LPL 7450

[hoffy]

Howdy,

I've been made aware of a person who is trying to sell a LPL 7450 enlarger with a colour head. I've measured it up and it appears that it should fit in my space.

I have a LPL 6600 and have never had a problem with it. Is the larger enlarger comparable? Is there anything that I need to be concerned with purchasing one of these?

Cheers

 

[Oren Grad]

The 7450 is a big step up on the 6600 in just about every way. A slightly refined version - the 7451 (4500 II in the US) - has been my workhorse for more than 20 years, and it's still going strong after a CLA of the dichroic head filter mechanism just last year.

 

[hoffy]

The 7450 is a big step up on the 6600 in just about every way. A slightly refined version - the 7451 (4500 II in the US) - has been my workhorse for more than 20 years, and it's still going strong after a CLA of the dichroic head filter mechanism just last year.

In what regard is it a big step up?

Cheers

 

[Oren Grad]

I had a 6600 for a few months when I was living in Japan long ago. By comparison with the 4x5 LPL's, it felt flimsy and cheaply built.

The things that stand out for me about the 7451/4500II:

* Handles up to 4x5, though the light source is *just* large enough for 4x5 - if you want to print 4x5 with border, special measures are required
* Solidly built overall, though without the "heavy metal" feel of a big Beseler, Omega or Durst
* Controls function smoothly
* Alignment fixed in place at the factory - not really any joints that can drift out of alignment in typical use (but alignment does need checking, as some units have come misaligned from the factory - there are things that can be done to compensate for that if needed, depending exactly where the problem is)
* Diffusion light source suits me better than the condenser heads of the 6600 and of the Beseler 23CII I still have stashed in a corner of the basement
* Dichroic color head is extremely convenient for variable-contrast printing
* Combination of the optional 4x5 glass sandwich carrier and the optional masking stage is very handy for printing multiple formats with best quality

Overall, it's more flexible with different formats and feels much more like a professional-grade tool, while the 6600 felt more like a toy. [As it happens, there was also something misaligned in the illumination system of the 6600 I owned (and had purchased new in Tokyo and received directly from LPL), which I never did figure out. But that might have been a random sample defect.]

Although the 7450 doesn't have the same beefy column as the 7451/2/2L, my guess is that it will share most of the overall robust feel and features of the later models.

 

[hoffy]

Well, I ended up buying the LPL 7450. What made the deal in the end is it came with wall mounting brackets!

My darkroom is a temporary affair, having to set up in my laundry. In my situation, the enlarger generally sits on top of a chest freezer. By being able to wall mount it, I can permanently leave it where it is and with the head up high enough, it won't be in the way!

Now I probably need to go out and shoot some 4x5.....

Cheers

 

[ozphoto]

Congrats Hoffy!! Hoping I can replicate your good fortune myself at some stage too.

Enjoy!

 

[hoffy]

You don't want to buy a LPL 7700 now? (I got it wrong above - that's the enlarger I have).

 

[polyglot]

yay another LF victim!

 

[Mick Fagan]

Hoffy, have a good look at the 7700 unit, right at the top of the enlarger column there is a bit you uncover and you will find a hole (going from memory here so could be a bit fuzzy).

That hole is where the wall mounting bracket secures the top of the column. The 7450 unit doesn’t have this hole in the top, but a 6mm to 8mm drill bit, or close to that size is used to drill a hole in the top.

Then you can use the 7450 enlarger on the wall. Unless of course it’s already been used and attached to the enlarger and hung on a wall.

May I suggest you ascertain the vertical on your proposed wall, I did on my wall and it was out a bit, so I attached a piece of MDF as long as the bracket system to two pieces of MDF on the wall, with one of the wall pieces of MDF adjusted out to ensure the wall column mounted brackets were at a true vertical, that is ninety degrees vertical fore and aft and left and right.

One only has to ensure your moveable table is dead level in both directions, you should be pretty sweet then.

Mick.

 

[hoffy]

Thanks Mick,

This particular enlarger had already been wall mounted, so there are fabricated top and bottom brackets.

As for how to do this, I am not 100% sure. The wall it will be mounted on is a typical plasterboard wall, but with a stud running right down the middle of it. I was actually thinking of getting a plank that will be secured to the wall (through the plaster board and into the stud) and then attaching the brackets to that. Then I know its secure, I can have the plank rest on the floor and then I can shim the brackets as required to get it exactly square and level!

 

[Mick Fagan]

I'll have a go at attaching a picture of my darkroom wall, where I mounted the wall mounts.

Basically I ran a couple of 17mm MDF boards across two studs, one at the top and a quite big one roughly 700mm from the floor. I then ran a vertical board, also 17mm MDF, to which the wall mount was attached. With this vertical piece of MDF I was able to get a fore and aft vertical, from there I then attached the wall mount and ensured it was left to right vertical. The result was a perfectly aligned enlarger.

I then made up a drop table that was just a smidge under a metre wide, with the main table normally being 800mm off the deck. This allowed me to have my legs under when sitting on my caster equipped office chair.

I dropped the drop table of the De Vere, so you could see the mounts. That drop table on the De Vere is 900mm wide by 700mm deep. I had a larger table, 1050mm by 800mm but that was too big, hence this is the original after being cut down.

I literally came in from the darkroom after a lengthy session and saw the notification on this thread, so I went back out and took this picture with the electronic thingy the missus has. The boxes are a couple of darkrooms of stuff that will be at the photographic flea market in Melbourne in a few weeks time, March the 15th in fact.

Mick.

 

[polyglot]

I'm not sure I'd trust a 4x5 enlarger to a single stud in a wall. If you're bolting/screwing a plate to the stud, can I recommend that it be a piece of box-section steel? Even 30x30mm or so would be plenty if it runs the full height of the wall.

 

[kiku]

... when I was living in Japan long ago....

Hi Oren! Off topic but when did you live in Japan? I was in Tokyo teaching conversational English from September 1963 thru November 1964. Howard Tanger