New darkroom guy (someday soon)

Becoming disenchanted with how my Epson 2200 prints my scanned B&W negatives so I'm considering taking the plunge; getting an enlarger and setting up darkroom shop. If I went with new I'd get Bessler's Printmaker 67 (I think that's the model) so I could print my 120 shots. I'm looking to print no larger than 11x14 - with a 6cm x 6cm negative, what sort of lens would be best for this? The sort of images I envision printing would be very sharp and often nicely contrasty.

Suggestions welcome, especially suggestions on what to look for used. I am willing to go ebay or private seller here too.

Forget new unless you really must have empty boxes.

Used? I'd suggest any of the common 4x5 enlargers if you have the room. If you're a little shorter on room then the Beseler 23 line.

Lens likely the 80mm Nikon F/5.6. You might still find this new if so it's not that expensive. Used it's fairly cheap.

75 or 80 mm would do, Nikon or Schneider are safe picks.... If you want to throw some extra bucks, you might want to look for APO versions..
They are very cheap on Ebay these days...

I think you can find some EL-Nikkors on APUG classifieds, I have seen them come and go. If you can, get the ones with the "N" label, they're the most recent and are slightly improved optically.

I had the chance to get a used 80mm Componon-S for 75$, and this is a lens that sells for 2-300$ new, so used is the way.

Dear Wolfeye,

Don't look past Rodenstock Rodagons. In addition to a good lens, you must make sure your enlarger is aligned well to get the best prints. Lots of information on it if you search the forum.

Neal Wydra

Wolfeye - my suggestion would be to find a local community college or art school which offers a basic photo class with darkroom. You will get a chance to work in a darkroom for a few weeks and figure out what things you like and don't like. Also, spend some time here in APUG looking at the darkroom portraits - ton's of good ideas on darkrooms in there.

As far as equipment acquisition, buy used, and look for stuff that is local. You can pay more to ship a large enlarger than it costs to buy it, so finding one that you can pick up is a big plus. I would go for an enlarger that is one step larger than the size that you are using - so for 6x7 I would get a 4x5 enlarger, negligable extra cost, more versatility.

I would stick with one of the common enlargers - Beseler, Durst, Omega because it is easier to find bits and pieces for it. Personally my darkroom has two Beseler 45 chassis in it, one with the Beseler condenser head, one with an Ilford Multigrade 600 system - many parts are interchangeable, when I need something for the Ilford system, it is difficult to find, and expensive to acquire.

When I started out with my current darkroom, I bought the enlarger locally (well, about 100mile drive to pick it up), and what I got was a complete darkroom that someone was selling - the little stuff that the seller just wanted to get rid of would have cost me more than what I paid for the enlarger (Archival print washer, print dryers, paper safes, safe lights etc). I have since bought two complete darkrooms full of equipment, much of which I have sold off again, and choice pieces I have kept because that is what I really wanted - One example was a darkroom which was listed on Craigslist - the big print item was the Beseler 23CIII with dicro head, and he wanted $500 for the enlarger, reading the fine print there was a bunch of other stuff that he was throwing in, including a Jobo CPP-2 processor and a four blade 16x20 easel, both of which I still have and use, the enlarger was quickly sold again.

I second the Beseler 23CIII XL version or the 45 MXT. The 45 VXL is huge and you might not have room for it. Also, it costs alot more used. The enlargers are common on Ebay, often for 10-20% of new cost. The light source is another issue. Most of them come with a condenser light source which I don't care for. I would suggest a color (dichroic) head which is a diffusion light source and useful for use with variable constrast paper.

Some people like cold lights. I have never used one but they seem like a nuisance.

For lenses, any of the 6 element 80 mm Schneider Componon, Rodenstock Rodagon, or Nikkor lenses should be fine and are very cheap now on Ebay.

For alot more money used, a Saunders LPL 45 enlarger with a dichroic or variable contrast light source should be good.

Although I would buy used now, I would not rule out buying new. I have bought some used enlargers on Ebay and one came with a bent frame and one came with a dead light source. Not alot I could do about it and for what it would cost me in time to complain I considered it not worth the hassle. When I set up my darkroom initially, I bought everything new from Calumet and was very satisfied and all the equipment worked well. Service was good too.

Check out the darkroom portrait thread and study the photos carefully to get more ideas.

I think that a used Beseler or Omega 4x5 would be a good way t0 go - you could easily do 35mm and 120, and be ready for an eventual move to 4x5 if that's how you evolve. Durst is also excellent, but larger, heavier, more expensive and harder to find.

Taking a good darkroom workshop would be an excellent idea for two reasons. First, it would help you get a good start with the techniques and disciplines of darkroom work. Yes, you could do it by reading, but a workshop would shorten the process.

But a workshop would also expose you to what a darkroom is like, and give you some ideas about what you want to do (and what you want to avoid) when you set up your own.

I would suggest a Sironar-S 105mm (Rodenstock) or a Schneider Componar 105mm.

You will have to raise your enlarger head farther but you will not run the image out to the edge of the lens where sharpness is sometimes an issue.

I have both size lenses and prefer the contrast from the 105mm lens.

Wolfeye, you mentioned 6x6 negatives, but it's not clear if you intend to enlarge from smaller formats, such as 35mm. If you, you'd do well to get different lenses for each format. The general rule of thumb is to get an enlarger lens that's the same focal length as a "normal" lens for the format in question -- so 75mm or 80mm for 6x6 MF, 50mm for 35mm, etc. In a pinch, you can use a longer lens than this rule of thumb specifies (say, a 75mm lens to enlarge from a 35mm negative), but this will necessitate raising the head higher than you would with the "correct" lens, and the resolution might be lower (depending on the quality of both lenses -- the one you've got and the hypothetical one you don't have). Using a shorter lens than is optimum is not generally a good idea, since you'll usually run into vignetting problems. There are "wide-angle" enlarging lenses that are designed for this purpose, though; they can be used to make bigger prints than your enlarger would otherwise allow.

Most enlarger lenses use 4- or 6-element designs, the latter being preferable. Rodenstock, Schneider, Nikon, and others all make well-respected lenses. The first two give their 4-element lenses names that end in "-ar" and their 6-element lenses names that end in "-on," so you can use that to spot the better variety. Nikon's not so obliging.

I get very good service from my Beseler 67 with a Dichro 67 head. I also have a condenser head for it. I bought the enlarger and condenser head new about 25-30 years ago. It is considerably more substantial than the current Printmaker 67, but many of the Printmaker 67 accessories are compatible with it. It has a single, quite massive girder. Later versions had dual girders. I see them frequently on Ebay for very reasonable cost. They have the advantage of being somewhat more compact than the 23C or 45 series Beselers, but they are limited to a maximum negative size of 6x7. Accessories are fairly common on Ebay, but they do use their own lensboards and negative holders.