Which enlarger should I go for?

I feel I might be out growing my simple Gnome enlarger c.1960 and I'd really value suggestions on what would work the best for me, or possibly a bit of problem solving with the existing kit. Maybe if I tell you my frustrations, it might narrow the choice? It would have to be available in the UK and presumably old enough to be cheap.

The Gnome is a condensor enlarger with uneven light distribution - it drops off towards the corners (I just burn them in as part of the routine!).

The glassless negative carrier seems to allow the negative to pop out of focus from time to time. For normal 8x10 prints it doesn't seem to be too bad but anything bigger drives me nuts and I end up wasting too much paper. I have tried keeping the bulb on (i.e. during processing) to keep it constantly hot but I am not convinced it helps. I have got a glass sandwich type negative carrier which I like for black borders but it always has a speck of dust, somewhere. I wonder if the bulb, a 150w tungsten bulb leads to some very long exposures - out of habit I stop down to just f8 or f11 after focussing. Fine tuning focussing is not easy, owing probably to the modest cost of the enlarger originally.

I use only 35mm negs. I currently use those below-the-lens multigrade filters which seems to be fine. I have a Rayco timer wired in, also works fine. The lens is a 50mm Minolta and there's no reason to believe there is anything wrong with it.

I would like to go to bigger print sizes but only if I can have pin sharp grain. The replacement enlarger would need to be of a manageable sze and weight as I don't have a permanent darkroom set up.

Look forward to hearing your recommendations or problem solving suggestions....

Perhaps you could take a look at the Meopta series of enlargers. I use a magnifax 4a which is well made and takes up to 6x9cm negatives, but they also produce models for 35mm only, as well as for 6x6 and 6x7 etc. Whatever enlarger, new or used, I'd recommend getting on that can deal with at least 6x6 negatives to expand into. FWIW I'd have thought a decent 50mm enlarger lens was not too expensive on the used market if there was something wrong with your lens.

www.meopta.co.uk

thanks..

Tom Kershaw said:

Perhaps you could take a look at the Meopta series of enlargers. I use a magnifax 4a which is well made and takes up to 6x9cm negatives, but they also produce models for 35mm only, as well as for 6x6 and 6x7 etc. Whatever enlarger, new or used, I'd recommend getting on that can deal with at least 6x6 negatives to expand into. FWIW I'd have thought a decent 50mm enlarger lens was not too expensive on the used market if there was something wrong with your lens.

www.meopta.co.uk

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thanks Tom, I'll follow your suggestion and take a look

The Italian Stallion

I'm almost certainly much too late to make any difference, but I think I'd go for a second hand Durst. Though I too have a Meopta Magnofax 4a I have found this to be rather 'brittle' as one of the wooden slats on the bottom of the baseboard (these come in place of the usual rubber 'legs') came off as I was setting it up - easy enough to fix, but still a little worrying. They also seem to be a little rough, especially the negative holder which feels a little too rudimentary for my liking and the extra polystyrene light boxes for the smaller negative sizes also seem a little 'under engineered'. Apart from these little niggles they are still excellent value for money and certainly get the job done for considerably less money than other 6x9s. Indeed, I wouldn't be without mine.

However, I've used Durst throughout my life - starting with the 'Junior 35' I think it was called, then 'graduating' to a Zenith suitecase enlarger, until I finally bought the Durst M310 B/W and the Durst M670. Due to a move I had to sell the M670, but have since replaced it with a M601 with the C66 colour outfit. All of these (except perhaps the Junior 35 - It was made of plastic though still performed really well) have been superb pieces of engineering. There is also the option of many accessories etc. which once again are all of the highest standard. It's been 40 years now since I first had the 'Junior 35' and only a little less since I bought the others, however I have had absolutely no trouble with any of them and can honestly say that they are still a pleasure to use.

If you wanted to buy new I imagine that the price may become more agreeable over the next few months, as unfortunately it seems that the company has decided to stop production. www.photoreview.com.au/news/tradenews/durst-exits-photographic-enlargers.aspx - 27k -

Another company that digital has unfortunately 'seen off'. Nevermind we may be left with less manufacturers, but I think there if about as much chance of film dying as there is of oil paint, so I will never despair!

When I said much to late I was looking at the date that you joined rather than the current date. Apologies for the mistake.

ik would buy a 6x7 with color head and a good lens such as a componon-s. Very cheap these days...

I'll just throw my 2 shillings worth here. I own a Gnome too, as you say it is rather basic but it works. The only problem with mine is that there's a spring, that sits in the handle for the head which regulates the tension so that I can push it up a certain and leave it there. The bad thing is I've lost the damn spring and I can for my life find something similar, so it's become useless now.

