Conversion- process camera to LF enlarger, anyone?

[Albrecht Namatdurer]

Has anyone been down the path of adapting a process camera to enlarger use? I have been offered a Large Agfa 200 repro camera- and was wondering as to how easy/hard it would be to adapt something that is basically heading to the dump.
These machines are built like tanks , have a huge bellows, a vacuum system, built-in timers etc-
Or should i just let it go off to the tip for scrap?

[Ernest Purdum]

Enlargers and process cameras are rather closely related. The main factor in conversion would be the light source. Providing a diffused source for B&W shouldn't be too difiicult, but a source for color work might be a problem.

In any event, I hope you can find a reason to save it from the dump.

[mhulsman]

I am also looking for that solution.
But have not got a process camera yet.
I am doing B&W only on 8x10 and smaller.

I think a diffused light source on top of the process camera, and some filters underneath the lens will probably do it.
Or build a LED diffused head.

[Paul Ewins]

It depends on whether you are paying for it or not. You will most likely need a forklift or four strong friends to pick it up and a trailer to carry it in. If you are lucky the lenses will be G-Clarons which can be remounted to shutters, but more likely they will be Agfa/Staeble/Ultragons that are built into the barrels and are a lot less useful. The bellows will probably be huge - the one I got was 10" x 10" at the small end and 23" x 26" at the large end. I've earmarked that for an ULF project one day.

If it is a freebie or swap-for-beer then there are enough useful bits and pieces to make it worthwhile, but you will still be dragging a lot of scrap to the tip. But it really isn't a good candidate for an 8x10 enlarger as mostly these are simply too big to be useful. The biggest problem is that it doesn't allow enough distance from the lens to the table to get you much of an enlargement. Have a look at pictures of 8x10 enlargers and you will see that most are quite tall for this reason.

[mhulsman]

Thanks Paul for further explanation.

I can now get one for free.
The lens is interesting probably for my 8x10, and the vacuum board and bellows can be reused.

[Drew Wiley]

I was actually given a huge process camera - almost 22ft long! I could have enlarged
20x24 film with it! Probably cost over 30K new. No place to put it, so I cannibalized the lenses and the vacuum easel. The rest went to disposal. Sad, but stuff like this
appears from time to time. I've seen several smaller process cameras for next to nothing in architectural salvage shops, after old print shops were gutted. Who knows,
you might even encounter a blue dot Trigor lens on one worth far more than the
camera itself!

[ic-racer]

I was looking for a process camera to convert into an enlarger, but the place that had the process camera also had an 8x10 enlarger...so I just got the enlarger :). Without a high ceiling, a horizontal process camera-conversion might be better for some.