I don't remember exactly what my first enlarger was but could
figure it out. It was not complete, something missing in the lamp
house but I made it work.
My first real enlarger was a Solar with a semi condenser
head, i.e., condenser with a ground glass lower surface. 4x5 but
the chassis was also supplied for 5x7 with a diffusion head. I
used it for years but it was badly damaged in a move. After
taking up photography again after a long hiatus I bought an Omega
D2 with condenser head. I still have and still use that enlarger.
I have in storage somewhere another Solar, this one with a
diffusion head. Its a sort of back up. I don't have room for
another enlarger and am not particularly looking for one. Several
years ago a friend asked me if I would be interested in a Leica
enlarger that someone in her family was trying to find a home
for. I said yes but someone else grabbed it. It turns out to have
been a Focomat II. Oh, well.
I am familiar with the Elwood enlargers. The big 5x7 was
standard equipment in newspaper offices and other places where a
Saltzman would have been too expensive. I lusted after a Saltzman
until I saw one in person. They look like a vertical mill and are
about as heavy. I think I will be satisfied to admire them from a
distance. I do have a Saltzman camera stand, the tripod kind, not
the side arm crane. It is a piece of work and could support an
elephant. I never use it but like having it.
Durst enlargers had an excellent reputation but I never used
one. Actually, its the lenses that make the difference.
On 5/29/2020 5:00 PM, Ken Hart wrote:
My first enlarger was from Sears (or Montgomery Ward). It was a diffusion light source 35mm with an exceedingly bad lens. My photography teacher was smart enough to recognize that was the cause of my images being crap, and found someone who was selling a darkroom setup including an Omega B-22. I still have that enlarger. My next enlarger was an Omega D2V, which I still have. Up until a month ago, I had been using it for color (RA-4) printing with CC filters slipped in above the condensers. I found someone on eBay who was selling four Chromega D-XL enlargers- I bought them for $800 including freight shipping from FL to IN. Unfortunately, the deal included only one power supply, two lens turrets, and no neg carriers. (The neg carriers from the old D2V will work fine.) So if anyone is looking for "almost" three Chromega D-XL's let me know!
The bad news is that I will be moving soon, and I will be setting up my sixth, and hopefully, final darkroom. With maybe a couple Chromegas, a B22, D2V, and a Hope RA4 roller transport processor.
Ken Hart
kwhart1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
On 5/29/20 7:02 PM, Howard Efner wrote:
Since we are on board the wayback machine, my first enlarger was a 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 condenser Solar enlarger that I kept for many years. What I paid for it ????? Now have a 4x5 Omega and a genuine Mahogany Elwood 5x7 with a VC cold light head.=============================================================================================================
They have been lounging in the PERMEANT darkroom for 15+ years now.
Howard Efner
73 de KF5RGU
On May 29, 2020, at 14:21, Chauncey Walden <clwaldeniii@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:==========================================================================================================To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.
I found a bundle of old cancelled checks that took me back a few years. One, written January 27th, 1968, was to a camera shop and was in the amount of $102.68. This was for my first enlarger and darkroom equipment including chemicals and paper. The enlarger was a 35mm Durst. I used it for about 10 years and then lucked into a color head for it just when I got interested in color printing. It eventually was replaced by a medium format Omega and then and then and then;-)
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