I would like to be able to produce small-ish (up to ~8x10") darkroom prints from sheet film at home. The problem is that there is no real darkroom - just a small bathroom that I can black out temporarily. Adequate for developing film and small prints but no way to permanently set up a full-size enlarger there. As it is, I can do contacts and direct positive prints from 4x5"/9x12cm. They are neat but obviously a bit small.
So I'm considering two possibilities. One is moving to a larger format camera for better sized contacts. I'm in a pretty decent position to do this. Most of my LF lenses cover 5x7 anyway. One or two could even be useful for 8x10. I have a Paterson Orbital daylight tray that can develop two 5x7s or one 8x10 sheet at a time. I have a big tripod that could easily carry a bigger camera.
On the other hand, going larger would mean much higher film costs and worse, great deal of extra weight and bulk to lug around. So this is where option two comes along.
I think I could put together an ad-hoc setup to provide a limited range of enlargement from 4x5 that could be taken apart for storage. Intrepid has a Graflarger-like enlarger attachment coming up which shows some promise. I also have the frame of an old 35mm enlarger that could probably be hacked into carrying a Graflarger+camera combo with more repeatable alignment than just a tripod with head pointing down.
So...
* are there any gotchas specific to small-ratio enlargement or Graflarger-type camera attachments? (I do realize the Intrepid unit is not available yet)
* are there other ready-made solutions that would be a good fit for the problem (~2x linear enlargement from 4x5, compact, easy to dismantle or fold for storage)?
* would contact prints have a clearly visible advantage even against this modest level of enlargement?
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