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Thread: Enlarger

  1. #41

    Re: Enlarger

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Robertson View Post
    First, sorry Stanley. You are NOT forgotten.
    However . . . Tim! The name Phillipe Halsman meant nothing to me, but many of his photographs are so immediately familiar they verge on (I apologise for the devalued word) Iconic. Seems he used monster TLR's.
    My only issue with the Yashica is that you're stuck with the (very sharp) 80mm and a minimum focus of around 1 metre. No tight head and shoulders, unless you crop, and if you're going to crop why not shoot 35mm and get more shots per roll? I have a pair of Mamiya C330S's and they are my first choice on those occasions I do shoot portraits. Nice 135mm lens, parallax indicator and close focus.
    The YashicaMat was a great street camera (small, almost silent, waist level) and I nearly bought one out of pure nostalgia a couple of years ago.
    Again, sorry for stealing your thread Stanley, how are you?
    Good, thank you. Thanks for the info, the Yashica is a very nice camera!

  2. #42

    Join Date
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    Re: Enlarger

    Most enlargers for 5x7 and larger are not too easy to use for smaller formats because the mounting for the lens is not well suited to shorter Fl. lenses. I would consider buying two enlargers one for 35mm & medium format such as an Omega B22 and another enlarger for big negatives such as a Durst 138. The nice thing is that you can sit the smaller enlarger on the base board of the bigger enlarger when you want to use it. If you plan to do this I would avoid enlargers that easily go out of alignment when moved.
    Andy :-)

  3. #43
    Jac@stafford.net's Avatar
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    Dec 2012
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    Winona, Minnesota
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    5,413

    Re: Enlarger

    While it is possible to convert a 5x4 enlarger to 10x8, it is not inexpensive nor particularly effective, IMHO. Real 10x8 and 10x10 enlargers are huge!

    For the price of used enlargers today, I would buy two or three of them. I settled on an Omega for 5x4, and a Focomat IIa for MF to 35mm. They fit side-by-side very well. For 10x8 I have a 14 foot-tall, 498 kilo Saltzman and nowhere to put it.

  4. #44

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    Re: Enlarger

    Don't worry too much about enlargers. I don't know how things are in the UK, but in the USA you can't hardly give them away.
    What enlarger do you have up in the attic?
    Again I don't know whats commonly available in the UK in terms of 8x10 enlargers (the "bottom feeder's special" in the US is the Elwood) but it seems that one option would be to build your own by adapting an old process camera with a home built light source in lieu of the back, project on a piece of sheet metal hung on the wall and magnets for an easel---a vacume easel would be an upgrade.

    My current enlarger battery:
    8x10 & 5x7(masked)--Elwood
    4x5 ---------------------Omega
    120, 6x7cm & 127 ---Optimeus
    35mm-------------------Leitz
    Note---it was cheaper to get the last two enlargers than to purchase the accessories needed to convert the Omega to smaller formats! If you have a choice between used 4x5 enlargers, consider the one that comes with the most accessories.

    Its a disease, I tell you!
    I really enjoy contact printing far more than futzing about with enlargers
    If I could, I'd trade for a Beseler 45 with the 8x10 conversion and cover all my bases with a single machine---that would be rational, but men suffering from enlarger envy are not rational!
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

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