B&J Contact Printer ?

**John Conway** · 26-Oct-2011, 16:32

Anyone know about a contact printer made by Burke and James ? How they work? There is one listed on ebay. I am curious about this machine. It looks like the gadget Ralph whore to a costume party in the Honeymooners.

**jnantz** · 26-Oct-2011, 20:11

there are 6 bulbs and a safe light bulb
and switches on the side
you turn the switches on for the exposure and
then individual lights to burn / dodge
i haven't seen one ( or one like it ) in action before
but know of people who use/used ones like it
and swore they worked great ...
8x10 is pretty big, the shipping might be a killer !

good luck !
john

**Merg Ross** · 26-Oct-2011, 20:41

Originally Posted by John Conway

Anyone know about a contact printer made by Burke and James ? How they work? There is one listed on ebay. I am curious about this machine. It looks like the gadget Ralph whore to a costume party in the Honeymooners.

It depends on the intended use. I used one years ago in a professional shop for proofing roll and sheet film. They work fine for that process.

However, if you are contemplating using such a beast for making quality contact prints from 8x10 negatives, I would seek an alternative. The lights and switches are not a substitute for a good contact printing frame, accompanied by skilled dodging and burning methods. The major drawback being that you are unable to see the negative that is being exposed; similar to printing blind.

**jnantz** · 27-Oct-2011, 07:49

you could also covert it with UV bulbs and make cyanotypes &C ..
i have a small one, 1 bulb that i swapped out, and it seems to do OK
not as fast as the sun, but when there is no sun, it comes in handy ..

**John Conway** · 28-Oct-2011, 16:38

Very Interesting. Thanks for the info.

**rjmeyer314** · 31-Oct-2011, 13:23

I have a Morse contact printer, which is pretty much the same thing. The real problem these days is the lack of contact printing paper. I found with mine I could use enlarging paper if I cut the exposure time down to about 2 seconds. I could do this with one of my timers, so It's not totally a waste of space. I've also brought a big sheet of 0.9 ND filter material to try, in hopes of increasing my exposure time by a factor of 10.