Enlargers - All you need to know

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
  • Just picked up an enlarger at a garage sale?
    Well, congratulations!! Here's everything you would want to know before making your first print.
    #darkroom #enlargers #filmphotography

ความคิดเห็น • 46

  • @rlfsoso
    @rlfsoso 4 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Hi, sorry to have to correct you in one point (5:24):
    Condenser enlarger use not blank bulbs but "opal bulbs" with a special diffusing coating. Using a bare blank bulb would indeed cause the problems you mentioned. Usually the position/height of the bulb can be adjusted to negative size to minimize fall off to the corners and outer part of the enlarged negative on the base board. This is part related to the size of thew condenser lenses: if I project a 135 film negative through a condenser up to 4x5, not a problem. It might be different with a 4x5 negative projected through same condenser, even though this enlarger would have been designed for that negative size. On a side note: cold kathode heads for large format enlarger have been known to cause marked unevenness, which could then be found on the prints of many different photographers…
    There are point source enlarger which are a special type of condenser enlarger which use a bare bulb (I recall Homrich as one example) which is put in the center of a ellipsoid sphere which then projects the light straight through the negative, everything needs to be in perfect alignement but when they were new they were a perfect tool for sharp enlargement.
    Cheers Rolf

  • @rlfsoso
    @rlfsoso 4 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    One thing you did not mention with buying the used enlarger is:
    make sure they are complete: negative carrier(s) for the format you want to print, some brands like Kaiser or Durst (in Europe) or perhaps Beseler and DeVere in the US pose no challenge, but buying needed extra parts is more expensive than getting it in one go.
    Check for corrosion, and that all moving parts are indeed moving.

    • @nickfanzo
      @nickfanzo 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Good points.
      They still make new enlargers and you can get it all new
      But sometimes you find a deal.
      I found an omega for free online.
      Going to check it out

  • @hammychannel9306
    @hammychannel9306 ปีที่แล้ว

    excellent presentation, kept so simple, love this channel

  • @NC-oc3ld
    @NC-oc3ld 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thanks for a very informative video. Subscribed. Keep up the videos!

  • @gyrdin
    @gyrdin 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    You're right and wrong about 'fancy paperweights'. You could upgrade them to LED, for example Heiland. Not all of them and it's pricey, but hey, for obsolete devices it's a second life!

  • @neilpiper9889
    @neilpiper9889 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    We tried a Leica M2 with a Focomat enlarger in the 1960s and we laughed at the results.
    We went back to Rolleiflex cameras and a Durst multi format enlarger. The M2 was sold and everything went back to how it was.
    I use a Gnome condenser enlarger from the 1950s and a Schneider Componon S 100mm f5.6 lens and develop my negatives to suit normal papers. I get perfect negatives.
    That is the second stage. Most important. Ansel Adams wrote a whole book on it.
    No Multigrade papers back then.
    The camera I use is a 1957 Yashica Mat with a 75mm 3.5 Lumaxar lens.
    Old school, old ideas wonderful results.

  • @nickfanzo
    @nickfanzo 4 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Thanks for sharing.
    I found a free enlarger online with filters, lens, easel etc
    I’m gonna go pick it up

    • @shanthoshravikumar5937
      @shanthoshravikumar5937 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      wow.. free stuff are the best ones.. I got a free Pentax K1000 once lol

    • @nickfanzo
      @nickfanzo 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Shanthosh Ravikumar freecycle is great

  • @b6983832
    @b6983832 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Color paper is not impossible to find. It is just sold in rolls. It is much cheaper per picture than any of the black & white papers in the market. Also, chemistry is widely available, and is not overly expensive. You just shouldn´t buy small kits for home use, as these are overpriced. You end paying 10-20 times more with 1 liter RA-4 kits compared to chemistry intended for minilabs.
    "It is all digital now" - No, it isn´t. There is nothing preventing from printing color if you just want to do it.

  • @scuba6663
    @scuba6663 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Thank you for the great video! I would like to know which enlarger you would recommend for medium format only? I use a Hasselblad 500cm and want to print 20x24 prints only. I understand that I can rotate the head of an enlarger to do this. I just need your recommendation on the right enlarger. Thank you very much.

