5x7 enlargers?

[Daniel Unkefer]

I used to have an Eastman Kodak 5x7 autofocus enlarger, with reducing attachment.

Attachment 247287

Now that's cool. I've never seen an E-3 that looks like that! Precast parts. Nice!

BTW mine has a 190mm Wollensack serial number matched to the decal on the column. So a complete original E-3. Kevin at KHB is helping me do some fine tuning in the near future, he's the Omega expert. I also want to do 13x18cm (I'll make a custom carrier) for my European format cameras. 16x20 is all I need to go to, that's my maximum. Autofocus works perfectly. This thing is fun to use. Plenty of storage underneath as in the original heavy steel welded units. There were rows and rows of them in use at one time.

I bought this from Larry Gebhardt years ago. He ingeniously constructed a 5x7 E-3 LED Light Head, but WOW! does it get hot! And a Graphite diffusion mask with a lot of pencil work on it. I just prefer the Olde E-4 Omegalite, it's the go-to on my 4x5 DII's, the E-3 kinda works the same way just scaled-up.

[John Layton]

Getting a bit hard to find, and I know that opinions vary wildly on this one - but I sure do love my Zone VI (series 2) enlarger - which I truly lucked out in finding in very close to "as new" condition for 500.00 about nine (?) years ago - complete with its then-working nicely VC florescent lamp with compensating timer, a 35mm and 5x7 (glass plate) negative holders, and a 50mm Companon-S lens. Best part of this deal was an unopened, 50 sheet box of 16x20 Forte Warmtone VC fiber - worked perfectly and I got some great prints from this batch...all sold now and I wish I'd held at least one of these back!

It was within about three or so years that the blue channel of the florescent light unit began to get a little wonky - although it still works and I still have it...but I decided to go ahead and, at the expense of selling a much-beloved Hasselblad 903 SWC, I acquired the amazing LED VC unit, in 5x7 size, from J. Heiland, and I'm quite sure that since then its paid for itself in time and paper saved. This lamp does double duty as a light source for enlarging horizontally to 40x60.

I think the quality of the Zone VI enlarger is excellent, it being very sturdy, precise, and relatively simple. Having said this, if I were to find myself in more of an "heavy/industrial" use situation on a daily basis, I likely would have tried to snag a Durst 138.

At any rate...I use the Zone VI for several medium formats, all with a 100mm Companon-S. For 4x5 I'll use either a 180 CS, 135 Rodagon, or if I need to go large (30x40), a 120 WA Rodagon - and for 5x7 I'll use the 180 or, for going to 30x40 vertically I can use a 150mm G-Claron, which works wonderfully for this purpose. Anything larger I'll use my DIY horizontal enlarger. Ironically, even though the single lens which came with the Z-VI outfit is a 50mm, I almost never use this enlarger for 35mm, but instead will use my Omega D2-V.

[Drew Wiley]

The Durst L138 series is the best bet. It was available with numerous light source options and a wide range of excellent accessories. These were true commercial duty, so many of them saw a hard life for decades. But clean ones do sometimes turn up; and if you have decent shop skills, many of these can be successfully refurbished. I've done several of them. Not only was a selection of colorheads made for them, but all kinds of heads can easily be adapted to them. Condenser heads were also a standard option. Finding negatives carriers still in good condition can be a challenge; but they too turn up.

These Dursts are in an entirely different league than Omega or Zone VI - far more versatile and way more seriously built. Full floor to ceiling columns. Lots of folks here use them.

Another plus for the L138 chassis : it can easily be retrofitted with a customized 8x10 head if desired.

[interneg]

Compact: MPP Micromatic or the enlargers it was clearly licensed off - Omega E3/ E4. They have cam driven lens-matched autofocus and aren't huge. Heads are almost all cold-cathode. Column is more solid than the later E-series.

Best: De Vere 507, bench models fit in 60x80cm area, very, very solid & precise, fully modular and a range of heads etc. They don't demand operator contortions as part of regular operation.

Mixed: Most of Dursts 5x7's - not as compact or solid as De Vere can be, but shorter than a floorstanding De Vere and can be swung round to wall project. Fairly adaptable/ modifiable.

[Conrad . Marvin]

I used to have an Eastman Kodak 5x7 autofocus enlarger, with reducing attachment. It was heavy cast iron that consisted of 3 parts that bolted together - the base, lower column, and upper column with the enlarger and counterweights.

Attachment 247287

I have a Kodak model D which looks exactly like this. The numbers on the column and the lens are the same EE250 except for the K on the lens, making the year of manufacture 1944.
I decided to change the lens out because there is some haze that I could not remove, but it is auto-focus and I couldn’t easily find a modern 190mm enlarger lens.

Well, I made some measurements and found that there was enough room with the auto-focus mechanism to allow me to change the focusing guide and use a slightly recessed lens board to use a 180mm lens. Then I could get a 4.75x enlargement instead of 4x which would allow for easier 16x20 when using 4x5 films. So I spent a weekend taking the whole thing apart making measurements and called a machinist friend who had a much bigger mill than I do and has CNC. And we went to work.

