LPL enlargers are still in production, aren't they?
LPL enlargers are still in production, aren't they?
The Omega Brandess website appears to be offering LPL 4x5 enlargers at about $5K each. Personally, I don't think I would pay that unless I really had no choice. I suppose if one is rich or subsidized, or a professional earning enough from print sales to justify the expense, it might be worth it, but I can't afford it. I'm definitely among those who are playing with 4x5 entirely because used gear is now relatively cheap.
Yes, they are expensive, but the original question was primarily about the availability of new products.
You can still buy Durst 4x5 enlargers new, just not the true commercial ones, which were from a different division and actually 5x7. But even these are expensive.
john
i would not buy and enlarger at all and settle on contact printing.
and if larger sized images are required
i would get an affordable scanner and a establish a professional relationship
with a printer.
Scanners are far more endangered than enlargers. The software and service for specific models goes obsolete rapidly. Just how often can you afford to rebuy these devices, or to buy multiples of the same machines and hardware to begin with, just for the sake of parts? And as in-camera digital capture improves, there goes a big chunk of the drum scanner market itself. Many enlargers are still operating perfectly after fifty years and could easily go another fifty. If you're really determined to spend a buck on something new, there are even a few high-end Durst commercial units several decades old still in factory crates. You'd pay a king's ransom for them, and for the shipping. But they exist. But none of us are going to do that, when we can tune up a used one for a fraction of the price.
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