Philips PCS 130 questions

A friend was clearing out the storeroom and found an old enlarger head: a Philips PCS130. No lens, column or baseboard, so this is going to be a 'project' enlarger.

I'll see if he's got any other parts lurking around....

The light works, so no worries there.

I have a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens from a Zorki 4 camera, and having tested it, I see that the thread fits quite perfectly. Is there any reason why the Jupiter (or any other LTM lens) would not be a good choice for an enlarging lens?
I gather that the condenser is interchangeable; the one in there now is for 135. I'd like to make 6x6 enlargements with it, so I'm assuming I'll need the appropriate condenser (and lens); Does anyone know of a decent source of parts, other than that well-known auction site?

Has anyone built their own column and baseboard? Any advice?

There are a couple of us using Philips enlargers here - also, you may want to check out the Yahoo forum Dead Link Removed which has a lot of info, including copies of manuals and reviews.

That being said, it will be tough to fashion a column for this head - it is a rather angular piece of extruded aluminum. Hopefully he has the column and the clamp that affixes it to the base. You can do without the baseboard if you attach it directly to the counter. The clamp simply fits to the base with a bolt. Do you have the negative carriers? Condensers for 6x6 and 6x7 are available occasionally. If you have to buy all the items separately, they will cost quite a bit - best to find another enlarger that has a lot of that stuff included. Also, some LPL parts will fit the Philips. IIRC, the bellows assembly and the lens mounts are the same.

The enlargers pop up fairly regularly on the big auction site. I've paid between $50 and $100 for each of mine (2 PCS2000's and a PCS130/150). Shipping is invariably more expensive than the purchase price.

Good luck sourcing parts - the enlargers are well made and certain features are quite elegant. Have fun!

Forgot to mention - the column for the PCS2000 and the PCS130/150 have the same cross section. The PCS130 is taller and there is a different method of attaching the counterweight spring mechanism. Regardless, check to see if the head has the spring mechanism attached - it's probably still attached to the column.

The spring mechanism is still attached to the head, so I'm relieved there.

I have the neg carrier masks for 135, which I think I can use as patterns to fab my own 6x6 carriers without too much difficulty, so I think that's not a problem I can't solve...

I'll check again this coming week to see if he's perhaps still got the column lurking about somewhere; otherwise I might see about fabbing my own out of steel, or converting the whole thing to be wall-mounted or something.

Any thoughts on using the Jupiter8?
Thanks for the pointer re. the Yahoo group!

cheers -

d

The Jupiter 8 has the small film to flange distance required for Leica LTM (ca. 28mm). It might not focus to bigger than postcard size prints - at least on my LPL it does not.
Some people say the cemented lenses do not like the heating up of the head - there are a few in the Jupiter 8.
Personally I think this is not an issue with most enlargers unless you switch on the lamp for very long or start projecting slides.

Enlarger lenses are very cheap nowadays. Put the J8 on a camera. It's a fine lens.

FWIW, I'm another person who owns one of these enlargers. They're often paired with PCS150 light sources, which consist of an external control unit and a unit in the head that takes three halogen bulbs, each with a different filter (red, green, and blue). These can be used for color printing or for contrast control on VC paper. This is an unusual setup, but it's got certain advantages over the more conventional single light source with cyan, magenta, and yellow filters. The manuals and old ads on the Tri-One group on Yahoo go into details -- but take those documents with a grain of salt. They are ads, after all! It sounds like you've got a head with a traditional tungsten bulb in it. This will work in a more conventional way. You might luck out and find a PCS150 unit (both pieces) on eBay for a reasonable sum, but you might end up waiting a while for such a thing.

I concur with ath that you'd probably do better with a dedicated enlarger lens. If you're on an ultra-tight budget, I've got a spare Industar-96U I could send you, although postage from the USA to Namibia might be prohibitive.

Thanks for the info!

As for the lens, I also agree. 'Sides, it's a pain to pull the lens off the camera every time i want to do enlargements. I was just thinking in terms of a stop-gap to see if everything else was OK. It *physically* fits perfectly. Am I right in assuming that this 39mm thread is more or less standard for this application?

I am giving thought to fabbing a horizontal mount for this device. Comments?

Yes, it's a 39mm thread which has become the industry standard.
You should be able to use the lens you have temporarily though to get everything set up. A 50mm is a 50mm
Leitz used to recommend the 50/3.5 Elmar for the same use years ago.
Horizontal enlarger? No reason you can't do it. Don't know how convenient it would be.

Enlargers for 5x7, 8x10 and larger films are often found in a horizontal arrangment so I don't think there's any reason it wouldn't work for smaller formats, provided you can rig up a suitable way to mount it.

If you can't raise the bridge, lower the water. Have you considered mounting the head to the wall and finding or making at adjustable table? Just a thought. I have a PCS 130/150 and recently bought a spare 150 source (cheap) just for the bulbs and circuits boards. Intent is to do 35mm on VC paper. In a previous life it was my Ciba/Kodachrome enlarger. For 6x6 the condenser set that came with, might be ok. The "Universal" condenser set is a F135 on the bottom and F145 on top.