Success!

There is a metal masking system below the negative carrier and it was useful for the glass carrier that was full sized for the entire light area. But, once you start making changes . . .

So I also designed some carriers for 5x7 and 4x5 which also have pin registration and would be compatible with the system that I use on my Beseler and all of my older negatives.

Then the bulb burned out.

I got what was recommended as a usable replacement, but it was hotter and broke one of the pieces of glass on the diffuser system. Time for more work. That was about the time when Calumet was selling the Zone VI and the 5x7 enlarger was in its second version so I bought a light source for my Kodak 5x7 and got busy making an adapter.

It goes on, but I am happy with the result and that’s what matters.

[bob carnie]

Compact: MPP Micromatic or the enlargers it was clearly licensed off - Omega E3/ E4. They have cam driven lens-matched autofocus and aren't huge. Heads are almost all cold-cathode. Column is more solid than the later E-series.

Best: De Vere 507, bench models fit in 60x80cm area, very, very solid & precise, fully modular and a range of heads etc. They don't demand operator contortions as part of regular operation.

Mixed: Most of Dursts 5x7's - not as compact or solid as De Vere can be, but shorter than a floorstanding De Vere and can be swung round to wall project. Fairly adaptable/ modifiable.

I agree here, I have settled on Devere 507 and 11 x 14 after using many , many enlargers.... BUT I am getting asked to print a lot more 35mm work these days and I am going to set up my Omega 4 x 5 with condenser , hot bulbs, glass carriers . for me this is the go
too enlarger for 35mm work.

[ic-racer]

Personally, I think the best 5x7 enlarger made was the Durst 1300.

If this is the best to own today, depends on if one has some spare parts and knows how to keep the electronics running. Essentially it is an L1840 with a 5x7 head.

Since it is the same size as the L1840, one might ask why not just get the L1840 and use a 5x7" mixing box? That is what I do with my L1840 when I need to enlarge 5x7.

I suspect many thought the same thing, so these 1300 are extremely rare. Someone that has posted in the forums here does have one.

That 1300 head also fits on the L138 (5x7) enlarger base and provides what might be a better color head than the CLS301.

[Drew Wiley]

I thought the L1840 was a double column L184 base, up to the baseboard, but single-column L138 above there. There is still one I can have free which I inspected a few years ago; but the owner will only let it be removed in whole, as one piece, from an industrial basement up two flights of stairs, and only let me have it - no one else. I already carried an even heavier L184 with colorhead out of there in one piece to refurbish it, and darn near wrecked my fingers, and my friends, their backs. Don't want to try that again. We had to walk it right through an open cafe which he also owned, then onto a waiting truck.

I certainly doubt that 1300 head will provide better color than a CLS301 with its filters still in pristine shape. It's just higher wattage plus a cutoff shutter, and some bells and whistles. I know that because the clean CLS301 is do use is just slightly behind my own high-wattage true additive RGB heads in print performance. And at the end, Durst intended to turn all their 2000W heads into additive in order to optimize the color even more. I've seen the insides of those additive heads, which never did go to market but somewhere else. My own additive design runs much cooler.

Unlike Cibachrome, today's RA4 papers are quite fast and way less idiosyncratic in spectral response, so the distinction between additive and more modern subtractive heads is slight. Where true additive still holds the edge is in very precise color interneg or chrome dupe work; but only a few of us still do that, and me less and less due to the significant rise in 8X10 film cost. Most of the internegs I have made were by contact from optimized Astia master dupes with all the masking controls already built in.

Today it would easily take $200 or more apiece to do that in 8x10 fashion even if Astia 100F was still around (it was on stable PET base). But even going directly from a color neg to an 8X10 Portra 160 contact interneg, plus one or two necessary b&w masks is still relatively expensive these days. Best just to shoot color neg film in the first place, or else step down to 4x5.

[interneg]

I agree here, I have settled on Devere 507 and 11 x 14 after using many , many enlargers.... BUT I am getting asked to print a lot more 35mm work these days and I am going to set up my Omega 4 x 5 with condenser , hot bulbs, glass carriers . for me this is the go
too enlarger for 35mm work.

See if you can get your hands on the condenser head for the 507 - head changeover is ridiculously simple (thankfully). From what I recall, the condenser system had Rodenstock's involvement in the design/ manufacture (not a surprise as De Vere were the Rodenstock importers for the UK).

[ic-racer]

This is the L1840. In the day it could be purchased with CLS1000 (5x7), CLS1840, or CLS2000 heads. Mine has the CLS2000 head and the Negateil shifting negative carrier for murals. I bought two of then that were broken and used the best parts of each to make a single working unit with spares.

What the CLS1000 5x7 head has to offer is that it uses the renown two piece mixing box system from the 10x10 heads. Just that it won't cover the 10x10 mixing box. Again, a very niche market, as many people would just get a 10x10 head.

It is the two-piece mixing box system that makes these heads so tall. 2.8meters fully extended.