Contact Printer ?

**Eamonn Doyle** · 2-Jul-2009, 17:07

Does anyone know if there's such a thing as a contact printer that enlarges the images ?
I remember a visiting photographer showing us his contact sheets in college [around 1988] .. they looked like enlarged 35mm contact prints on 12x16 sheets instead of 10x8 ,,,each image seemed to be magnified x2 and made accessing the images a lot easier.
Thanks
Eamonn / Dublin

**Gem Singer** · 2-Jul-2009, 17:24

Those 35mm proof sheets were made with an enlarger.

Contact prints are a 1:1 reproduction of the negatives.

**Mark Sawyer** · 2-Jul-2009, 17:24

A "contact print" is by definition a print made with the negative in contact with the photo paper, and will always be the same size as the negative.

Smaller format photographers can make multiple-negative "proof sheets" by contact, and often interchangeably call them contact sheets or proof sheets, since they are both. The confusion arises when someone puts a whole roll of 35mm, 120, or multiple 4x5's in an 8x10 enlarger and enlarges the proof sheet. It's no longer a contact sheet, but the name still often gets used as a synonym for proof sheet.

**Michael Graves** · 2-Jul-2009, 17:46

The "enlarged contact" was a common offering from labs that had 8x10 enlargers. Durst and Omega both had negative carriers designed for their big units just for that purpose. However, as Mark and Gem point out, they are not contact prints. Merely enlarged proofs.

**Eamonn Doyle** · 3-Jul-2009, 02:38

Thanks for that everyone .. I should have guessed it was that i suppose !
Well, I just picked up a second hand 10x8 enlarger so I can finally get some decent sized 35mm proofs done

Eamonn