What is this?

[jolynned]

Hi everyone. I'm cleaning out some space in my storage room and I have a some darkroom stuff that I'm not really sure what it is. I bought an 8x10 camera from someone on CL a few months back and a whole bunch of stuff came with it.

I know that the black piece in the middle front is an 8x10 enlarger lens (really cool but I'm not likely to ever use it) but I have no clue what the other 3 pieces are. They weren't together; everything was just in random boxes here and there. I still have a lot of stuff to go through.

Does anyone know what the three light colored pieces are?

 

[wclark5179]

They look like light condensers for an Omega Enlarger.

I was a volunteer with NILMDTS at the beginning. It was a challenge because of irregular hours & operate a busy business at the same time. One young feller they kept alive until I got to the hospital.

 

[Rick A]

Those are condensors for possibly an Omega D series enlarger.

 

[ethics_gradient]

Can I add to this thread? Was actually working on my own when Windows rebooted on me.

I picked up an Omega Universal Pro-Lab 4x5 enlarger on Craigslist for a grand total of free. It had been sitting in a garage for a while and had been neglected, but it looks like it could be functional with a few more pieces. I'm new to darkroom/wet printing and was hoping I could get some more info about the specific model I have, and what else I'll need to start printing. I haven't been able to find out much with Google so far, and APUG was recommended to me.

Instructions for changing the condenser lenses. It also came with the rest of the set in one of those squat silver cylinders similar to the OP's, although I didn't take pictures of them.

Wider view of the front.

Door/lid closed on the condenser housing

Rear view. You can see the pulley things that keep tension on it got tweaked at some point by the previous owner, but it seems to move up/down and focus reasonably well. Kind of squeaky, but I can live with it.

Here's the regular lamp head. Came with a working bulb and one non-working. Turns off and on fine, although I don't have a timer for it.

Here's the cold light head. Discounting my shadow/reflection on it, it seems to be providing uneven illumination. I'm guessing this isn't normal, is there any way to fix this on my own or am I better off scrapping it?

Unidentified Metal Object. Is this for filters or something? Also, am I boned on putting filters in above the lens, or is there a filter holder that I can buy for this enlarger?

Underside. The lens is a Vivitar 75mm f/5.6, which the owner couldn't say enough bad things about. I unscrewed it and it seems to have some moderate haze inside, but I don't know that I'll bother cleaning it given it's non-stellar reputation otherwise, and the fact that I shoot 35mm and 4x5, not really much 120 these days. So I'm guessing I'll be needing a 50mm lens, and a 135/150mm?

On top of the lenses, I'm guessing I'll need a grain focuser, printing easel, set of filters, and a timer (off the top of my head). I've got some trays/tongs that came with the enlarger which I've cleaned up and still look serviceable. Other than those things, paper, and chemistry, what else should I need? Also, is there a .PDF of the manual for the enlarger that I could find online?

Edit: forgot to mention: came with a 35mm negative holder and a 4x5 holder, so I should be OK there for now. I don't have a medium format camera anymore, but I do have some old 120 I might want to print eventually. Still, not as high a priority as getting this thing set up for 35mm and 4x5, which I shoot now.

Thanks!

 

[John Koehrer]

The filters will go in the section with the flip up drawer.
The flat plate is an extra lens board. The 50(when you get it) will fit the board the 75 is on.
I'd be prone to get a 150 for the 4X5 simply for the slightly greater coverage. Some 135's will vignette.
Some of the Omegas need an extension cone for longer lenses but I'm not familiar with this one.

 

[Ronald Moravec]

The aluminum cylinders contain condemsors for an Omega D2, Not D2 V, The are for 4x5, 35mm and 6x9,
There is a complete set there.

The swing arm over the lens is supposed to contain a diffusion disc for an Omera Color analyzer.

Omega light is a fluorescent light source ( diffusion) for Omega. Light is pretty uneven from it. I had to tape off the bright parts of the bulb, mostly what illuminated the 4" end of 4x5. It works fine then.
Do not hook up to electronic timer, mechanical only unless to protect it with a relay.

Pro Lab is a later version of variable condenser for D5 or 6.

 

[ethics_gradient]

Thanks guys. I just won a 150mm Componon on eBay that comes with a lens cone (I'd heard about some lenses needing that too), what do you think the odds are that the cone will mount on my enlarger?

Ronald, how tricky is it to get an even light coming off of the cold light head? It sounds like something that would require a lot of precision if you wanted to avoid hot spots on your prints, but again, I'm a total beginner here.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Omega D is one of the few enlargers that uses cones, and they're fairly common, so there's a good chance that the Omega 150mm cone is the one that comes with the 150mm lens. If it's not for Omega, it won't fit.

Hot spots aren't so much of a problem with the cold light head, but consistency is, particularly with old heads, due to the ramp time of the bulb. The best way to control that is with a compensating timer like a Metrolux, but you could also just leave it on, so it stays warmed up and use a black card over the lens to start and stop the exposure.

 

[richard ide]

Jodi,
Just out of curiosity; what lens is that?
Thank you
Richard

 

[jolynned]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I know that the person who previously owned this equipment used to print mural-sized prints and I guess he kept some of the enlarger parts but not the enlarger itself.

Bill, thank you for reminding me that the NILMDTS logo was still up on my website. I'm heading back to school for something else and let my membership lapse. I had a couple of sessions before packing it in, someday I hope I can do it again.

Richard the lens is labeled as a Durst Vapla f/5.6-11. It's SO cool but like I said above, I doubt I'll ever get a chance to use it. The widow of the man who owned all of this stuff was just going to toss it - I had to save it. I'm probably going to list it for sale, hopefully someone can use it.

 

[fschifano]

Ronald, how tricky is it to get an even light coming off of the cold light head? It sounds like something that would require a lot of precision if you wanted to avoid hot spots on your prints, but again, I'm a total beginner here.

I'd just leave the cold light alone. You have a good condenser head there. The cold light will only make you nuts. It needs to warm up before it stabilizes, You need to leave it on a lot so it doesn't cool down. Then you need to think about the spectral quality of the light. This thing was made long before variable contrast papers were the norm, so no consideration was made to accommodate the spectral sensitivity of the medium.