New to PHOTRIO

_Manolo_ · Jan 4, 2025

Glad to be on board and chat with like minded individuals. I run a public photo studio and darkroom in Jacksonville, NC. I also teach all aspects of photography with a heavy emphasis on film photography (as film is my base). My introduction to the darkroom was in 1976 at the High School of Fashion Industries (shout out to my old H.S). I teach people how to use 100yr + large format cameras and provide a complete capable darkroom to process film manually up to 8x10. My largest enlarger covers 4x5 but I am in the planning stages of building an 8x10 enlarger using a large format 8x10 camera as the head unit of the enlarger. Crazy plan but I think it'll work. All comments are welcome.

Daniela · Jan 4, 2025

Welcome!

koraks · Jan 4, 2025

Welcome aboard!
No plan is too crazy for this place. We've got people building enlergsrs that project digital images and/or that use UV instead of visible light. You'll fit right in.

Sirius Glass · Jan 4, 2025

Welcome to Photrio!

craigclu · Jan 4, 2025

Welcome! You seem to be a perfect addition to the group!

Romanko · Jan 4, 2025

_Manolo_ said:
building an 8x10 enlarger using a large format 8x10 camera as the head unit of the enlarger.

Welcome to the forum!

In some very old books I saw a setup where a large format camera was placed against a masked window of a darkened room and the print paper was fixed on an easel. A bit awkward but fully functional.

There are a few enlarger designs of the same vintage that used gas (or electric) lamps behind the camera to project glass plate negatives (basically, a modification of a magic lantern). If you are interested I can dig out some pictures.

Good luck with your build!

_Manolo_ · Jan 5, 2025

Daniela said:
Welcome!

Thank you!

_Manolo_ · Jan 5, 2025

koraks said:
Welcome aboard!
No plan is too crazy for this place. We've got people building enlergsrs that project digital images and/or that use UV instead of visible light. You'll fit right in.

Thank you. I'm always looking for ideas.

_Manolo_ · Jan 5, 2025

Sirius Glass said:
Welcome to Photrio!

Thank you .

_Manolo_ · Jan 5, 2025

craigclu said:
Welcome! You seem to be a perfect addition to the group!

Thank you. I'm always looking to learn and expand my knowledge. never too old to learn new things.

_Manolo_ · Jan 5, 2025

Romanko said:
Welcome to the forum!

In some very old books I saw a setup where a large format camera was placed against a masked window of a darkened room and the print paper was fixed on an easel. A bit awkward but fully functional.

There are a few enlarger designs of the same vintage that used gas (or electric) lamps behind the camera to project glass plate negatives (basically, a modification of a magic lantern). If you are interested I can dig out some pictures.

Good luck with your build!

Thanks for the welcome. Also thanks for the lead. I'm already looking for it. I already set up a Rochester Optical Universal 8x10 field view camera with a loosely placed 8x10 negative floating on the inside of the camera against the ground glass. I used a flat LED lightbox as the light source and the image projected on the wall was bright and sharp. I plan to donate my Beseler 45 MXII chassis to the project as it has a motorized elevation mechanism (makes things easier). At some point, I'll post pics of the project. It would be easier to locate a Beseler 810 Adapter (cat # 8350) but at the moment, they are hard to find and I refuse to pay out online auction prices (if you know what I mean). At the moment, I'd rather work my way through the challenge.

Romanko · Jan 5, 2025

You are probably aware of the Intrepid Enlarger:

Intrepid Compact Enlarger (35mm & 120)

Utilising new LED technology The Intrepid Enlarger is a total rethink of the traditional darkroom enlarger. A super compact, simple and fun to use kit for making prints from your colour or black & white film at home (from 35mm to 6x9), simply mount it on a tripod or copy stand!

intrepidcamera.co.uk

Building a 8x10 version using a quality camera and chassis should not be too hard.

Also, you might want to look at @koraks LED enlarger light source (if you choose to replace you lightbox at some stage):

enlarger light source – Koraks tinkers

tinker.koraks.nl

Will you be enlarging black-and-white or color (RA-4)?

_Manolo_ · Jan 14, 2025

Thank you for the leads. I will start with Black and white to fine tune procedures, once I decide on a final hardware solution. After, I will look to print both color and B&W.

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