Which brings me to my point: whatever you buy, and especially if you buy it secondhand, do check that you get all the things needed for the enlarger to work! I like my other enlarger, a Durst 606, but finding 39 mm lensboards for it is... well, a challenge. It could be worse; I make do with the 25 mm lensboards and lenses, while looking for a 39 mm lens board. Little information is extant and the Durst system of various shorthands for different accessories fitting different enlargers can bewildering.

With the above in mind, I still think a good bet would be to find a Durst, the M305s are very nice indeed and if you can find one with a colour head, you're set for life (unless you start to use medium format, that is). But you would stand a better chance of getting more even illumination with an enlarger that can be used for medium format due to the construction.

The problems you've encountered with dust showing up would be lessened with a diffusion enlarger, such as the Durst, for example.

I am certain the Magnifax 4 is gonna be my next enlarger.
I have had different opemuses (24X36/6X6) And they are well built. 'm not sure I'd recomend the color- or meogradeheads because they are heavy and the one I had on the Opemus 5 made the system unstable. Using the condensor head I had no problem with stability.
Cheers
Søren

If buying used, MXV (www.mxvphotographic.com) have a couple of Durst M605 Colour enlargers on their list for £85 each. I would suggest trying Mr. Cad too but they still do not seem to have noticed that you can no longer sell an L1200 for a thousand quid, or an M605 for 250 quid anymore... Silly prices...

There is always the auction site of course but as Jerevan suggests, make sure it comes with all the bits. In that case, it's worth seeing if you can pick it up rather than have it shipped to you.

For your negative carrier: see if it will allow you to fit only the top glass as that is usually sufficient - two less surfaces to get dusty...

Cheers, Bob.

Another vote for Meopta here! I bought an Opemus 6 black and white from an ebay seller for around £50 including shipping earlier this year, this will take up to 6x6 negatives. Replaced the Anaret 50/4.5 lens with a Minolta CE Rokkor 50/2.8 (£12, from ebay) and bought a glassless 35mm negative holder (£11, from Silverprint) and I have a good solid complete system.

I've used Meopta, Durst and now a DeVere and they're all good enlargers. The advantage of the Meopta and DeVere is that parts are still available.
Have a look around and if you don't see anything then PM me as I have a spare Durst Mod70 that I'll let go for a very good price.

I have been very satisfied with my Saunders LPL 6700. With the choice of the proper negative carrier you can handle negatives to 6x7 cm. The color head allows me to use VC or color papers.

I personally would not invest in a 35mm enlarger since you might wish to expand to MF in the future.

You're going to get a lot of people recommending whatever they use. Ultimately, then, you'll have to research the field yourself and pay attention to the details of what people say they like and don't like in their own enlargers.

In that spirit, I've got a Philips PCS130 with a PCS150 control unit. The PCS130 is a condenser enlarger that can handle up to 6x7 negatives, given the right condensers, lens, and negative carrier insert. (Up to 6x6 condensers are fairly common; the 6x7 set is rarer.) The enlarger supports head tilting (for Scheimpflug effect parallax control or for projecting the image on a wall for huge enlargements) and it has a fine-focus control (this is nominally an extra, but the units I've seen for sale on eBay all seem to have it). Most PCS130 units sell with the PCS150, which adds a 3-color (red/green/blue) light source with electronic timer. The PCS150 makes the unit a color enlarger, but instead of using cyan, magenta, and yellow filters you adjust the brightness of the red, green, and blue lights. The two approaches are equivalent, at least broadly speaking. (Philips claimed all sorts of advantages for their additive system in their brochures, of course.)

The negative carrier I've got for mine is glassless, but I've never had problems with negative "pop." Philips claims the PCS150 light source produces low heat, but I haven't attempted to measure heat at the negative and so can't verify this claim. Glass carriers were apparently available originally, and I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get one custom made at a glass shop. (You might need to track down some anti-Newton glass, though.) To reduce heat and extend bulb life, I turn off my red bulb when doing B&W enlarging.

Light distribution is quite even. I did some tests with an exposure meter and found that, depending on the lens and aperture I used, I got anywhere from no dropoff to about 2/3-stop dropofff, IIRC. (I don't have my notes in front of me.)

For B&W enlargements, I normally stop down to f/8 and get exposure times of 5-30 seconds for 8x10, depending on the paper and negative. This is using the "constant exposure" filtration settings, as provided in various Philips manuals.

There's also a PCS2000 unit, which is similar to the PCS130/PCS150 combination, but the PCS2000 uses a diffusion head that lacks the Scheimpflug control feature and goes up to just 6x6 format. In England, both were also sold under the Paterson label, but Paterson relabelled the PCS130 as the PCS2500.

