Buying NOS Enlarger Bulbs

[Luis-F-S]

I've been buying some NOS enlarger bulbs off the auction site with pretty good success. I've been sticking to either US (GE or Sylvania) or Japanese (Wiko, Eiko, Radiac, etc) made bulbs. So far I've purchased ELH's, ELH-5's, EYA & EVW bulbs for Durst and LPL Enlargers. I've been able to buy them pretty reasonable, usually for 25 % of the price of new bulbs. Just some suggestions for people trying to stock up on "projector" bulbs for their enlargers. After all, I suspect that projectors are also a dying breed and it's only a matter of time before the bulbs get pretty hard to find. Working on my lifetime supply................L

109839

[Jac@stafford.net]

My bet is that there will be enlarging bulbs for the rest of my life.
They are not illegal to sell.

Besides, I have two cases of them for the Focomat IIa,
and the LF enlarger uses 4 halogens, still legal.

[Luis-F-S]

Hi,

I'm not concerned about whether they are legal to produce; I'm concerned that the demand will drop so much that they will either stop making them altogether, or will be very expensive to purchase. L

[Jac@stafford.net]

Hi,

I'm not concerned about whether they are legal to produce; I'm concerned that the demand will drop so much that they will either stop making them altogether, or will be very expensive to purchase. L

I hear that

[Michael E]

My bet is that there will be enlarging bulbs for the rest of my life.
They are not illegal to sell.

Not yet. Regular light bulbs are already illegal to sell in Europe.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Not yet. Regular light bulbs are already illegal to sell in Europe.

Enlarger bulbs are not 'regular bulbs' in the USA.

[ac12]

I stocked up on the bulbs for my condenser enlargers, cuz they are the most at risk.
My Durst L1000 is already affected as I have to use G30 bulbs, cuz the OEM spec bulbs are long out of production.

Next, I plan to stock up on the bulbs for the color enlargers, while I still can.

[Michael E]

Enlarger bulbs are not 'regular bulbs' in the USA.

Neither are they over here. Selling special purpose light bulbs is still legal. I'm just seeing a trend here.

[Luis-F-S]

It's not the legality of whether they can be manufactured and sold that is the concern. It's strictly supply and demand. I'd like to know when the last " slide projector" was made and sold. If there is no demand, they will not be manufactured, like the Durst Thorn bulbs (which I still have 3), which have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Might as well get them while we can.

[Kodachrome25]

I seem to have amassed some three dozen bulbs for my LPL 4550, wonder how that happened, LOL!

[ac12]

The blastedly hard thing is to predict with any kind of accuracy how many bulbs you will need over the next 10-20+ years. Or as long as you will be printing.
I have 10 of the G30 bulbs, because I wanted enough buffer if I guessed wrong.
I figure with my intermittent use a bulb should last me about 2+ years, so I have a 20 year supply.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Should incandescent enlarger bulbs become unavailable due to loss of market demand, then alternatives, probably LEDs, will rise.

See the good thread: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?96198-LEDs-for-enlarger-light-source

An interesting product: http://heilandelectronic.de/led_kaltlicht/lang:en