"Window" Enlarger; Don't See Many of These

[ic-racer]

I saw this for sale. Looks like an enlarger that is put in a window and uses sunlight.

 

[mshchem]

It's more like a process camera. Window enlargers had a mirror, to get skylight, and I'm pretty sure the early stuff used printout paper. But you could mount anything in a window. It's a RB!

 

[voceumana]

Seems to me that a process camera would provide some sort of ground glass for focusing and the ability to insert film carriers. That, and the ad calling it an enlarger makes it seem that this was, in deed, an enlarger. Note that "window" isn't mentioned in the original ad copy--just that it goes in the wall, with the "light" outside the darkroom.

 

[AgX]

First time I learn of "window" enlarger. What I well know is the german term "Solarkamera", a enlarger-type with illumination by the sun, though explicetely stated to have got a condenser.

 

[Luckless]

I've been looking at a not dissimilar design for an apartment focused 'pop-up' darkroom to avoid having to vent the heat of the lamp from a confined space.

Considered the option of using natural light, but a lamp box that can hang outside of the dark-tent seemed more practical.

 

[Zathras]

Ansel Adams wrote that he used an enlarger with a window for a light source in his early days. He didn't say whether it was on of these Graflex units,
but he did mention that it gave a beautiful diffused light on foggy days. Sunny days with shifting clouds were created problems with consistency of the
light reaching the paper and the resulting exposure times.

 

[ic-racer]

It's more like a process camera. Window enlargers had a mirror, to get skylight, and I'm pretty sure the early stuff used printout paper. But you could mount anything in a window. It's a RB!

The reflector or mirror would be mounted outside.

 

[ic-racer]

It's more like a process camera. Window enlargers had a mirror, to get skylight, and I'm pretty sure the early stuff used printout paper. But you could mount anything in a window. It's a RB!

I believe the enlarger is based on their 8x10 field camera. The did have a process camera that could also enlarge, but it had a much bigger front standard.

 

[Paul Howell]

In the early 80s I knew a guy here in Arizona who built a 8X10 sunlight enlarger, he based his on what he read about AA sunlight enlarger. We have so many days clear days he was able print to just about anytime he was in the mood as long it was daylight. His was built into the North Wall of darkroom which was built into a 2 car garage. From 82 to 86 I was working overseas when I got back he had passed away and wife had his darkroom dismantled.

 

[ic-racer]

I don't know why the "ALT PROCESS" people have not picked up on this concept of obtaining UV light from the sun for enlarging to UV sensitive materials.

 

[mshchem]

I don't know why the "ALT PROCESS" people have not picked up on this concept of obtaining UV light from the sun for enlarging to UV sensitive materials.

Glass lenses are poor for transmission of UV, of course the Sun puts out so much I doubt it would be any more of a problem than glass plates or glass print frames.

The instructions for the camera tell you that the camera goes in the darkroom wall, with the light in another room. I would postulate that one assistant would place plates in the carrier while the other dude was in the darkroom with a easel and a metronome. When everything was ready the guy in the light would open the window, or set off a box of highway flares . Hell I don't know. Sunlight is pretty cheap.
Maybe the guy in the light room just took a reading of the incident light with a nice new Sekonic meter.

The other thing, this stuff had to sell nothing says it worked worth a crap.

 

[ic-racer]

No need to go outside to change the negative, the negative carrier slides out from the side. It the inserts also rotate.

 

[AgX]

First time I learn of "window" enlarger. What I well know is the german term "Solarkamera", a enlarger-type with illumination by the sun, though explicetely stated to have got a condenser.

Well, I found out more about that, actually something quite different by magnitude. And sheer madness ...,
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wothly#Heliostat_(Solarkamera)

 

[cowanw]

Here is an interesting variation to enlarge a negative for a crayon portrait. About a third of the way down in the Henry Ravell article
https://photoseed.com/blog/

 

[Lachlan Young]

Here is an interesting variation to enlarge a negative for a crayon portrait. About a third of the way down in the Henry Ravell article
https://photoseed.com/blog/

Not altogether dissimilar devices were used up until the advent of computers in many graphic design studios - the Grant Projector being one.