Neal Chaves
7-Oct-2010, 12:46
Since I first took up the 8x10 camera in 1988 (after considerable 4X5 experience), I have always wanted to enlarge to 11x14 and 16X20. I was doing this almost from the start with a variety of home-brew "enlarging cameras". The great benefit of using a view camera as an enlarger is that it can be precisely adjusted for alignment easily and quickly each time it is used. I always set up for vertical printing with a Bogen Expan Pole, the camera held in place with two Bogen Super Clamps.
My first "cold light head" was a Double Circuline kitchen light fixture fitted with daylight tubes. I blacked out all of the Lexan diffuser except for an 8X10 window on the bottom and I closed up the top with a disk cut from masonite. I replaced the ruled ground glass in my camera, an 8X10 B&J monorail, with a plain ground glass, and with Velcro on the diffuser and the camera ground glass frame, the head stayed firmly in place. I used two tape-hinged pieces of anti-Newton's ring glass cut to the size of a film holder as a negative carrier. That Double Circuline always flickered when it started, but the flicker was always the same and exposures were very consistent. Another nice thing about using a view camera as an enlarger is that you can focus from the rear. Anyone who has tried to do close-ups with a press camera, or make an 8X10 from an 8X10 in an enlarger knows what I am saying. When you focus from the rear, you don't change the lens to subject distance.
Eventually I converted a Beseler 45MCRX to accept an 8X10 Aristo cold light head and used that for many years until replacing it recently with a Beseler 810 VXL. I know that eventually LEDS will make the best light source, so I try to keep informed about what is out there. Recently I found this unit
http://www.allhydroponics.com/hydroponic-grow-lights/led-grow-lights/sunshinesystemsgrowpanel4528wattledgrowlight.cfm
It's 12.25"X12.25", a quarter inch too big to fit in place of an Aristo, but should be fine for DIY projects as described above.
My first "cold light head" was a Double Circuline kitchen light fixture fitted with daylight tubes. I blacked out all of the Lexan diffuser except for an 8X10 window on the bottom and I closed up the top with a disk cut from masonite. I replaced the ruled ground glass in my camera, an 8X10 B&J monorail, with a plain ground glass, and with Velcro on the diffuser and the camera ground glass frame, the head stayed firmly in place. I used two tape-hinged pieces of anti-Newton's ring glass cut to the size of a film holder as a negative carrier. That Double Circuline always flickered when it started, but the flicker was always the same and exposures were very consistent. Another nice thing about using a view camera as an enlarger is that you can focus from the rear. Anyone who has tried to do close-ups with a press camera, or make an 8X10 from an 8X10 in an enlarger knows what I am saying. When you focus from the rear, you don't change the lens to subject distance.
Eventually I converted a Beseler 45MCRX to accept an 8X10 Aristo cold light head and used that for many years until replacing it recently with a Beseler 810 VXL. I know that eventually LEDS will make the best light source, so I try to keep informed about what is out there. Recently I found this unit
http://www.allhydroponics.com/hydroponic-grow-lights/led-grow-lights/sunshinesystemsgrowpanel4528wattledgrowlight.cfm
It's 12.25"X12.25", a quarter inch too big to fit in place of an Aristo, but should be fine for DIY projects as described above.