What enlarger(s) do you own/use?

Lars Holte

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Joined
May 23, 2013
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22
Location
Denmark
Format
Medium Format
One Leitz Focomat V35 with Multigrade head fopr 35mm film
One Durst Laborator L1200 with Ilford 500C head for medium format and 4x5
and
Ond Durst Laborator L1200 with BW Diffusor head, BW Condenser head and CLS450 color head for anything from 35mm to 4x5.

That is one L1200 too many, as I only process BW ...
 

Vaughn

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Dec 13, 2006
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10,036
Location
Humboldt Co.
Format
Large Format
None. Contact print alt processes.

Took care of 20 or so enlargers for 20 or so years in a university darkroom. Enough.
 

ic-racer

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Feb 25, 2007
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16,499
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USA
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Multi Format
Just ordered new negative carrier glass for my enlarger. I have 2 glass carriers with a total of 4 pieces of glass but only one AN piece. The AN piece came from a community/rental darkroom but suprisingly looks pretty good compared to the wear-and-tear on the frame. Maybe it was replaced at one time.
The other two pieces of plain glass came from the original owner who took good care of them, but I'm getting spares made.

 

aparat

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Sep 5, 2007
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Location
Saint Paul,
Format
35mm

It's a beast! And so beautiful.
 

jay moussy

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Eastern MA, USA
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Dejur Versatile II, made when metal was metal, you know... mostly used to keep table steady at the moment (it is almost 3/4 of a view camera, I think)

Seriously, suppose one has a Beseler 23C, and then acquires same but with the color head, best way to maybe assign each -staying with B&W?
 

MattKing

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Delta, BC Canada
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Melvin J Bramley said:
I think they are going to find one of those hung from that Chinese balloon!
Click to expand...

Well they did say that they waited until it was over water before shooting it down because they were worried about its fall causing damage, injury or death to things and people on the ground!
 

MattKing

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Ernst-Jan

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Mar 15, 2020
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558
Location
NL
Format
Medium Format
Durst M670BW with 35mm condensor+ film inserts and 6x7 mixing box and a film holder with glass inserts.

Kaiser VCM6006 I believe. It has a Multigrade head, is up to 6x6 with 35mm, 645 and 66 masks included.

Last Sunday they I finally put both of them in place in the darkroom. Only darken the walls, make red lights and a place to put my Nova slot processor.
 

MattKing

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John Francis

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Aug 22, 2021
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21
Location
Perth Western Australia
Format
Multi Format
Only just found this thread!
I have the following:
Durst A800Elite x2
Leitz Focomat V35 x2

One Focomat is setup with a colour module in the head, the other has both a BW module and a multigrade module. Each Focomat has the WA Focotar 40mm lens.
The Dursts have two sets of lenses, Rodagon and Componon-S lenses 50mm, 80mm & 100mm, mixing boxes for 35mm, 6x6, 6x9 and a range of negative masks.
There are also Durst Digitim 3000 timer, Durst CM3000 analyser, Leitz Focometer Quartz used with the Focomats.
As you probably know the AC800's have analysers built-in and are fully automatic.

Processing is handled by a Jobo Autolab ATL-2, film drying is a Durst UT100 and paper drying a Durst RCD4500.

Regards
John
 

PRC

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Joined
Sep 20, 2016
Messages
10
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Format
35mm
Sorry about the fuzzy image, my only good digital camera is in for repairs.

I use mostly my Durst Laborator 138 with a cold light head and a Carlwen negative carrier usually when I'm enlarging 35mm negative strips. Larger negs or for critical work I use the Durst 138 negative carriers. Bought this beast used back in the late '70's and it came with almost every accessory available and all the condenser lenses and cold light. I love the tonal quality from the cold light and the exposure times are so short that an accurate digital timer is a necessity . . . like, 4 seconds at f16 for an 8x10 from a 35mm negative. With larger negatives the times are even shorter and 4x5 negs require just fractions of a second if you don't stop all the way down. I switch to the Omega D2 with color head when I have to use multigrade paper. Yeah, I know the plate on the Durst beast says "S-45" and claims to be a 4x5 enlarger but everything else on it is the same as 138, including the 5x7 negative carrier and corresponding condensers, all of which are labeled "138". The camera shop I bought it from said Durst just rebadged it to lower their import duty fees, which apparently were based on rated max negative size.

