pricing darkroom equipment

[mmielke]

Help! I'm just getting my feet wet with dark-room processing (not literally). A friend of mine has offered to sell me dark-room equipment. My dilemna - I don't know enough about this equipment to give him a fair price. He's a friend, so I really do want to be fair to him. Is there anyone that can lend me their wisdom?

Here's the list he provided me ...

- Omega b-22 enlarger, 75 watts, made in USA
- El-omegar 1:35 f50mm lens, made in Japan
- Vivitar flat field lens f75mm, made in Japan
- Omega 35mm glass-less negative carrier, made in USA
- Omega 2-1/4” glass-less negative carrier, made in USA
- Arkey model f-180 electric print dryer, made in USA
- Paterson contact proof printer, 2-1/2” sheets, made in England
- Paterson contact proof printer, 1 full sheet, made in England
- GAF contact printer, made in Germany
- Pixur Easel 10” X 8”, made in Japan
- Saunders precision enlarger easel with a rubber base, made in USA
- 3 Paterson developing trays 8” X 10”, made in England
- 4 Paterson expandable chemical containers
- Paterson Tank System 4 with 3 reels, made in England
- Stainless steel developing with 2 reels
- GAF developing tank with 1 reel
- Kodak polycontrast filter kit Model A CAT 1538032, made in USA
- Hauck ATU 130. ½-30s electric timer, Made in Germany
- 2 Brownie Kodak darkroom lamp kit, model 2 with 2 cups, made in USA
- Paterson grain focuser
- 2 large funnels
- Graded cylinder 600ml/22 US fluid ounces
- Graded cylinder 300ml/11 US fluid ounces
- Kodak Automatic tray siphon, made in USA
- GraLab electric timer model 30. Time/focus controls. Made in USA.
- Smiths interval timer, made in England
- Projection print calculator scale, made in USA
- Paterson roller squeegee with nylon bearings, made in England
- 3 rubber tipped tongues
- Paterson rubber squeegee
- Dodging kit for enlarging, made in USA
- UPI F degrees metal thermometer
- Chemical lab thermometer
- 3 Duraflex trays, 17” X 14”, made in USA
- Large tray, 23” X 19”
- Darkroom black bag
- Many darkroom photographic books

Thanks all,

Martin

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Alas, in today's market, packages like that are going for not too much money. There's plenty there to get started. The enlarger and lenses are decent, but nothing special. You may want to upgrade the lenses once you get going to modern 6-element lenses like Schneider Componon-S, Rodenstock Rodagon, or 6-element EL Nikkors, but they're enough to get started with. If your friend hasn't tried to sell this equipment recently, he might be taken aback by an offer of around $350, but it would be more than fair in the current market.

 

[Bob F.]

I'm assuming this enlarger is the condenser model given the lamp wattage and lack of mention of a colour head. Things obviously vary from country to country, but I have seen similar setups with more modern, colour head, enlargers go for 150-200 GBP on the UK eBay.

Check out your local ebay's Advanced Search function and select to display Completed Listings only to see the last 3 months of completed auction prices for "OMEGA B-22".

If you go for it, make sure you have the condenser sets for the formats you will use and that they are unmarked.


Cheers, Bob.

 

[Neil Souch]

[QUOTE Omega b-22 enlarger, 75 watts, made in USA [/QUOTE]

Martin,

I had one of these enlargers once and IIRC the 75watt (27 volt ?) bulb was very hard to get hold of, and expensive. Also, I can recall they used to blow quite frequently. However supply of these bulbs may be different in Canada. I would certainly check this out though, and the cost. The enlarger also does not have a white light lever which is handy for colour printing. Other than that they are nice enlargers and I particulary liked the glassless neg carriers.

All the best,

Neil.

 

[Nick Zentena]

The 75watt bulb should be the PH 211. 110Volt. VERY common. Not that expensive. Don't know about thunderbay but they mail order around the province. They aren't the cheapest.

http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/st...ay?dest=frames.jsp&currency=CAD&storeId=10001

http://www.photococan.com/itm01406.htm

The enlarger is worth around $100 US with the neg carriers. The lenses are basically throw ins until you can find something better. It's a lot of stuff but do you really need three different film tanks? The contrast filters may be faded.

The $350 US suggested by David is very fair to the seller. How much is your time worth? You could put together a setup with a mix of new and used for less I think but it would take time.

 

[titrisol]

I guess it all depends on the demand of darkroom equipment... and that is going down.
I'd say that $200-250 (american) is a decent offer for the whole lot

.

 

[Neil Souch]

The 75watt bulb should be the PH 211. 110Volt. VERY common. Not that expensive.

Nick, my comments on the lamp were made assuming the enlarger was colour head model, with dial-in filters. IIRC it took a strange 27v 75watt projector type bulb.

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[jovo]

The Gralab timer and Saunders easel are goodies and don't depreciate as much as some of the other stuff there, but all in all, David's quote seems fair and reasonable to me. If it were me, knowing what I know now, I'd buy a different enlarger capable of 4x5 (or 5x4..hehe) negs and much better lenses. But....$350 is a very modest sum (try getting into golf or skiing for that amount of money), and will allow you to see if you want or need to get better stuff. Good luck!!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I just noticed an eBay auction with a similar setup at a buy-it-now price of $150 minus the enlarger, and offering the enlarger (a Bogen 22A--not as good as what you're looking at) it seems with no lens for an additional $40. Add to that about $100 in shipping for the whole lot and the cost of two used lenses (if the enlarger has a 6x6 and 35mm carrier), and it would probably cost the buyer around $400 to make the whole thing usable.

Offer $200 maybe, but don't go over $400.

 

[mmielke]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'll offer him $300, and I'll keep smelling salts nearby in case he hasn't tried selling his equipment before. =8^D

Martin

 

[John Koehrer]

mmielke
Make sure the enlarger has the 35mm condenser also.
If it's the condenser model it uses the ph111a not the ph211. if you pull the lamphouse & the lamp is about the size of a golf ball it's a PH111. The 211 is the size af a regular 75W lamp.

 

[WarEaglemtn]

For what you are paying you can get a good 4x5 enlarger with a better lens or three & accessories.
You have to look around.
I just sold a nice Beseler 4x5 for $200 and it had a 150 lens with it.