Please help with Omega D5XL enlarger purchase

[Oliver]

Hello, all.

I have a quick newbie question. I have the opportunity to buy a D5XL Universal (chassis only) enlarger for a good price (under $100).

Is there anything I have to look out for in specific to not buy a lemon or is this a straight forward purchase. The chassis is used, comes with a baseboard (but is dismantled from the baseboard) and has no head. It does not even have the bellows, which I assume is normal when you buy a chassis only?

In any case, I was just wondering if there are tricky things to look out for aside from if the head mount assembly moves up and down with ease and that the knobs and controls work.

Thank you for any helpful suggestion.

[Eric Rose]

why would you just want a chassis? You can buy the whole thing used for pretty cheap these days. I picked up a very lightly used Omega D5500 with controller for $100CAD last year.

[Oliver]

This is just a good local opportunity that I have. And, most enlargers sell with Super Chromega D Dichroic II color heads, which I really don't need.

So, I thought to buy a head suitable for B&W either new or also used. Besides, even on eBay the D5XL enlargers still sell between $200 and $400.

[Eric Rose]

I have a D5XL as well with both a diffusion color head and a condenser head. I much prefer the color head for B&W work. Especially if you are doing split grade printing. I have found that putting the Ilford multgrade filter under the lens on the condenser setup degraded sharpness a bit.

But what the heck, $100 isn't much to blow.

[Jerry Thirsty]

Sounds like more work than it's worth to me. If you look at the picture of the D5-XL (chassis only) on B&H, it does have the bellows, which I would expect means that you're going to have to jump through some hoops to find a replacement and install it.

Other than that, the plastic gears on the back of the column for raising the head are quite fragile; make sure they aren't stripped or broken off and that both of the counterbalancing springs are there (they look like two tape measures with metal bands that go up and fasten at the top of the column).

I would agree with the comment about the dichro head being great for black and white. Unless you really want the condensor look.

[Bill_1856]

Don't.

[ronald moravec]

No bellow is like a car without seats. They can be replaced, but at too high a cost.

This is a bow wow.

[Oliver]

Thank you all for the helpful advice. The price was well under $100, at $75. However, if the bellows is pricy and you all recommend the Dichro head for B&W anyways, then I am better off getting a complete used system off of eBay.

Thanks again,

Oliver

[Oliver]

Thanks for the tips!!

Taking all your advice here, I actually disregarded the original idea and turned to Ebay. I picked up a D5XL in really good condition with dichroic head and a Beseler PM2-L color analyzer, a bunch of Beseler negative carriers and a Rodenstock lens for $99.

The only thing that seems to be not working is the focus/print switch on the Chromegatrol. It only works in "print" mode, which I assume is the lesser evil since I could just select a very long exposure time to do my focusing.