  • @Unixilandia
    @Unixilandia 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Great video, thanks for sharing the layout or setup of your darkroom. Its a beautiful setup. Can you kindly inform us about ventilation system you use? Thank you! Best Wishes!

  • @jeta1383
    @jeta1383 3 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I just watched your enlarger lens video - do you 'mix and match' your glass to your different enlargers? if so/if not why?
    Thank you. Peace

  • @randallstewart175
    @randallstewart175 ปีที่แล้ว

    His Leitz V35 enlarger - I once came within a moment of buying one, and I'm now glad I missed it. As an autofocus system, if the prior owner has messed with the focus setting or changed the lens, you are likely to have to have the thing re calibrated. However, it biggest problem is that it uses a bulb which hasn't been available for years - very hard to find a bulb for it. Leitz is known for its camera lenses, but its Focotar enlarger lenses are nothing special. (Back in the 80s, a major magazine did an article testing all of the major enlarger lenses of the day. The Focotar failed to meet acceptable performance - they bought a second lens to test - similar problems.) If you want an enlarger like a Durst, buy a Durst.

    • @atribecalledfilm
      @atribecalledfilm ปีที่แล้ว

      Which one did you end up buying?

    • @randallstewart1224
      @randallstewart1224 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@atribecalledfilm Around 1976, I bought my first enlarger, a Durst M601 (35mm and 6x6). I later added a dichroic color head. In 1980, after installing a permanent darkroom in my new house, I bought a Durst M800 with dichroic color head, after which I slowly accumulated nearly all of its accessories, and spare parts. It one shortcoming for me was a somewhat course focusing system. I had a machinist manufacture a new focus drive pawl to replace the simple Durst knob with a two speed planetary drive knob made as an accessory by LPL/Saunders for its high-end enlargers - perfection. Still use it today, because I cannot do better. I used El-Nikkor lenses for years, but never liked my 80mm. I tried the best series of Fujinon lenses to do medium format. I liked it so much that I bought the same series for 35mm, 645, and 6x7 formats. If I could get enough back to make it worth my trouble, I'd liquidate all the El-Nikkors except the 40mm 2.8, a wicked lens if you need to make a truly large print from 35mm format. As I stand now, I probably have enough spares and parts to assemble at least three M880/M700 Dursts, including one fitted with an Ilford B&W variable contrast head.

    • @randallstewart1224
      @randallstewart1224 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@atribecalledfilm My first new enlarger was a Durst M601 in 1975, later upgraded with a color head. In 1980, I replaced that with a Durst M800 with color head. Several years later, I had a machinist make a modified focus drive shaft for it to allow mounting of a Saunders two-speed focus drive made as an accessory for their LPL enlargers. This made fine focusing of big enlargements easier. Over the following decade, I acquired almost every accessory for the M800, and it remains today the most perfect 35mm/medium format enlarger I've ever used. It will handle subminiture to 6x9cm with glass or glassless film carriers. Condenser, diffusion, cold light, or dichroic color headlight sources. Its only shortcoming is common to a number of Durst enlarger models of that vintage. The head is raised and lowered on a geared column. The drive gear is steel, but the track (or rack) is nylon. After some years, the nylon hardened, and if you thrash the head adjustment too much, you can break teeth off the rack, causing the raising and lowering to start skipping. Durst used to sell replacement track parts, but that's long gone. A few years ago, some enterprising fellow was selling the same track part which he 3-D printed. (When I first acquired my M800, it suffered this problem. I acquired a half dozen track parts to repair it, and I still have several stored away. Most folks with this problem are just screwed.)

  • @rpdee7344
    @rpdee7344 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    1/15/2021 Nice to see your darkroom setup. In the 80s there were a lot of companies offering color printing kits good for printing slides snd negatives at reasonable prices for the chemicals and print papers. That is why I added a color head to my Omega B-99 BW enlarger making printing color so much easier for printing at home along with the print drums and motor bases to develop the prints. Like you I still use the color head when printing black and white for filter settings on variable contrast papers. I still enjoy printing B/W printing as to just seeing my photos on a computer screen.

