Question about Beseler 45HC cabability

[Justwhistle]

Hello folks, I am completely new to this but have a desire to set up a darkroom to be able to make enlargements from some large negatives that I have. Can anyone tell me if a Beseler 45HC can handle negatives up to 5x7? Any additional details would be very helpful (type of lenses recommended, etc) I would like to enlarge to at least 8x 10. Thanks !!!:)

[Nick_3536]

No the 45s handle 4x5.

[Justwhistle]

Thanks Nick !!! Would you have a recommendation for an enlarger that could handle 5x7's? Thanks,

[Gene McCluney]

Bessler made a 5x7 very similar called a "CB7" I think?. Also Zone V1 and Durst made 5x7 enlargers, and for the Budget minded an old Elwood 5x7 would work.

Of course any of the 8x10 and 10x10 enlargers would easily take 5x7. My Chromega 10x10 has a glass 10x10 negative carrier, and mask blades on the enlarger to throttle the light down to whatever negative size you want to put in. Your lens choice is going to be dependent on the negative size you wish to print. for 5x7 a common focal length for enlarging lenses would be in the 200mm range.

[Skorzen]

The CB7 only handles 4X5, I did find some mention of a 57MVT which does handle 5X7. However a search for "Beseler 57MVT" only found three results so I expect that these are fairly rare. I have considered setting up an adapter to mount an 8X10 or 5X7 head on my 45 in a similar manner to Beseler's 8X10 conversion kit. I was thinking a very light and low profile head could be made using LEDs.