My first Enlarger was purchased from a dumpster diver who found it. He found
it and knew it was something photographic but wasn't sure what. He took it to
my then Girlfriend and showed it to her. He was wanting to know what it might
be worth. She called me and I said wait right there I'm coming... I got there
and looked it over. I had never had an enlarger and had only played in a
friends darkroom a little bit before so I had no idea what it was worth. I
offered him $20 (This was about 1987) and he was happy to get it. The enlarger
was an Meopta Opemus IIa. It had an 80mm lens and an 6x6 negative carrier with
a mask that could be used to project smaller films or parts of a 6x6 negative.
It was missing it's baseboard. I acquired one of those, tanks, trays,
safelite, etc. from the local photography pusher and I was off to a good start.
I was only shooting 35mm then and that 80mm lens was not getting it done. I
purchased a 50mm Beslar lens and Made a mount for it out of the top of a soup
can. I eventually started shooting medium format. I made LOTS of images with
that enlarger and some of them even won prizes in competitions. One day I came
across a GREAT deal on a Beseler 23CIIXL (and I jumped on that). I gave the
Meopta enlarger to a young photographer who needed one. I used the 23C until I
found a great deal on a Beseler 45MCRX and I gave that 23c to another starving
young photographer. I used that 45M until I had a house fire about five years
ago that claimed everything. I now have two Besler 67's (one condenser and
with a color head) that people have given me but at this time I don't have the
room to setup a darkroom. I have unfortuately, been forced to work in the
digital realm since my housefire... I keep hoping that one day I will find an
old "canned ham camper" that I can purchase cheap and use it to setup a
darkroom...
Chuck Ulm
AKA "Speedy"
"It's hard to slow down when you were born to run!"
________________________________
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on
behalf of ROBERT KISS <bobkiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2020 9:04 AM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Wayback - my first enlarger
DARN! Nearly forgot the Meopta medium format enlarger that I think I got from
my brother. It was actually a pretty decent enlarger, much better (both
mechanically and optically) than the Federal. I used that up to getting the
DeJur.
A curious thing is that I we got that enlarger in the mid 60s when the cold war
was at its hottest, as it were, and Meopta was based in Czechoslovakia, THE
clearing hours for spies going in either direction!!!
On May 29, 2020 at 11:04 PM `Richard Knoppow
<dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Congratulations.
I sent a reply to this thread and had it disappear on my
machine. Not in deleted or junk, it vanished.
Anyway, my first was probably a DeJur. Not sure. Bought at a
garage sale when I was just starting out. Tall cylindrical lamp
house. I think it was missing the condenser or diffuser. Before
long I got a used Solar. This was a 4x5 on a 5x7 chassis with a
condenser lamphouse. The condenser had a ground glass bottom so
was partially diffusing. I had a decent lens until a friend
decided to clean it for me. Destroyed it and I could not afford
another for a very long time. I am still angry about that. I had
that enlarger until it got lost in some move, maybe sold. After a
long hiatus I got back to photography and got an Omega D2. An
excellent enlarger. I still have it set up. I also bought decent
Schneider lenses for it and also have a couple of Kodak enlarging
lenses.
I have thought about looking for an Elwood 5x7 but don't
really have room for one. Elwood used special lamps, I think and
were nor notorious for burning negatives. I think the later ones
had better heat reduction. Anyway, my Omega will do.
For a time I was planning out an enlarging adaptor to use a
view camera for 8x10 but never go to it.
On 5/29/2020 5:38 PM, Richard Lahrson wrote:
I made my first enlarger at 13 was made from a thrift store
camera.
It was a postcard size type with bellows made with the help of
a fellow
9th grader whose father was a retired photog. We added a light
and made
cardboard box type with tape! We developed roll film by hand!
I think dad
saw the interest and bought me a Durst 606 and a plastic tank!
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
WB6KBL
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