Masking paper for smaller photographs

koraks · Jul 10, 2024

hiroh said:
My eBay is set to Portugal.

You may have to reach out to eBay to ask for help with their search function. As indicated earlier, there are plenty of darkroom items, enlargers etc. for sale in Europe.

hiroh said:
I checked, but there are lots of enlarger parts and only one complete Leitz enlarger.

Contact him directly; he has plenty of enlargers. He generally splits them out into parts because that's what most people use eBay for, and shipping individual parts is generally much cheaper than entire enlargers. Of course, you may likewise run into the shipping problem as it can be prohibitively expensive to box up and ship a complete enlarger to Portugal.

Lachlan Young · Jul 10, 2024

hiroh said:
Any recommendation for another high quality easel that will last for life?

RR Beard 2 or 4 blade, Kienzle 4-blade (essentially a close derivative of the Beard design concept). Unless you need tighter size precision than 1/4" or bigger borders than 2", the Beard 2-blade easels are strongly recommended (there are good reasons why they were essentially standard kit in many professional darkrooms). Both the 4-blades above are able to be adjusted on the fly to get the blades properly perpendicular - but they have a cost/ weight disadvantage. Finding a good Saunders 4-blade is challenging to say the least, but you might get lucky - the only advantage they have over the Beard/ Kienzle is that they're a bit lighter - in every other way, they aren't as good. The Dunco 4-blades aren't as durable as the better Saunders, but are ok if you treat them carefully.

hiroh · Jul 10, 2024

Lachlan Young said:
RR Beard 2 or 4 blade, Kienzle 4-blade (essentially a close derivative of the Beard design concept). Unless you need tighter size precision than 1/4" or bigger borders than 2", the Beard 2-blade easels are strongly recommended (there are good reasons why they were essentially standard kit in many professional darkrooms). Both the 4-blades above are able to be adjusted on the fly to get the blades properly perpendicular - but they have a cost/ weight disadvantage. Finding a good Saunders 4-blade is challenging to say the least, but you might get lucky - the only advantage they have over the Beard/ Kienzle is that they're a bit lighter - in every other way, they aren't as good. The Dunco 4-blades aren't as durable as the better Saunders, but are ok if you treat them carefully.

I found a Dunco on a French website, but it only has measurements in centimeters. I’d prefer both inches and centimeters. Then I found a new Kaiser Promask, and despite its high price, I don’t understand why it’s so large—63x52cm for a 30x40cm paper and 73x62cm for a 50x40cm paper. I believe the build quality is great, and it has both inches and centimeters, but I don’t want it to take up so much desk space for much smaller prints

I’ll check the other two that you suggested.

Lachlan Young · Jul 10, 2024

hiroh said:
Kaiser Promask

hiroh said:
I believe the build quality is great

Speaking from experience with both Kaiser and Dunco, their overall build quality is very similar, with similar potential faults developing over time. If I had to choose between them and a an RR Beard or even one of the better Saunders, I'd go for Beard or Saunders almost every time, unless I wanted very specific features, and wasn't going to subject it to hard use.

The Kaiser is big because of the way the mechanism is fitted - and it has a mechanical paper hold down clip (like Beard/ Kienzle), but only for one position. It can give the impression of having started as the last Leitz 24x30 4-blade easel, then been stretched to bigger sizes, with retractable posts added for smaller paper sizes.

hiroh · Jul 10, 2024

Lachlan Young said:
Speaking from experience with both Kaiser and Dunco, their overall build quality is very similar, with similar potential faults developing over time. If I had to choose between them and a an RR Beard or even one of the better Saunders, I'd go for Beard or Saunders almost every time, unless I wanted very specific features, and wasn't going to subject it to hard use.

The Kaiser is big because of the way the mechanism is fitted - and it has a mechanical paper hold down clip (like Beard/ Kienzle), but only for one position. It can give the impression of having started as the last Leitz 24x30 4-blade easel, then been stretched to bigger sizes, with retractable posts added for smaller paper sizes.

RR Beard looks fantastic and has measurements in both inches and centimeters,. I can't find any for sale with 4 blades though

Lachlan Young · Jul 10, 2024

hiroh said:
RR Beard looks fantastic and has measurements in both inches and centimeters,. I can't find any for sale with 4 blades though

If you're OK with not needing bigger than 2" margins and fixed 1/4" margin adjustment steps, I'd very strongly recommend the 2-blade RR Beards.

hiroh · Jul 10, 2024

Lachlan Young said:
If you're OK with not needing bigger than 2" margins and fixed 1/4" margin adjustment steps, I'd very strongly recommend the 2-blade RR Beards.

I already have a 2-blade easel. I’m specifically looking for a 4-blade easel. Sometimes I love small print on a bigger paper.

hiroh · Jul 10, 2024

I just purchased one of the latest Saunders 4 blade models (this one) from the US. It seems to be in perfect condition and is listed as “open box.” I hate that I’ll end up paying double the price of the easel, but I don’t see any other way to own it now rather than waiting for three years for one to pop up somewhere.

AnselMortensen · Jul 10, 2024

I use a slightly older version of that easel.
I had a really beat-up one with a missing hold-open for a long time...I finally upgraded to a nicer one a few years ago.
Congratulations!

GregY · Jul 11, 2024

hiroh said:
I just purchased one of the latest Saunders 4 blade models (this one) from the US. It seems to be in perfect condition and is listed as “open box.” I hate that I’ll end up paying double the price of the easel, but I don’t see any other way to own it now rather than waiting for three years for one to pop up somewhere.

A few years ago i finally found a Saunders 20x24" 4 blade easel for sale..... ask me about shipping costs.....

Masking paper for smaller photographs

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