Questions on Intrepid 4x5 Conversion kit -- retrofitting?

[f/Alex]

Hi,

TLDR, does anyone here have experience fitting Intrepid 4x5 conversion kits not into a graflox camera but onto a pre-existing enlarger? Or just general experience with Intrepid enlargers?

As I've mentioned in the past, I work at my university darkroom as a student technician. We are looking at having a class that seriously uses the darkroom in the coming months (it's been almost 3 years since the last one!), part of my work has been getting the enlargers in shape, we have 10 Omega Ds and an assortment of mostly broken Chromegas. Unfortunately, in our current state we only have 8 working omega Ds and one chromega (the rest are broken, or missing power supplies, 2nd hand they are insane, all our spare power supplies started emitting magic smoke). We've been talking about potentially buying beseler cadets, but that's limiting to 35mm, and we have a good number of really nice Mamiya medium format cameras, we've also talked about Besseler 23Cs, but those are too pricy. My idea of the day is to potentially fit our existing 4x5 Omega enlarger stands that are missing working heads with Intrepid 4x5 camera conversion kits, I found someone who did so with a Beseler 45mx with just a 3d printed part and some foam. The other disadvantage to purchasing replacement parts for our broken Omega Ds and/or Chromegas is the lack of working timers, we currently have zero surplus enlarger timers.
Reddit Link to Post about converted beseler 45mxt

Doing the math, this would be a cost effective way to use our prexisting lens collection, table mounts, and bellows with a modern and theoretically easy to use timing system, while continueing to provide full 35mm-4x5 compatability.

 

[blee1996]

You might want to check this thread: we were just discussing this week.

My experience with and reflections on the Intrepid 4x5 enlarger

This post is my reflections on, and semi-review of, the Intrepid 4x5 enlarger. I have no relation to Intrepid the company, other than that I recently gave them a lot of money. I've seen a lot of posts from people curious about it, but not so many from people who have actually used them...

www.photrio.com

 

[tcolgate]

Itt sounds like it'd take a bit of fabrication. The negative carrier for the intrepid light basically rests on the back of the camera. So you'll need something that you can attach the bellows to that will also fill that function.
There's also a small amount of felt light seal material around the inside of the LED head. I've heard complaints that that can shed fibres. I've not had that problem, but in an academic setting where they'd get heavy use, I expect that might need some maintenance over time (no big deal though).

 

[f/Alex]

The negative carrier for the intrepid light basically rests on the back of the camera. So you'll need something that you can attach the bellows to that will also fill that function.

yea, the above linked reddit post talks about a 3d printed part, I have basic cad experience and should be able to modify the existing file to clip onto an omega system.

There's also a small amount of felt light seal material around the inside of the LED head. I've heard complaints that that can shed fibres. I've not had that problem, but in an academic setting where they'd get heavy use, I expect that might need some maintenance over time (no big deal though).

A little more worried about this, but it should be ok? I'm sure our omegas once had felt on them.

I guess the real question here is, are the timers too confusing for use by students who may be new to darkroom printing? That's my main concern at this point.

 

[tcolgate]

I guess the real question here is, are the timers too confusing for use by students who may be new to darkroom printing? That's my main concern at this point.

The timer is very simple. Perhaps not /quite/ as simple as a plain clock, but simple enough. If you are in the black and white mode you just use the +/- to adjust time and the grey dial to adjust contrast. There's a single button to turn the red safe light on, and the Run button to actually run stuff.
You can switch it to colour with the Mode button, then the other three dials do stuff.
If you want to teach use of under lens filters rather than the in built grades you can turn the grade knob all the way to the right to get white light (the display changes to tell you). Then it's just plain white and you can use the filters as per normal.
(if you want to go wild you could try my alternative firmware )