The Dream Enlarger

[ric_kb]

Maybe this would be better in the lounge... or bar?

Suppose you were putting together a darkroom for 4x5 and 120. Given the current state of available lenses and enlargers (probably no new ones being made) What would your dream be... multiple enlargers are Okay... this is after all a pipe dream...
This is B&W only darkroom...


Oh, you have Googles of money to play with .....

richard
silverprankster.com

[Bob Salomon]

New enlargers and lenses are in production.

[ric_kb]

New enlargers and lenses are in production.

So the dream one would be? Please be my guest, make a pitch.

[Bob Salomon]

So the dream one would be? Please be my guest, make a pitch.

Rik,

Kaiser only makes up to 6x9cm enlargers. They are available from Freestyle and you can read all about them on their site. As for lenses, nothing surpasses the Apo Rodagon-N.

[monsta]

devere 504 with a ilford 500 multigrade head. bombproof!

[Peter De Smidt]

Saltzman, but maybe because I've never had one.

[dsphotog]

Saunders LPL 4550, it's the most modern, it's what Roman Loranc uses.
edit...(Evan's post reminded me) don't forget the VCCE head.
It makes adjusting contrast easy.

[evan clarke]

LPL VCCE...Evan Clarke

[Drew Wiley]

Give me fifty grand and I could design you a colorhead that makes every one ever on
the market look like something from the stone age. The ultimate enlarger never went
into production, although Dust began an analogous project before concentrating on digital. Other than the relatively weak digital enlargers themselves, every design around uses electronic formulas fairly archaic. As far as enlarger chassis are concerned, the finest probably ever economically feasilbe were made by Durst in the
70's and 80's. It's all been downhill from there due to the vastly increased expense in skilled labor and materials. No comparison between machined stainless steel and
extruded aluminum!

[Renato Tonelli]

My 4x5 dream enlarger is the Durst L1200 Multigraph and another L1200 with a VLS501 Color Head. I have them!:D I scrimped and save for years and years to be able to get them - now they go for pennies on the dollar.:(
Since human always want more, I have another dream enlarger: a Durst L1840 (10x10) - were I be able to afford it, I would have no place to put it.:(

[Andrew O'Neill]

My dream enlarger would be where its exposure system would selectively dodge/burn the negative for me. It would be connected to my mac and photoshop. I work the image how I want it, then the computer would send that information to the enlarger's exposure system, selectively adjusting the light, here and there. This would be my dream enlarger.

[jp]

I'm not too fussy really. If it goes up and down smoothly, isn't full of dust inside, has a relatively bright lens with plenty of f-stops, has a dichroic head, I'm good.

I've mostly used medium format capable enlargers, like the Chromega 67, and beseler 23c.

As far as cool features, autofocus would be nice, as would autoaperature, so it could open wide for focusing/composing, and stop down the actual exposure, like a modern SLR lens does. This feature would be integrated with the timer.

[Brian Ellis]

If money was no concern I'd just buy Nash Editions.

[nolindan]

My dream enlarger would be where its exposure system would selectively dodge/burn the negative for me...

Egoltronics Dodging Enlarger (http://www.egoltronics.com/mdIIEDLS.html)

[Bob Salomon]

My dream enlarger would be where its exposure system would selectively dodge/burn the negative for me. It would be connected to my mac and photoshop. I work the image how I want it, then the computer would send that information to the enlarger's exposure system, selectively adjusting the light, here and there. This would be my dream enlarger.

LogE used one to print the shots of the Russian missiles in the holds of the ships leaving Cuba in the early 60s. It is rather old technology today.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Well then...the Egoltronics 1010AE LF is almost my dream enlarger.

[percepts]

Any enlarger which stays in alignment, doesn't leak light, has a really good negative stage and is of good enough design to give high max contrast. Make really isn't important but a Durst L1200 does all of those things.

[ric_kb]

As OP, my own follow up -- Not many lenses mentioned. The Apo Rodagon-N... any others. I love my 170 Apo Nikkor -- but what other lens would make your day, drive you back into the darkroom for a week?

[nolindan]

what other lens would ... drive you back into the darkroom for a week?

Well, to tell the truth, it isn't the lens that drives me into the darkroom, it's the negative.

You can make a great image with just about any enlarger. There are some real dogs of enlargers and lenses but those are easily spotted. The great majority of equipment is capable of performance beyond our ability to extract same. And there are some systems that add a certain transcendence to an image with their technical virtuosity; These need the exceptional negative, with a plebeian negative they can do no more than deliver a plebeian print.

