I read some of the messages posted and went to some of the sites listed as suppliers looking for beginning B/W darkroom equipment that my son and I could use. That would be relitivly inexpensive (until we decide one or both, that we would like to invest more in the hobby!)

I have constantly stumbled accross the Bessler Cadet II outfit. Would this be a good starter set? We are shooting strictly 35mm.

-- Jeff Riehl (pctech@tir.com), February 02, 2000

Answers

I have a Beseler 23C II Dual Dichro color enlarger outfit for sale. $400 + shipping. It includes a 75mm f/4.5 Fujinon ES lens, 5 carriers and 2 lens boards. Fine condition. Excellent enlarger for black and white also. I live in California.

You would, of course, in addition to the above, need a 50mm lens to make big prints from 35mm.

-- Peter Hughes (leo948@yahoo.com), February 02, 2000.

Jeff,

I have used a Beseler Cadet, 23cII and currently have a Beseler 45. IMHO, the 23CII and the 45 are great machines, the Cadet on the other hand was a really frustrating experiance. It would tend to slip out of focus easily the film plane and baseboard were anything but aligned, and it was, ummm how to be polite, of light weight construction!

If you watch ebay you should be able to come up with a nice 23CII for around $200.00 then add lens to suit. Your resale on a 23CII will hold up nicely as well.

Hope this helps, -harry

-- Harry Pluta (hspluta@msn.com), February 03, 2000.

Jeff,

I should have added that for the $200.00 you would get a basic B&W unit, I think the 23cII that Peter is offering features the Dichro color head which is great for both color work and for variable contrast paper. I use the 45 Dichro head on my machine and love it.

-harry

-- Harry Pluta (hspluta@msn.com), February 03, 2000.

Jeff,

I agree you would be better off finding a good used enlarger rather than a new cheaply built one. I would especially avoid buying the cheaper lenses out there.

Check www.keh.com Now and then they have a good used enlarger, and usually have good used lenses.

You also want to decide if you want a condenser or a diffusion head.

-- Stephen Burns (sburns@oregontrail.net), February 03, 2000.

Another thing you may want to consider, if you are indeed wanting to try out darkroom work before sinking too many of your hard earned pennies into it, is whether your community center offers darkroom rental. I have sent several people to our local community center for the same reasons. They charge something like three dollars for all day use of the darkroom and they provide the chemistry too (I would recommend taking your own chemicals though. God knows what the last guy did to the communal solutions).

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), February 04, 2000.