Hello Bernard, I had a Durst Lab 1200 next to a Meopta in my darkroom. I did not find a perceptable difference in the Enlargers ability to produce quality prints in black and white. The diffference you will see is between enlarging lens, paper and developer. Although the solid enlargers have a better and smoother user feel it will not affect your prints as in order to make good prints you will need to work very carefully and diliberately. The other major factor that will affect the quality of the prints or so I am told by fine printers and have not used one is to find an enlarger with a cold cathode head as opossed to the hash and directional light source of the condenser type. Thanks for your message, God bless You. Marvin. --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at http://www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list