Homemade enlargers have been shown to be entirely adequate.

http://www.danmassey.co.uk/theoryimages/anseldark1.jpg

And who needs an enlarger and lens anyway. This is a Large Format group, damn it!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3229/2904265036_64b2bfb6a4.jpg?v=0

[csant]

And who needs an enlarger and lens anyway. This is a Large Format group, damn it!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3229/2904265036_64b2bfb6a4.jpg?v=0

Oh what a beauty that darkroom!

[Phil Hudson]

A DeVere 504 with Heiland Splitgrade conversion is pretty handy if your time in the darkroom is a bit limited!

[ChrisN]

LPL VCCE...Evan Clarke

Are these any good? I recently found a LPL VC 7700 at a flea market - for $50.

Now I just need to build a darkroom! :D

[Peter De Smidt]

A little off topic, but you can fairly easily make a chart to tell you the values on a color head such that you'll keep the bright tones constant and control the depth of the blacks through changing contrast via settings. The important point is that the near white tones stay constant through the contrast changes. This means that you do a test strip (or whatever) to find get the near white tone that you want and then adjust contrast until you get the darker tones that you'd like. Paul Butzi has an article on how to do this on his site. www.butzi.net . This method takes into consideration your actual light source and material. (Filters fade...) As such, it's much more accurate than some system pre-programmed into the enlarger.

[percepts]

Peter,
The constant speed point for contrast settings is a nice theory but in reality it isn't as accurate and many believe. There are several problems.

First, You need to be able to accurately judge the tone in the print which is the speed point and that is very difficult to do.
Second, that tone may not even exist in the print.
Third, as VC paper ages, it's contrast changes and the speed point moves to a lighter value.
Fourth, different developers will give different paper contrast and therefore the speed point moves.
Fith, the values above the speed point do change when you change contrast and that makes a significant difference to the lightest tones which do need to be compensated for when fine printing.
Sixth, when you meter your original subject for the shadows, then the shadow contrast should be good. But if the neg has a range above normal and you print for the high values, then the shadows will be blocked and no amount of contrast adjustment will fix that without ruining the look of the print.
Seventh, some filters may fade, although dichroic filters are not supposed to.

So in reality there is always some tweaking of print time required when a contrast change is made.

For what it's worth, my Durst CLS501 gives a speed point of a print density of 0.7 for fresh Ilford MGIV FB paper using Ilfords provided Y+M values. That is a middle grey. But using Ilford under the lens filters, the speed point is 0.3 which is around a zone print value 7. i.e. under the lens filters are already speed matched to lighter values.

So yes I agree it's useful to know where the approx speed point for your setup is and to have contrast changes which do swing around that point, but that point isn't fixed. It's an approximate point which moves about a little and tweaking print time is almost always required with a contrast change. Frequent printing teaches you to make on the fly judgements of how much to adjust.

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi Percepts,

The nice thing about Paul's system is that the hinge point is a very light tone, allowing one to expose for the highlights, and filter for the shadows. A reflection densitometer or a spectrophotometer is handy for making the chart. Yep, you need a chart for each paper/developer combo.

This system system allows me to get a good print much faster than I did before.

[neil poulsen]

Well, being able to align both dimensions on both the negative and lens stages would be a good start!

After that, I would want the following for a black and white enlarger:

>> An over-sized light source, so that one doesn't have to worry about the edges. It doesn't have to be much, maybe an inch larger in each direction. Say, 6"x6" on a 4x5 enlarger. In this way, the light source would be more consistent across the entire negative.

>> Be able to mount the negative stage in both landscape and portrait orientations.

>> Something simple and fixable. For example, the Minolta head was neat. But, it's complexity makes it impossible to repair these days.

>> Mount the enlarger on it's own stand that's designed so that the enlarger can be tethered at the top. In this way, an enlarger and stand that is placed on a concrete footing will have minimum vibration.

>> A color head (for VC printing) that relies on a single lamp. This makes it easy to use something like a Zone VI or Metrolux timer and place the sensor in the proximity of the lamp. (With multiple lamps, each lamp must be individually controlled.)

>> Have an extension for focusing, so that one need not have the arms of an orangutang to focus the lens.

>> A large rectangular bellows below the negatives stage, so that stray light is easily absorbed. This also allows for a large lens stage, so that one doesn't have to worry about fitting larger lenses. For example, I doubt that one could use an Apo El Nikkor 210mm on a D5 Omega.

>> An Apo El Nikkor lens of the proper focal length.

[Dave Langendonk]

... As far as enlarger chassis are concerned, the finest probably ever economically feasilbe were made by Durst in the
70's and 80's...

You mean one of these? I have one. Christopher Burkett has two. It's the best enlarger I've ever seen.