On the 138 I use 80mm and 150mm El Nikkor enlarging lenses almost exclusively. Since the baseboard will drop down almost to the floor I rarely have to resort to a 50mm El Nikkor.
 

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FriedLouisStudio

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Joined
Mar 11, 2023
Messages
177
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Format
35mm
I've got an Omega D-3v that my parents the pros bought in the early 1950s. This enlarger received hard use daily for 50 years, and still worked just fine the last time I had it set up (2010). I have a bunch of associated negative carriers (Minox to 4x5), four lenses, the lamphouse diffusers, masking thingy, reduction bellows... plus filters, timers, etc. Alas, I don't shoot enough film to warrant setting it up these days, so I scan my negs.



We also had a Durst M600 that I gave to a friend's daughter when she was in art school. Earlier, when we had a larger studio (vs. downsizing into the basement) we had huge 5x7 and 8x10 Elwood enlargers, plus a smaller Federal enlarger, and a medium format "Astrolux" by Luminos. (Luminos was situated nearby and was a regular customer - we printed all their photo paper samples they gave out at trade shows - and this enlarger was rebadged from one of the smaller enlarger manufacturers.)
 

aparat

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Joined
Sep 5, 2007
Messages
1,177
Location
Saint Paul,
Format
35mm
@PRC @FriedThese look awesome!

Back home, I had a Meopta Opemus 6x6 with an Anaret lens. I loved it. I gave it to an American visiting scholar. I miss that enlarger dearly. I hope to one day re-acquire it. Now, I'm using a Beseler 23C III, which I bought in the mid 2000s in mint condition for a very low price. I like it. I have both a dichroic and multigrade heads, but prefer to use the condenser with Ilford's under the lens filters.
 

Pitotshock

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Joined
Mar 11, 2021
Messages
123
Location
Renfrew, ON, Canada
Format
Analog
I have the DeVere 504 and the Omega D5 in both color head and condenser heads running at the moment. I have managed to re-home a few like the Omega C series that I used to have.
 

foc

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Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
2,499
Location
Sligo, Ireland
Format
35mm
I don't have a darkroom now but this was my first enlarger, many years ago. As am impoverished student, this is all I could afford. And it was all packed away into the suitcase that was also the baseboard.

 

quilts

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Joined
Jul 7, 2022
Messages
22
Location
San Diego
Format
35mm
No pictures at the moment, but I just recently got an Intrepid compact enlarger and I'm really enjoying using it so far. I just have a small darkroom set-up in my studio bathroom so the compact size works really well for the space I have and it has enough built-in features for my needs.
 

Randy Stewart

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Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
278
Format
Medium Format
I use a Durst M800 with a dichroic colorhead, from the late 1970s I presume. Over the years, out of concern for disappearing parts, I've acquired enough pieces to assemble at least one more M800 plus a replaceable head which is adapted for an Ilford 400 VC B&W head. Years ago, I had a client who owned a machine shop manufacture a new focus drive pawl with fitting to mount a Sauders 2-speed planetary focus knob. That removed any of the slight focusing backlash in the Durst design.
 

bwieder

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Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
22
Location
Indianapolis
Format
35mm
In my new darkroom I use an Omega B-22 and a Leitz Focomat 1C. I can’t seem to upload the photos. It Says files are too large. But they aren’t in reality…

I still need a timer, for now I just count out loud. It works for now. I’m at least making prints right. For developing i use an amazon Alexa for the hands free timer and put it under a box to hide the blue light. Not ideal, but works for now. I still want to get a El-Nikkor lens for both at some point.
 

MattKing

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bwieder said:
In my new darkroom I use an Omega B-22 and a Leitz Focomat 1C. I can’t seem to upload the photos. It Says files are too large. But they aren’t in reality…
Click to expand...

They need to be jpegs, and work best if they are resized to a maximum of 1000 pixels on the long dimension.
 
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