  • @jganun
    @jganun 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    The big problem with color printing is the disappearance of R3/3000 and Cibachrome/Ilfochrome processes. E6, C41, and RA4 are available online. The big problem with enlargers is that the 5x7s and 8x10s are just too big for most homes.

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      As one who learned to do color with the Cibachrome system, I have to say that direct color printing of this type never was popular, partly for its cost and also for the greater difficulty in getting prints with good color. Modern RA-4 color negative printing is fall down easy by comparison.

  • @user-to8it5kk5q
    @user-to8it5kk5q 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Good video, but why color doesn't make sense?. Ra4 paper for minilabs is also suitable for traditional wet darkroom. Fujicolor crystal archive is available in sheet format and is quite cheap. Tetenal now makes magic boxes (small ra4 chemistry kits).

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      His remarks re the unavailability of color paper are nonsense as of today. Fuji Crystal Archive is the premier color paper made to day and is easily available in the US. It is also cheap - often less expensive than B&W paper. Kodak still makes color paper, but I think it is only available in the narrow, long roll packages used by commercial labs in automatic printers. RA-4 chemicals are made by Fuji, Kodak, Tetenol, Unicolor, and several other DIY kit makers. What he means is that almost all color prints from film process through a scanner, computer, digital software and are squirted onto inkjet paper. My own experience is that wet color prints are about as easy and no more time consuming than hacking your way through digital image software and color printer programming. And, the old fashioned wet prints just look better in terms of color saturation, fine detail. Note that if you do not want to do color printing, you do not need an enlarger with the color heads of the sort he has here.

    • @b6983832
      @b6983832 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Don't buy the cheapest CA, but invest a little more to DP II. Difference is much bigger than the small price difference.

  • @jacovanlith5082
    @jacovanlith5082 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Condensor enlargers: the wattage is not important.
    The size of the bulb matters.
    The bigger the better light.

  • @carlitodcreative
    @carlitodcreative 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    nice setup!

  • @omarcusihuaman4261
    @omarcusihuaman4261 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    rookie question: if i reverse the lenses the enlarger turns into a reducer?? i want to reduce images to 1/3 of the size

  • @andrewfeld7177
    @andrewfeld7177 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    He said you can buy them on craigslist and "gigi". What is "gigi"? Is this a place that has darkroom equipment.

    • @shanthoshravikumar5937
      @shanthoshravikumar5937 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I think he's referring to Kijiji it's like craigslist here in Canada

  • @jacovanlith5082
    @jacovanlith5082 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Condensor enlargers need a different density of the negative than the diffusion and coldlight types.
    There are enlargers with ONE, ONE +diffusion disc, TWO and THREE condensors.

  • @cademorgan4017
    @cademorgan4017 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    What type of enlarger can i use to print a color picture? diffusion or condenser?
    And which is the enlarger 2 in1 of them i mean you can print colored picture and black and white thanks a lot!

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      The light source of the enlarger does not govern whether it can make B&W or color prints. Either can do both. However, some enlargers are equipped to do color more conveniently. For example, to do color, an enlarger needs some kind of color modification head to change the color of the light. This could be by color filters built into the unit or by adding external filters to the light path.

  • @allrightkinz12
    @allrightkinz12 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Cool

  • @scuba6663
    @scuba6663 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    What are your thoughts on the durst m605 with a 80mm lens?

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Nice quality unit for some medium format. Do not recall if it is limited to 6x6 or wull do 6x7; it will not do 6x9. One problem with Durst these days is that the numerous accessory parts have not been sold new for many years and are getting harder to find.

  • @uueuewoeie
    @uueuewoeie 4 ปีที่แล้ว

    Hi, I have a Leica V35 enlarger but I have some issues with autofocus, can you make a video with that please?

