Omega D3 Questions

I have on my hands a flea market Omega D3 which happens to be in exellent condition. But my experience is with D2's. This particular D3 has only a 75mm Wollensak lens with the corrrect track for it. It also has a "universal" track. But I am not interested in any of that. I have noticed that the bellows travel isn't very much. My question is, can I put a 135mm lens on this thing and use it like a D2? If so, would D2 cones work on a D3? If not, then Im going to have to come up with a way to fabricate a cone for a 135mm lens. I understand that the auto-focus feature for 4x5 called for a 150mm lens. If anybody can enlighten me as to the usefulness of a D3 in a manual D2-style mode, particularly for 4x5 work, I'd be grateful.

A long time ago (late 1980s) we had a D3 at work, along with several other types of Omegas. We were able to use the D3 with a medium length cone and a 135mm lens to enlarge 4x5 negatives. I do recall that it was a bit limited in enlargement capabilities, but it did the job- manually focussed of course.
Then the budget requests were approved and our old enlargers were replaced by new Super-Chromega D5-XLs. So my memory of the D3 is a bit dim now. However, KHB Photographics in Toronto is a great source for enlarger parts and knowledge; I would ask them.

I would think with the right cone* and the "universal" track, you would be ok. The track gives some bellows movement with raising and lowering the chassis, then you fine focus with the knob.
There are lots and lots of Omega lens cones out there in the world, you should be able to find one without having to look too long and hard.

Alternatively, if you wanted to get a track made, that is also possible, but may not be within what one is willing to pay to get a flea market enlarger going. (you'll still need the right lens cone)

FWIW, I think D-3s are great enlargers. I currently have two of them sitting side by side in my darkroom.

That is an auto focus enlarger. Find something different if you are not interested in auto focus.
If it were me I’d get it and use it with its intended purpose as autofocus. Admittedly, the last time I had a D3, I had all the tracks, cones and carriers I need for my lenses.

look for what is called the auxiliary focus attachment .. it is a lens cone with a bellows attached originally made for doing jewel prints / reductions but it is a great "all cone" cone.
http://store.khbphotografix.com/Auxi...gers-Used.html.
you will never need another cone.

I have new Ender 3 3D printer on the way. I'll have a bit of a learning curve, but I would think making a cone would not be such a tough job. Although unless somebody can tell me a good cone length for a Wollensak 135mm, I suppose it would be trial-and-error. When making 8x10 prints, it seems to me the enarger would spend most of its life between mid-post to the top.

I printed on a D3 for years and had no trouble using any lens I needed. There are two focus adjustments one for the autofocus bellows and another for the fine lower adjustment. If you don't have the autofocus setup you just have to redo focus if you raise or lower the head.

I would think it would be very difficult to get the autofocus to ever actually work. You'd still have to fine tune it if you moved the head.

Setup the D3 and start printing photos. I moved to a D5 with a custom cabinet and like it a lot.

P.S. 3d printers are super fun. I suggest starting with fusion360 if you want to learn CAD as opposed to some of the other progs like tinkercad. If you get into it at all you will end up at fusion anyway. A million good YouTube resources await you. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by willwilson

I printed on a D3 for years and had no trouble using any lens I needed. There are two focus adjustments one for the autofocus bellows and another for the fine lower adjustment. If you don't have the autofocus setup you just have to redo focus if you raise or lower the head.

I would think it would be very difficult to get the autofocus to ever actually work. You'd still have to fine tune it if you moved the head.

Setup the D3 and start printing photos. I moved to a D5 with a custom cabinet and like it a lot.

P.S. 3d printers are super fun. I suggest starting with fusion360 if you want to learn CAD as opposed to some of the other progs like tinkercad. If you get into it at all you will end up at fusion anyway. A million good YouTube resources await you. Good luck!

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I'm not spending any money buying Fusion. I'm studying Freecad, for the better or worse of it. My years of Adobe use should be helpful. As for the auto focus, I have no desire to use it. I will be using it for 4x5 negatives to make 5x7 to 8x10 prints only. My darkroom experience tells me the enlarger will spend its life between 1/2 column height to top of column, at most. With that as an assumption I should certainly be able to mathematically compute a cone length based on the 75mm with accompanying cone to make a cone for 135 Wollensak to be used at the aforementioned head height range. Then print a trial cone in sections till one is arrived at as a correct legnth through trial and error. Then measure it and print a whole cone. I've come up with hairbrained ideas before on problems like this more often than not, they worked. I certainly beats spnding $100 on gas at these absurd gas prices to drive back to the flea market and demand my $50 back. The thing is in excellent condition. Problems like this can be made fun when you're retired and don't want to be retired and bored.

Edit. I hope you folks know how grateful I am for your posts. It has been useful.

I made a track for an 80mm lens to enlarge roll film on my D3–just close enough to keep the lens in range of the bellows. I used a jigsaw and an aluminum flat bar which I then riveted to an incorrect focus track. I needed an 80mm cone, and made one out of a PVC pipe adapter I found at Home Despot.

