New Darkroom, wondering about the Beseler MXT

[James Webb]

I found this forum for the first time yesterday and this has to be the greatest web site I have ever come across. Thanks to everyone for all the amazing thoughts and ideas!

After years of using a public darkroom (I managed one in Chicago for 6 years) an d using my father-in-law's darkroom for the past three, circumstances have final ly allowed me to build my own in the basement of my home. My brother-in-law is c urrently constructing the walls, the plumbing, the ventilation, etc., and I have just finished obtaining most of the equipment from ebay - timer, easel, print washer, safelight, etc. The final buy will be the enlarger. My father-in-law has a Beseler MXT with an Aristo cold light and the results I have obtained with it blew away anything I got with the condenser enlargers at the public darkroom. S o I am planning on going with the MXT and cold light just because of the good lu ck I have had with it. After reading a few of the threads here yesterday, though , I realize that there is more than one good company that makes enlargers. So no w I am wondering if the MXT is the way to go . (What if the motor blows out?) Ca n anybody tell me anything negative they have experienced with the MXT, or if th ey think there is a better brand for that type of enlarger. Also, I was going to buy it new, but am not sure if it is wiser to buy a used one. I don't even own a 4x5, I use a Hasselblad, so I could probably get by with one of the smaller en largers, but the sturdiness of 45's has me convinced that is the way to go. Anyo ne think I should just buy a 67 instead? One last thing, where is the best place for me to purchase a new enlarger? I usually order from Calumet, but they have been disappointing to me this past week. They told me it would be 1 to 2 months before they have any MXT's in stock, and they are also out of high intensity Ar isto Cold lights. Oh yeah, can anyone let me know their preferences for the cold light, high or low intensity? I found that the high intensity light greatly inc reases contrast with VC papers, and I find it more difficult to do complicated d odging and burning because of the shorter exposures, but it allows me to use a s mall aperture setting without having to set the timer to 2 or 3 minutes.

Thanks to everyone who can help!

[Andrew Cole]

I have a Besseler MX series 4x5 enlarger and like it a lot. I think some people prefer the Omega, and it may be a bit sturdier. I've found for non-commercial/institutional use, the Besseler is more than adequate. I don't know about the cold light decision, I have one, but it is a Zone VI that came with the enlarger (used).

If the motor blows, I suppose you could crank it up and down with that little knob, but that would make 2-3 minute exposures seem to fly by. Mine is pretty old and well used and the motor is still going strong, I would think that should be one of your least major concerns.

I use mine with 35mm and 6x6 negatives also and I like the way it works. If the price isn't tremendously different, I feel you're better off getting the 4x5. If you ever decide to get a 4x5 kit, you'll already be ready in the darkroom. It's expensive to purchase new, sell and repurchase.

For used equipment, check out Midwest Photo Exchange. I've seen used MX 45s in their flyer from time to time.

[Marc]

Just a couple of observations Mr. Webb.

I have used a MXII, main difference is a tapered bellows I believe, for 25 years. I have used a Beseler condenser head, Zone VI cold light and at present am using a Zone VI VC head. I contact 8X10 negatives that tend to be a little on the dense side (gotta love those highly technical terms!) and the times are in the 30 to 45 second range for the soft light exposure and an additional 5 to 10 seconds for the hard light. I guess I don't know if that makes it high or low intensity (it gets a little hard to see through those 8X10,s sometimes). I do some printing for a local pro of the high school teams in 645 format. She has negatives that run from 5 seconds to 25 seconds depending if she is inside with flash or out in the sun. (I know these times are not entirely relevent but give you an idea.)

As to used I can't see a down side except maybe finding one. I occasionally go to Iowa City Iowa where the university is and at a small camera store they have one on ocassion. I am not sure how to age a Beseler (I believe they date to the 50's) except that they go from green to blue to black, MX, MXII, and MXT. If someone knows different I stand corrected and humbled by thier knowledge! A little digging might uncover one, maybe an ad in the classifieds. I had a friend call one night wanting to know if I wanted an Omega enlarger, no charge. Well the price was right! I went over to his house and it turned out to be an old 4X5 enlarger in need of some tlc and a cord. His neighbor had aquired it some where along the line and was going to set it out for fall junk pick up. It's now on semi permanent loan to a friend along with the Zone VI cold light head. The point is they are out there and not everyone is either aware of thier value or cares.

