well put together as good quality Durst and LPL equipment.

 

[Radost]

I got it for $12. have today drive 30 miles to get it

 

[Don_ih]

Does the bulk loader come with it?
That enlarger has a nice tall mast.
There does, however, appear to be some suspicious-looking sputum on the baseboard...

 

[ic-racer]

The original lamp for that is a MR16 base EKG which is 19V 80W. The power supply is regulated to 19v, though, one of my power supplies failed and was converted to half-wave rectified AC; no regulation. That works just fine for B&W.

 

[Chan Tran]

If you don't use it as enlarger you can use it as copying stand to digitize film. Put the head on the baseboard upside down as light source.

 

[xkaes]

I've never used them, but Minolta made some incredible enlargers -- but they were not inexpensive. They also made superb enlarging lenses -- which I do use! Nowadays you can get all of it for very little $$$.

 

[ic-racer]

Yes, just about everything on the Minolta is aluminum rather than plastic.
It is adjustable. The two circular things on the side of the housing that rides on the column are eccentrics for negative stage alignment. The lens board has its own alignment with grub screws.
I got mine in 1975 and still use it.

 

[Peter Schrager]

Best mf enlarger ever

 

[Radost]

Just picked it up. No power supply I guess. Strange power plug
Lens is Nikkor. Is it a good lens?
Is it impossible to find the power supply?

 

[ic-racer]

Nothing special, a ground and two wires to the lamp (AC).

Something like a Hammond 185E20 might work (80W, 20V) about $40

 

[xkaes]

I don't know the specs on the Minolta Power Supply, but you should be able to find them out, and if you can't find a Minolta power supply, you can make one -- and that might be cheaper. Yes, that's a different type of plug, but they do that to keep people from plugging it into household A/C -- which would "blow the thing up". There are lots of DIY ways to connect those plugs to whatever power supply you connect it to. One -- I'm not recommending this -- is to simply cut the plug off and connect the three bare wires.

I did the same thing for my Beseler Point Light Source. The Beseler power supply is even harder to find than the head, but I was able to find an appropriate AC/DC transformer from LIGHTECH for about $25. Then I used a standard, plastic, electrical box to house the transformer and the electrical wires to the standard darkroom timer.

As to the Nikkor 50mm 4.0 lens, it's a fine lens as long as you use it around f8 -- which you should do for any lens, for the best results. Others will trash it, saying get the much better f2.8 model. Some people love to spend other people's money. I say, give it a try. I bet you'll like it.