Largest Enlarger?

[jantman]

No, there's no point to this question other than curiosity...

I have an 8x10 enlarger, and have seen horiontals that handle 11x14. Is/has there ever been anything larger out there? The construction would be relatively simple, albeit very heavy...but is it possible to deal with even illumination for a neg larger than 11x14? Has any madman ever tackled this project?

[Tedd]

As I stretch my hand and arm in the air I say " I am a Mad Man and I am proud of it"!

I have seen that there are som whom have made larger but more on the private side. Two in the US and one in england if my memory serves me correctly.

I myself shoot 4x5 and 12x20 here in Stockholm Sweden. There is a professional lab here who is well known for there work for LF photographers
and artist here in Scandinavia. They have three rooms all with horizontals of 8x10. The owner was so excited when I came with my 12x20 we decided to make a serious monster.

It is 80 % finished and we hope to have it finished by the end of the year. It is a 20x24 horizontal built from an 8x10. It will have a color head as well! The largest B&W for me will be 1,2x2 meters and a color, 1,6x3 meters! Unless one decides it is ok to make a larger print over several pieces
of paper....

So if anyone is interested in prints all they need are a smaller print of exactly how you want the big one and the neg. Of course you can tell them what papper you want as well. When I don't Pyro they develop my 12x20 in extol with NO problem! They have the best of the best when it comes to developing machines.

[Wilbur Wong]

If you had a gadzillion dollars go to http://www.jensen-optical.com/twelve.html 12 x 16 semi-stock, up to 20 x 26 custom

[Al Seyle]

Back in 1970, I worked briefly for an aerial survey firm who had the largest process camera/enlarger I've ever seen. The vacuum back was 36x42 inches. To enlarge, you would swing away the back and roll in a bank of florescents making it a cold-light enlarger. The vacuum copy board-- which also acted as the easel was 6 ftx 14 ft. As I recall, lenses were 24, 42 and 70-inch. The 70 was a custom Red-dot Artar with plastc elements! Operation of this beast and processing the film and paper was a 2-person job, carried out in two very large rooms--all by hand at that time.

[Clayton Tume]

Jason

I have a home built 4x14 enlarger that is basically a stretched 4x5, I use it for printing panoramics.
You can see it here (http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/images/printing2.jpg) When I get time I'm building another one using 2 x 8x10 colour heads side by side for 8x20 panoramics.

Here on my website you'll find some info on a 16x20 enlarger (http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/mike_westmoreland.html)

Check out my links page (http://www.bigshotz.co.nz/links.html) under Tom Yanul, he has a 12x20 enlarger.

Clayton

[Richard Ide]

Jason

In 1992 I re-engineered a process camera into a camera enlarger. I could make a 36" x 54" negative and enlarge a 30" x 48" negative. My vacuum easel was 78" x 192". I put the whole camera on a track. I used 420mm, 610mm, and 760mm apo nikkors and a 1200mm apo tessar. Bellows draw was over 8 feet. I used it primarily for making large halftone positives for the silk screen printing industry but remember hand souping 30" x 40" Plus x pan. The biggest enlargement I made was 72" x 192". Fun to hand process.

Richard

[kreig]

I purchased a 16"x20" vertical graphic arts camera with lens for $48 and after checking things out, I think swaping the light source and film holder, it would make a great enlrager for 14x17. not sure why there is any need for enlarging such big negatives but the project is interesting!!!

[Tedd]

I make enlargements from my 12x20s and for me it is clear that they should be enlarged.
There is SOOOO much information and detail in ULF negs that do not show up until enlarged.
The images really come to life and show their personality, especially portraits!

[thomas yanul]

I built a horizontal enlarger about 8 years ago to handle my 12x20" banquet camera and 12x20 & 10x20" pan camera negs in b&w. Made up of a variety of printer's copy cameras, a pulsed xenon light source (has two 2000 watt bulbs in a nice reflector designed for 20x24" coverage) but 95% of time use only one bulb, settings generally around f:32 for 3 - 5 seconds exposure, keeps neg cool. A simple threaded rod powered by a 6V Volkswagen windshield wiper motor moves the lens back and forth with long extension cord for focusing while viewing image projected on wall. My lab has had an f:32 advertisement offering outside work for big neg enlargements but it didn't get much business, hence have closed up shop and enlarger going into storage till I decide what to do with it. There is a photo of the enlarger on one of my site pages at:
http://hometown.aol.com/%20yanulpan/lab.html

Regards to all who toil in this wrong end of a large format era.

Tom Yanul