New to Darkroom processing. Advice about enlarger lamp.

zippie · Oct 25, 2010

Hi,

I recently finished my darkroom at home and was able to get 2 enlargers.
The best one is a Durst M601 but this one does not have a lamp inside.
I was looking for a new lamp and found 75W and 150 W lamps.

The lens in the enlarger is a Schneider 50/2.8 Componon-S for 35 mm and a 80/4 componon-S for 6*6
What would be the best choice for the lamp?

Regards,

Jurgen

clayne · Oct 25, 2010

http://photo.net/black-and-white-photo-printing-finishing-forum/005Pzd

Those are solid lenses BTW, good find on them.

zippie · Oct 25, 2010

And to think I got them and the enlarger for free.

clayne said:
Those are solid lenses BTW, good find on them.

Rick A · Oct 25, 2010

Wow were you ever blessed. I had a Durst M-601 back in the 70's and loved it to death(litterally), it saw loads of hard use from me and all my friends. Great score on the lenses.

hpulley · Oct 25, 2010

The 150 watt is standard though I've heard of higher wattage lamps being used. Thankfully seems to be a standard and cheap part, easily found.

msoumya60 · Oct 25, 2010

Dear Jurgen,

I would suggest that u go for the 150w lamp. This will be handy when you are making large enlargements- say 16x20 inches. for smaller prints u can always step down the lens by 2-3 stops.

bsdunek · Oct 25, 2010

I've had my Durst 606 for about 45 years now, and I generally find the 75 watt most useful. You don't want real short exposure times if you're going to dodge and burn. In any case, I would get both and you can use what ever is appropriate for the negatives your printing.

zippie · Oct 25, 2010

thanks for input everybody.
Maybe I will follow the advice to buy 2 lenses. 1 75W and 1 150W.The lamps are not very expensive and this way I always have spare one.

Now I have to start ordering paper, chems and other stuff. hopefully I will be up and running in a few weeks.

Maybe a quick question. RC or baryt paper for a beginner?

MattKing · Oct 25, 2010

The RC paper is easier to wash and dry and also tends to be less expensive. As a beginner, you will have lots of discards, so starting out with RC probably makes sense.

After you have some experience, you'll be better able to appreciate the advantages of fibre based paper, so it would be worthwhile to experiment then with it.

If you are like me, and have a temporary darkroom setup, the RC paper works best, so that is what I use.

Oh, and welcome to APUG!

zippie · Oct 27, 2010

Hi, thanks everyone for the replys and helpfull information.
It seems I am not the only one still interested in analog processing.

I think when I get my darkroom completed, I will have some more questions.

MattKing said:
Oh, and welcome to APUG!

New to Darkroom processing. Advice about enlarger lamp.

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