Its mostly the matter of affordability.Originally Posted by ic-racer
Its mostly the matter of affordability.
It just depends how it was taken apart . These are thoughtfully designed to be easily dismantled and easily reassembled. And as has already been mentioned, you'd ideally want to do that for sake of transport and getting into user position anyway ... just as long as the main column springs haven't been detached - those can be dangerous to reconnect. I'd take it apart regardless, to inspect, properly clean, and lube everything prior to usage. All kinds of fine-tuning controls are built in, and take a little bit of time to individually check. No - that doesn't make the 138 a hassle compared to garden variety enlargers, but capable of precise operation over many decades if properly maintained. These are also solid heavy machines, so you need to think about your back too, when moving them. I transported both of mine in an ordinary pickup and got them into place by myself with just a handtruck. The big brother L184 8x10 version, nope; I needed help with that, plus a somewhat bigger truck.
$1200 seems reasonable if it has all the parts and is in good shape.
My 8x10 was $500, but after I got a Durst color head, mixing boxes, lens boards, lenses, spare power supply, negative carriers, cords, etc etc it was about $2000. That is still a bargain for a $43,000 enlarger.
I could have yet another free if I wanted, the whole nine yards. But I have no place to put it, and don't want to wreck my fingers or back getting it out of storage. It took six of us last time, hauling a fully set up 184 plus color head up three flights of stairs out of a commercial basement, then right through the middle of an operating restaurant, and onto a big flatbed truck. That was the easy part. Getting it into the rear of my darkroom was even trickier. The lab owner owned the restaurant too, in fact, the entire city block, so at least that aspect was feasible. But he won't give his abandoned equipment to anyone except me. So there it sits.
It only took just one month of weekends to get the entire 184 device up to like-new functionality, including colorhead rewiring and dichroic filter cleaning, and about 95% cosmetically as if new. Custom Bellows was surprisingly fast sending me a new bellows, and I re-laminated the baseboard in house. Overall, I put in only about $300 for refurbishing supplies, but after that, acquired some additional nearly mint pin registered carriers and anti-Newton glass which cost distinctly extra. My prior experience refurbishing Durst 138's and colorheads made the L184 project comparatively easy. Tricking it out to also almost immediately convert into a deluxe copystand was a later rainy month project. And then, just a few months ago, I added a full masking blade system for up to 30X40 inch prints, since I most certainly don't want to borrow the ridiculously heavy cast and machined steel vac easel from my much larger custom 8X10 color enlarger. Fun shop projects overall.
Paid more than twice that back about 1995 for the 138 currently owned. Then add lenses, extra condenser sets, light source, film carriers and ...
IMO, $1200 for a good Durst 138 complete is not cost excessive. Durst 138 film carriers are pricy ( few hundred U$D) and not easy to get today due to demand as are some of the needed accessories.
If not a Durst 138 for 5x7 _ 13x18cm and smaller, what lower cost enlarger might do or be close to similar, DeVere which is no less costly and in ways more difficult to find needed bits for.
Seems the time has passed when folks were shoving high quality enlargers into the dumpster fast as they could have passed. The decent ones that remain deserve a better life and should be used to make high quality prints again.
More than a few view camera folks dump a LOT more than $1200 on a camera in need of much work or lens or ...
Burning $1200 in film and processing with the passage of time can and will easily exceed the $1200 spent on a Durst 138. Consider this part of
the cost for print making.
Bernice
The last new, still in crate 138 chassis were going for either $12,000 or $15,000 apiece, depending on the exact configuration. That didn't include any kind of head, be it either a condenser head or colorhead. Add about another $6,000 for that late of a vintage colorhead and mixing box. Carriers were more than $1,000 apiece. So it was easy to spend $20,000 for one toward the end. By far the most I ever paid for a used one was $2000, but that included one helluva a powerful colorhead.
I didn't say the price was excessive. I said I cannot afford it. Now that we are both unemployed (thanks, Pandemic) I have to be very careful how I spend our savings. $1200 on an enlarger I can live without is simply beyond my means.
Patience and lucky timing. One might turn up free.
Can certainly understand. As a comparison, I bought an SM-183 some 30 years ago for $2,000.00 plus shipping from Utah to Louisiana. It's the L-184 base with the 138 camera. So basically a very stable, large 5x7 enlarger. I doubt I could sell it for what I have in it, so it sits in storage. If I didn’t have an 8x10 DeVere I’d use the138. It’s a pleasure to use. L
Last edited by Luis-F-S; 18-Aug-2021 at 19:09.
I got a 138 with a colour head from my friend Peter Jeune at The Camera Store in Calgary. It puts my Beseler 45MXT to shame mechanically. It is a great 5x7 enlarger. I think they were $10k+ back in the day. I've got a few lens boards, one mounted with a 210 and one with a 75mm Fujinon for making large prints from medium format negs. It's an absolute pleasure to work with.
Last edited by Greg Y; 18-Aug-2021 at 15:30.
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