My 139mm B&L Tessar that I used for 4x5 needed a longer cone in the vicinity of 4-5 inches. The 50mm Componon I used for 35mm worked on a flat board as I recall.

I just wanted the tracks to keep the lens in range, not to keep it in focus.

But it’s a cool feature, because it’s a lot easier to adjust the enlarger height to get the magnification right if the lens is sort-of in focus as you raise and lower the head.

Rick “not that hard to make these work well” Denney

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Originally Posted by rdenney

I made a track for an 80mm lens to enlarge roll film on my D3–just close enough to keep the lens in range of the bellows. I used a jigsaw and an aluminum flat bar which I then riveted to an incorrect focus track. I needed an 80mm cone, and made one out of a PVC pipe adapter I found at Home Despot.

My 139mm B&L Tessar that I used for 4x5 needed a longer cone in the vicinity of 4-5 inches. The 50mm Componon I used for 35mm worked on a flat board as I recall.

I just wanted the tracks to keep the lens in range, not to keep it in focus.

But it’s a cool feature, because it’s a lot easier to adjust the enlarger height to get the magnification right if the lens is sort-of in focus as you raise and lower the head.

Rick “not that hard to make these work well” Denney

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Man, the number of times is countless that I had to fabricate things with arduous manual labor out of sundry supplies... the story of my life. Saws, files, and countless implements to make things out of other things. Been there, done that, and have the t-shirt and the hat. If all I have to do is put my Adobe experience to use learning CAD, and letting the printer do the work, then thank god for small inventions.

Finding your cone length will be easy if you already have the lenses. You can hold the lens under the lensboard area and get an good idea of the flange focal length needed for the cone to obtain focus. Personally I think it would be much easer to use a single cone and make the focus track. If only enlarging to two sizes then only two positions on the focus track need to be specified.

Even though you may not be interested in the autofocus function, you will still need to construct a focus track to hold the wheel in position. Since you need a track, why not at least make the wheel position correct for your two common magnification sizes.
Just prop the wheel to the position to get in focus and record the distance the wheel is offset. Do this for a few points and draw it up in CAD and have someone make the focus track for you in carbon fiber or whatever.

I guess if you are handy with CAD, you could draw up concentric cones with a screw/helicoid and have a single adjustable cone. In fact the Leica autofocus enlarger had just that. Although the helicoid for the lens is to fine tune the autofocus system, it can be used to focus when projecting outside of the autofocus range (on the floor, for example).

Trust this helps-https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...337545e0fa.jpg

wrong post

Since I started this thead 7 weeks ago, I hope enough reliable sources will still be engaged to help with an important question. Since it is a good buddy 40 miles away who is the owner, it was only today when I could get down there to actually see his D3 acquisition. He's dependent on me for knowlege of it, and my knowledge is poor. Viewing the 2 photos attached, Is this machine 4x5 ready as far as the lamphouse and condensers go? I suspect it is not. The enlarger came with a 75mm Wollensak with its dedicated correct focus rail, plus a universal rail. It came with a 4x5 negative carrier, and as you can see, nothing to fit into the slot on the front of the lamphouse. I originally thought this slot was for a filter drawer. Now I learn that the slot may be for supplementary condenser glass instead, but it came with nothing to cover or go into the big opening at all. So I really don't know what was supposed to be there. But as I look at the condenser assembly, I suspect it may not be for 4x5. I didn't get to measure the diameter of the glass, but it looks mighty puny sitting down in there. So my question is, if he put a 135mm lens on it with the 4 1/4" recommended cone, and we make something to simply cover the big opening, is this enlarger capable of 4x5 work as it is now? Thank you.

Hi HT

You might take a look at Harry Taylor's old website. He passed away a few years ago but mr peabody might be helpful with his wayback machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060202...enlargers.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20060206...ga_manuals.htm

good luck!

Thank you. The question has been answered. This is the wrong condenser set for 4x5.

Yes, it is wrong. The 4x5 condenser is the full size of the housing.

How you doing Henry/Tom… it’s beeen a long time since I’ve noticed you being active.

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Originally Posted by BrianShaw

Yes, it is wrong. The 4x5 condenser is the full size of the housing.

How you doing Henry/Tom… it’s beeen a long time since I’ve noticed you being active.

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Great Brian. Hope you are well. Thank you for your verifying input. My friend actually found a correct condenser set about an hour ago for $40. I feel better, as he first saw the enlarger at a flea market and called me for a yay or nay quick opinion before he bought. For me, I was in a tough spot, but gave my nod to it based on the $50 price. So I guess he still got out OK. I HATE giving bad advice on these sorts of things. We look to each other on these sites for credibility. Holding up my end is important to me. Regards, KN4SMF
Edit: Where I've been is I got on studying and overhauling Ampex tape recorders and such.

Well, here's my cone I just finished printing for 135mm Schneider. I made it adjustable. Right now it's set to 4 1/4 inches long. Its 4 9/6" inside diameter. My buddy says the diameter of the enlarger opening is 4 1/2. But I don't see how it could work without cutting off corners. What I don't get is why they would make the opening in the enlarger bellows 4 1/2" on a 4x5 negative that has a 6" diameter.

Nice work!