Great thanks for letting me know.
I just received my enlarger attachment and I am looking forward to getting the best out of it that I can. I love my Intrepid 4x5 and am excited that I can use it in a similar way to how many photographers in the early days of photography when they made their own prints with the same cameras with which they made the exposures.
I have a big 4x5 Beseler enlarger that has served me very well in past years but about 4 years ago I had to take it apart and put it away. I will not be able to set it up again really soon I'm afraid. But this new enlarger reminds me of my old Graflarger from years past and I plan on setting this up in closet in a similar way to how I used the Graflarger.
It will be great to be able to make prints again!
BTW, I haven't really had a few quiet moments to sort through the many posts in this thread but I will make some time over the next few days. I hope there is some good information here about how best to use this little device.
The Viewfinder is the Soul of the Camera
If you don't believe it, look into an 8x10 viewfinder!
Dan
good morning I resume this post because I got the enlarger kit, but I saw that it is difficult to focus, do you have any ideas to improve this? I act on the micrometric adjustment of the rear standarda
I got the attachment a few days ago. I have not used it yet, but thought it might interest somebody that a Graflok back does not seem 100% necessary.
Before ordering the attachment, I wrote to Intrepid and inquired about this, as my 4x5" camera is homemade and altogether non-standard and has no Graflok back.Their opinion was that it wouldn't work (without the Graflok back). I went ahead, anyway.
When the attachment finally arrived, fashioning an adapter from wood turned out to be one Saturday afternoon's work; see photo. Yes, I have a table saw, but I'm no master woodworker.
What disappointed me a bit was the filter-holder-monochrome-light-source combination. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are LED arrays out there that can be controlled to emit just about any color one wants. Such an array could make the filters unnecessary and would not be in the optical path.
Oddly enough, the kit contains no instructions. Instead of them, you're supposed to watch videos at Intrepid's website. If you can't connect, you're on your own.
Hi everyone,
So I have received the enlarger kit with their 4x5 MKIV camera the other day. I have bought this kit solely to print 35mm unto 6x9 films, I don't shoot 4x5 yet so I don't print those as well. Hopefully in the near future. So below is my first initial findings and thoughts about the combo (mainly disappointing first impression);
1) The lens board, which comes with enlarger kit is small. So I attach it to the camera, it is moving to 4 direction about 1mm or so, which might affect sharpness at the printing stage.
2) My 2 enlarger lenses do not fit the board in a recess mode, as shown on their videos. The board opening is small. I can attach the lenses only the opposite way which moves the focus point further away. That means enlarging 35mm negatives to A4 size is nearly impossible, if one doesn’t have more than 1 meter height enlarger. I guess it is even impossible to use 80mm enlarger lens, so 100mm lens is required which makes even more difficult to enlarge 35mm negatives. You need to focus, recheck and focus again, which requires really wide arm openings as well.
3) The film masks have a huge design issue (I like the heaviness and rigidity though) The sticky tape they put outside made them really tight while inserting, in fact one of the film masks has lost the tape already. An indent where they put the tape would be much better for smooth operation. I am quite sure other masks will lose the tape as well in the near future.
4) The film masks don’t have grooves to keep the film aligned between the masks, which makes aligning film really difficult.
5) The camera itself doesn’t tell me if the front or back standards at 90 degree, perfectly centered or whatsoever. So I can never know if they are parallel to the paper plane. It would be great if they have such grooves which make kind of clicking noise when you center them and when you make them 90 degrees.
I am expecting to receive my darkroom equipment soon so I’ll let you know how the whole kit performs during printing stage but my early thoughts are disappointing and the operation is not as smooth as discussed on their videos.
In short, if you have a lens 80mm or shorter, forget about it. Also if your copy stand is less than 1 meter, you can't print A4 size 35mm negatives as you need at least 100mm lens which will need more than 1 meter height from the paper. If you plan to print MF, that might be possible. So is 4x5.
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