Originally Posted by
neil poulsen
In your search, if you were to get a D2, you would want a D2V. With a D2V, one can adjust the condensers for different formats. (i.e. 4x5, 6x9, 6x7, 6x6, 35mm). With the D2 on the EBay listing, you need a different set of condensers for each film size.
What you've heard regarding inconsistency pertains to cold light heads. (The listing was for a condenser head, which don't need a warmup time.) I began with a D2V condenser enlarger and used it for quite a long time and obtained nice results. But once I began using "cold-light", I never went back. The D2V condenser head itself sits on a shelf, and I've adapted it to my current enlarger. But, I've not ever used it.
At one point, I used an Aristo cold-light tube head, and it was indeed inconsistent. Ansel Adams had some warm up recommendations in his books for this, but they weren't effective. Frankly, it's not worth the effort.
I currently use an enlarger with a color diffusion head, and I like that a lot. It gives the same effect as a cold-light tube head, but without the inconsistencies. It works well for multi-contrast papers. (For greater than normal contrast, add magenta. For less than normal contrast, add yellow.) If you run across a decent enlarger with a color head THAT WORKS, consider it.
You can always begin with a condenser head, read about the different technologies, and then consider something more advanced.
For all aspects of black and white film, consider getting the three Ansel Adams books, The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. Get those published in the early 80's. (Preferably hardbound.) They are masterful. For example, he discusses the differences between condenser and "cold-light" enlarging. And, he discusses all other aspects of B&W, developing, exposing the negative, printing the negative, filtration, hardware lenses, meters, etc., etc., etc.
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