    • @lightloving683
      @lightloving683 4 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      This is the process I use with mine. Assumes your using a proper 40mm Focotar lens. A 40mm from another manufacturer may not work with the autofocus cam.
      - Set the column height to the height of the easel in use or 0 for baseboard.
      - Raise to full elevation and set lens to 2.8
      - Loosen the large black ribbed ring at the top of focus mount.
      - Rotate the the lens to achieve focus. Tighten ribbed ring
      - Loosen the small thumb screw to release the detent
      - Turn the lens to get the aperture window to the front. Tighten screw.
      - The image will now be out of focus.
      - Repeat the procedure with the large ribbed ring and thumb screw a second time until the image is in focus at 17 1/2 x and the lens aperture window is to the front.
      The image will stay in focus from 17 1/2 to 3 x unless something is wrong with the machine.
      When you change easels, make the column height equal to the easel height. No other adjustments are necessary.

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 4 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      @@lightloving683 Another 40mm Focotar may not track with the autofocus. There are slight variations in focal length in all enlarging lenses. To deal with those variations, the enlarger makers cut the cam surfaces on an autofocus enlarger to exactly match to focus requirements of the specific lens packaged with the enlarger. You can change lenses, but the result is that you can never fully rely on the autofocus system, even where the second lens seems the same as the original. If you buy an autofocus machine, make sure that the original lens is still mounted or reject the machine unless very low priced and you are willing to dial in the focus for each print to be made..

    • @lightloving683
      @lightloving683 4 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Randall Stewart While I agree, I've been able to calibrate my 2 V35s with more than a few 40mm lenses - multiple Focotars, APO Schneider, Rodenstock & Nikkor -,using the same process. It's what the process is for. Fortunate that I've not encountered issues; rock solid.

    • @Anonymous-it5jw
      @Anonymous-it5jw 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      Sometimes you can get a V35 User Manual on eBay for $10 to $12 plus shipping, which explains how to make the adjustments that Light Loving described, plus additional information. If the lens that arrived with your enlarger is not the 40 mm enlargimg lens made and sold by Leica/Leitz, auto-focus may not work perfectly, as it does with the original 40 mm lens. Some V35s could be equipped with auto-focusing cams designed for the 50 mm Leica/Leitz enlarging lens, and would not work properly with the 40 mm lens, but that's a rare setup. It is important that your enlarger be used with the original base, which allows for adjusting the height of the column at the base. As pointed out by Loving Light, the critical element is to correct for the height of the easel surface above the enlarger base. If you are making enlargements without an easel, and it was set up by someone who used an easel, that would affect your ability to get the auto-focusing to work properly. Here is a link to an European user's website - he has a wealth of information on V35 enlargers on it -www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/photo/v35.htm
      Through a used book store, you might consider acquiring this guide, with a picture of a V35 on the cover - "Leica Darkroom Practice" (Hardcover), published November 21, 1983, and written by Rudolf Seck (Author). In addition to checking with a physical used book store, Amazon sells used books, including this one, as do eBay and numerous other websites.

  • @earvinquero2037
    @earvinquero2037 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    I really want an enlarger named Leica. Cmon! Just say that.

    • @tomasnovotny4108
      @tomasnovotny4108 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      It's not Leica but Leitz unfortunately. But you can say that still.

  • @Anonymous-it5jw
    @Anonymous-it5jw 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Did you say that the Leitz V35 enlarger was actually made by Durst? If so, no evidence of that on my V35s.

    • @randallstewart175
      @randallstewart175 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      So, you were expecting a plate which says, "We farmed this out to Durst. If you want a better enlarger for half the price, get a Durst." I'm sure Leitz put their dead hand on the design, which is why folks develop trouble with the autofocus, and it used to cost a fortune to replace a bulb. Now you can't replace the bulb. If you want a 35mm (only) autofocus enlarger which will work trouble free, stalk ebay for the illusive Durst A-300, but make sure it has its original lens. Durst factory cut the autofocus cam to fit each of the selected Nikkor 50mm 2.8 lenses it mounted. You can mount other lenses, but it's nice to have that precision. (Each key part has a serial number; there is a plate on the base which lists those numbers. Accept no substitutes.)

  • @user-vq2ki1qo1b
    @user-vq2ki1qo1b 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Really good video, thanks for showing us your darkroom