As far as the motor blowing out I haven't had a problem and it has made a few trips up and down the column! There should be availabiltiy of parts and assemblies, it has been around for a while.

[Aaron Ng]

James,

I use an MXT and once the wire cord got caught between the baseboard and the wall while I was raising the enlarger head with the motor. It was dark and had I not stopped the motor in time, the cord would have snapped off the motorised unit. Close shave! Just a little caution here.

Aaron

[Donald Brewster]

Of course, if you get the MXT you will be prepared and all set to go when you see the light and move to making 4x5 images. ;-)

[Kevin Crisp]

James: The Beseler is a good machine, I can't comment on better than an Omega never having had an Omega. I've had two of the Beselers. One came out of a garage where it was extremely dirty and the motor was dead. Some WD40 and it worked great until I sold it 5 years later. The motor seemed to me to be very high quality and, if you think it about, it doesn't really run much compared to most 120V motors so I'm not surprised they have a lack of problems. The paper manufactureres claim you can use yellow filters to modify older cold lights so that they work well with current VC materials. I tried really hard to make that work and no matter what the contrast was untameable. I called Aristo directly (great service, interesting woman who answers the phone) and they sent me a tube and I relamped the cold light with their V54 tube and it works great with Ilford filters. If you use the #2 filter for a "normal" negative (unfiltered light from the V54 doesn't seem to be really truly normal to me) it does decrease the printing speed a bit all by itself which is your concern. I'm not absolutely sure about it since I sold them both years ago, but I think some of the older MX's have side braces that can interfere with the easel, so you might check that out. These do show up often on Ebay, I think in practice old is as good as new, and while a medium format enlarger like a 23C would be adequate we all hope you move on from that little tiny square negative, and the MXT would let you do that with just the purchase of a negative carrier and a longer lens. If you will never go bigger than 6X6, the Omega B22XL (longer column) is remarkably inexpensive on Ebay and can be easily lamped with an Aristo head. I've had mine since high school (uh...32 years ago) and I still like it and use it for 35mm and 6X6. It will not handle a 6X7 negative though, which the 23C will.

[Sal Santamaura]

Since you've got the space, I strongly suggest that you go with a 4x5 enlarger. In addition to enabling enlarging of 4x5 negatives in the future if you ever want to, you'll reap the great benefit of very even illumination for your roll film originals. Many 6x7 enlargers exhibit significant corner falloff, especially when printing with higher contrast papers/filters.

[Kevin Crisp]

And one more thing on "cords," it gets really exciting when the gears of the lift come in contact with the power cord draped across the vertical track. Just so you know. Kind of a high maintenance flash bulb.

[kthompson]

Hey, we've got three of those monsters here in our lab...one of them is on a drop leaf table (for making bigger prints) with a high-intensity Aristo coldhead....this does make a difference for pretty large prints, but I wouldn't worry about it too much for smaller ones....we occasionally pull this thing out into the middle of our huge darkroom and tilt the head back & make murals this way as well....

The other 2 have color heads on them, and are younger...the older units have a tapered bellows on the bottom stage (lens stage)...these don't quite offer you all the alignment controls of the newer chasis...no really big deal, but in it's old age, we wound up retrofitting a new bellows & lower stage to the one with the cold head....it basically couldn't be aligned after a certain point.

Don't worry about the motors, they'll last for a long time, but they can also leak oil sometimes, so be careful....the enlarger can/will jump the tracks sometimes, the chasis frame can get bent if mishandled and then you're really out of luck, alignment-wise....but all in all, it's a real workhorse of an enlarger.

[Matt Long]

James:

I would not hesitate to go with the 45MXT. I have had several years of experience with this enlarger and some of its earlier incarnations. (Note to Marv -- I started out on an old blue one in high school in the 80's and it probably 20 years old back then!) I have found the MXT to be durable and reliable. Complaints? The focussing mechanism isn't too terribly precise -- the rack and pinion tends to jump a bit when examining the image with a grain magnifier. Other than that, no gripes. As other posters have noted, leave room for growth and go with a 4x5 enlarger. Enjoy!