I've been given a Durst Laborator 1000 with a CLS450 head. It's a beautifully built machine, that reminds me of my first enlarger - an M605 - on steroids.
It won't be my primary enlarger - I've got a 138S that is hard to beat - but I'd like to use it. It came with the Uniwal wall mount that would be great to set up.
With all this said, I hate the colour head for black and white work. Spinning through the yellow and red filters for split grade printing makes me batty. The way I print, it doesn't fit well. I've used a Saunders 4500 VCCE, and that system kept the spinning of wheels to a minimum.
The mixing boxes, and the diffuse quality of light, are fantastic. I'd like to keep them if I could. Is there a way I could replace the dichroic filters perhaps, to make the setup similar to the 4500 VCCE?
Edmund Optics sells dichroic filters:
http://www.edmundoptics.com/optics/o...-filters/1734/
But I don't see anything in the right size. I'd be happy with just full blue and full green, and a way of switching between the two.
I guess what I'm looking for is ideas - I'm not great at thinking outside the box. The community often has wonderful solutions that I don't even consider.
I know there's the Heiland Split grade, but it seems clunky and expensive. Kienzle makes light systems, but I've never heard of anyone owning one. I've seen a fellow on APUG making an LED light source for his Omega D5 and Durst 138, but I'm not sure the CLS450 head has enough room to work with.
I'd be happy to make a winter project out of this, which is a good thing to have in Toronto when the city freezes over.
Any ideas would be very welcome. Thanks!
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