The auto-focus Leitz enlargers I've used in the past use a cam to keep the image in focus as the head moves up and down. Perhaps this does too. It sure doesn't use anything high-tech!
The way most auto-focus enlargers work is that you set the focus after loading a negative, then they stay in focus as you change the magnification. That makes it *much* easier to print a full frame, since you don't have to go through the maddening cycles of adjusting head height, adjusting focus, and finding you've overshot *again* -- it usually takes me 5-6 cycles to get close enough to a full frame print, if that's what I'm after.
Must be old. I haven't seen electrical flex like this for years. Reminds me of the way little girls' had plaits in the 1950's before I realised there was a difference.
Must be old. I haven't seen electrical flex like this for years. Reminds me of the way little girls' had plaits in the 1950's before I realised there was a difference.
A quick Google tells me that Lancaster cameras were quarter plate (3.25 x 4.25 inches) so presumably the enlarger is as well. No mention of actual size, but the £15 postage seems reasonable if you wanted it!
I would guess that it a dual bulb diffusion light source - a bulb on each side with maybe an opal glass diffusion plate in front of each, maybe a mirror, to try an eliminate the hotspot a single bulb gives on a large neg... Somebody email the guy for a picture of the inside...
It says that the lens is 4". So the negative size must be 1/8 plate or smaller. Probably enlarges to a fixed size paper. It's "autofocus" because it's fixed focus. The early Leica enlargers were just long boxes with a negative holder on one end, a paper holder on the other, and a fixed lens between - the light source was whatever you wanted to use (the sun?).