The main drawback to these enlargers is that they were made in the 1980s and have been long discontinued. Thus, finding appropriate parts may be hard if you need to repair or expand one. They use Philips 13165 bulbs, which are still made (they're used by some dental equipment), but a bit pricey -- in the US, they cost $15-$35 from most sources, and you need three bulbs to have a working system. (For B&W work, you could do without the red bulb, though.)

FWIW, there's a Dead Link Removed dedicated to these enlargers. It's pretty low-traffic, but occasionally a discussion breaks out. There's also a files area with manuals and brochures, a links area with links to bulb sources, etc.

The PCS130 is fairly large and heavy, but not so much so that a single person can't move it about. In a temporary darkroom situation, I'd recommend putting it on a movable cart, like a kitchen microwave cart or a typewriter/computer desk with wheels. You could then move it in and out of your temporary darkroom with relative ease.

Well, I've taken the plunge. A week ago I collected a Durst M707BW, with lenses and Durst timer from a couple of nearby e-bayers. It is set up for 35mm but came with the 6x6 kit too. Thrown in also was a large bootful of darkroom bits and pieces, books and chemicals. I'm really pleased with it - a good solid enlarger with even illumination capable of large prints.

Perhaps the best bit was the price - £83.00 for the lot.

Many thanks to everyone for their advice. I was keeping my eyes open for all of the recommendations but the Durst was the deal that came through.

Great to hear you've found good stuff! It'll last you some time. Happy printing!

Doug Hook said:

Well, I've taken the plunge. A week ago I collected a Durst M707BW, with lenses.

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What lenses? The lens is obviously the most important piece of the whole enlarger and it pays to get the best you can (or even can't) afford.

David.

Soeren said:

I am certain the Magnifax 4 is gonna be my next enlarger.
I have had different opemuses (24X36/6X6) And they are well built. 'm not sure I'd recomend the color- or meogradeheads because they are heavy and the one I had on the Opemus 5 made the system unstable. Using the condensor head I had no problem with stability.
Cheers
Søren

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Hmm I was wrong. It turned out to be a Durst AC 707
I got it for free and doing the math, Magnifax 4 =approx £ 450 vs AC 707 Autocolor, it was easy not to turn that offer down.
BTW. this one is way more stable than the Opemus 5 with colorhead I once had.
Cheers
Søren

Woolliscroft said:

What lenses? The lens is obviously the most important piece of the whole enlarger and it pays to get the best you can (or even can't) afford.

David.

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David, I'm really pleased with the lens that came with the Durst - a 50mm f4.5 Componar Schneider-Kreuznach. It seems very sharp but I don't know how 'good' this is meant to be... any good?

The other lens - an old looking 75mm - is something I haven't tried out yet.

the componon-s performs better than the componar.
if you can find, search for a 50mm 2.8 lens, not a 4 or 4.5...

what also counts is the quality of you camera lens, development etc.. if you will see the difference between the lenses.

If you want something that is currently made, check out Kaiser System V.

Or maybe Kienzle.

It's OK to buy a used enlarger, but someone should buy a new enlarger every once in a while, or manufacturers will give up.

Petzi said:

If you want something that is currently made, check out Kaiser System V.

Or maybe Kienzle.

It's OK to buy a used enlarger, but someone should buy a new enlarger every once in a while, or manufacturers will give up.

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I hear what you're saying but by my lights, there are currently more enlargers on the planet than will ever again be in use at any one time. Yeah, it's sad that there will be little or no R&D, going forward. The fact is, nothing that I'd want to own that's currently made, cannot be found used and some things I'd be interested in can *only* be found used.

I own a few Durst enlargers, the computerized type, and they are discontinued. So I haven't bought a new enlarger recently.

There may be many enlargers in the world, but most of them are very simple small devices, mostly for 35mm. People here want larger formats, and Multigrade or color heads. Or they want condensor enlargers. You can't get these things in the used market for a song. And the prices for new gear are reasonable IMHO.

Petzi said:

You can't get these things in the used market for a song. And the prices for new gear are reasonable IMHO.

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New Beseler 45MXT with baseboard and no head from B&H

eBay Buy It Now price for a 45MXT with Minolta 45A system and neg carriers

jstraw said:

eBay Buy It Now price for a 45MXT with Minolta 45A system and neg carriers

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And you haven't bought it yet?

Seriously, the bellows are bad, and the Minolta system is a little bit odd, not what most people want. And $397 is a lot more than a song.

I don't have a place for a second one!