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Thread: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Stevens Point, WI
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    8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    I just picked up my first 8x10 camera (waiting to receive it). Of course I will try some contact prints but it seems a shame not to enlarge them. I have two Beseler enlarger, 45VXL and 45MXT. I don't want to pay $4500 for the Beseler conversion kit and I assume I am not alone. Also, I do not have room for a stand alone 8x10 enlarger.

    It seems too daunting to build one. Even with an Aristo cold light I would still need some sort of adapter.

    So what does everyone else in my boat do? Any thoughts are appreciated. thanks.

    Ny the way, I also picked up a Beseler HD 240mm enlarging lens. Anyone have comments about that lens in this setup?

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    161

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Ebay I think is the obvious source. Conversion kits come up for a crap load less than 4500 pretty regularly.

  3. #3

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Welcome to the very dark and distant side of photography. The Beseler conversion head found on the eBay each week is not for the 45MCRX type and the bulbs are fluorescent type found for a buck a piece at Walgreen's. The cost is something like $600 for it to boot.

    You don't have the time or the space but some money right? Have someone build a box and buy an Aristo Cold light head source to mount at one end and the lens at the other end. You will need a bellows or a slide in the box for focus and the entire setup can be postioned horizontally.

    Or..

    You have someone make an adapter to mount the Aristo Cold Light Head on your 8x10 view camera, put the enlarging lens on a board. A negative carrier can be made to go in a slot in front of the light source.

  4. #4

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    This is an example of a homemade but accurate negative carrier and a horizontal setup

    .

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Richmond, VA
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    1,057

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Quote Originally Posted by jeroldharter View Post
    I just picked up my first 8x10 camera (waiting to receive it). Of course I will try some contact prints but it seems a shame not to enlarge them. I have two Beseler enlarger, 45VXL and 45MXT. I don't want to pay $4500 for the Beseler conversion kit and I assume I am not alone. Also, I do not have room for a stand alone 8x10 enlarger.

    It seems too daunting to build one. Even with an Aristo cold light I would still need some sort of adapter.

    So what does everyone else in my boat do? Any thoughts are appreciated. thanks.

    Ny the way, I also picked up a Beseler HD 240mm enlarging lens. Anyone have comments about that lens in this setup?
    Take it from someone who has been down that path and hold off a while. I too picked up a Beseler conversion kit complete with adapter, lens, cold light, MC filters, metrolux timer etc. shortly after I purchased my 1st 8x10 camera (almost 4 years ago).

    I started making Azo contact prints and never looked back. The conversion kit sits in a box in my office. I have yet to mount it on my enlarger. My personal preference is for the Azo/Amidol contact prints. Yes, I know Azo is hard to find, but Michael Smith has 5 boxes of 20x24 Canadian Grade 2 Azo for sale (see the azo forum) and someone has a box of Grade 3 Azo listed on Ebay right now, so it does turn up every now and then.

    Also Michael Smith will be announcing the "large run" of Lodima (a silver chloride paper, similar to Azo) shortly. I plan on making a rather large purchase when this is finally announced because I don't know if it will ever be offered again.

    And no, my conversion kit isn't for sale, at least not now. Why? Because someday I may produce that grand landscape negative that just screams for a HUGE print.

    Of course, I always bring along the 4x5 or a 4x5 back for my 8x10 whenever I'm on a photo trip, so if the Grand Landscape presented itself, I could always shoot a 4x5 negative and enlarge that.....hmmmm maybe my 8x10 conversion kit will be for sale before long.....

    Best wishes and enjoy your 8x10!

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Dec 1997
    Location
    Baraboo, Wisconsin
    Posts
    7,697

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    I suspect that these days many people interested in enlarging 8x10 scan it. After attending Michael Smith's workshop I started making contact prints from 8x10 on Azo, developed in Amidol, the whole bit. I enjoyed contact printing but it's pretty mechanical and I also occasionally wanted larger prints. I bought an Epson 4990 scanner and have been very happy with the results. Of course I already knew Photoshop and digital printing so it was no big leap for me, it might be a bigger leap for you.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Alaska
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    302

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Years ago I did something similar to print 7x17 negs on an 8x10 enlarger, but the principle is the same in this case. Build a simple plywood box to raise the negative above the original Beseler negative stage sufficiently to focus the lens; in this case about 100mm or so for the 240mm lens.

    My neg carrier was glass, and I fixed the bottom glass in the plywood box, and covered the neg with a free floating piece of AN glass. Or use a glass-less carrier, like Turner Reich illustrates.

    My light source was a bank of 24-inch fluorescent tubes, placed in another plywood box. If I were doing this today, I would use LED lights. Using independent banks of blue and green LEDs, you could easily to split-printing without filters.

    The lamp box had to be removed to change negs, but how many 8x10 negs do you print in a session?

  8. #8

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Let us know how your project is progressing.

  9. #9

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    What kind of 8x10 camera are you getting, a field or a studio camera?

  10. #10

    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Fort Smith, NT, Canada
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    47

    Re: 8x10 Enlarger light source for Beseler

    Quote Originally Posted by Turner Reich View Post
    This is an example of a homemade but accurate negative carrier and a horizontal setup

    .
    Hello,

    What is the door in the centre section for (in the original camera configuration)? I have a Deardorff studio camera with a similar door and have never been able to figure it out.

    Thank you.

    Cheers,
    Clarence

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