Hi,

I'm going to start doing my own developing. What's a good enlarger to start off with then? What makes do a reasonably priced one and what should I look for? What's a reasonable amount to pay? (OK, I know the more you pay the better, but what can I fork out to still get good results)

-- Anna (annabella0000@hotmail.com), December 04, 2000

Answers

I'm guessing, from your phrasing, that you're in the UK.
If you're looking to buy new, then any enlarger worth having will set you back 300 pounds or more. The jobo/LPL 6700 springs to mind.
There's very little to go wrong with an enlarger, and I'd look at the secondhand market first. Get along to a camera fair, and see what's going.
Darkrooms are out of fashion, and good quality equipment's going for a song these days.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), December 04, 2000.

Hi Pete,

I gather from some net research the lens is the thing to look for. If I do go second hand, how do I tell the good from the bad. I've seen Jobo advertised and they seem to be respectable.

-- Anna (annabella0000@hotmail.com), December 04, 2000.

Hi Anna.
The lens is very important, but I wouldn't pass up a good 2nd hand enlarger just because it's fitted with a low quality lens. Just discount a poor lens lens from the price completely. A lot of people will sell an enlarger with a cheap lens attached, simply to complete the package; they'll either keep the 'real' lens, or sell it separately.
New enlargers aren't usually supplied with a lens, and you can spend as much, or more, on the lens as on the enlarger.

The top lenses are Schneider Componon-s, Rodenstock Rodagon, and EL-Nikkor. You won't go wrong with any of those. Watch out for lesser versions, such as Componar, Rogonar, etc. it's easy to confuse them. Komuranon and Hoya enlarging lenses are very good too, but now discontinued.
Expect to pay 60 to 70 pounds for a used top-notch lens, less if the cosmetic condition is poor (ie paintwork chipped or brassy). Don't touch an enlarging lens at any price if the glass is scratched or cloudy. Definitely avoid Wray Supar (any series), Cherry, Astron, Optomar and suchlike names. You can usually recognise these cheapo lenses from the fact that they don't have individual serial numbers.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), December 05, 2000.

Thanks Pete for the sound advice.

Someone told me today that you need a different kind of enlarger for black and white photography. I'm probably being naive but I don't see how it would make a difference. Humour a newbie photophile and explain someone please.

-- Anna (annabella0000@hotmail.com), December 05, 2000.

You can get a used Omega 760XL for a few hundred with a color head. I recommend the XL series because you can make 16x20's on the base board! The nice part of getting a color head also is that you can use the yello and magenta for contrast control. Saunders, Omega and Beseler make good enlargers. I do agree with the others... don't cheap out on the lens. Plan on spending at least $100. USD. A new 50mm Nikkor will be more but worth the money!!!

-- Scott Walton (scotlynn@shore.net), December 05, 2000.

Anna also take a look at the range of Czec built enlargers from Meopta. In particular their Magnifax 4 Universal which handles negs. up to 6x9cm. Has various heads and one of the best glass neg. carriers I come across. Their VC head called Meograde is superb. I used this enlarger until recently when I made the move to 4x5. I still have the enlarger stored in the loft (unfortunately no room in the darkroom fot two enlargers) I wouldn't part with it (not worth much anyhow these days). RK Photographic were the importers,they also sell retail. My catalogues out of date but they were at 161 Ballards Lane, Finchley, London. I think their tel.no is 020 8349 4568. Good luck,

-- Trevor Crone (tcrone@gm.dreamcast.com), December 05, 2000.

Hi again Anna.
Your 'someone' doesn't know what they're talking about!
An enlarger with a colour head will print everything from B&W, including variable contrast (VC), through to colour. Some enlargers these days are being sold with heads specifically for variable contrast paper. Usually, they are the same price as for a full colour head, and IMHO you may as well buy the colour head version, since you can get most grades of VC from a colour enlarger, but you definitely can't print colour with a VC head.
Some people might tell you that home colour printing is dead, but you never know what the future will bring. You might get the bug, and want to make nice 20x16 Ilfochromes from your slides, or start printing from colour negatives, then a dedicated VC head will be useless to you, and you'll have to upgrade.
BTW I second the recommendation to have a look at the Czhechoslovakian Krokus range of enlargers. It's one make that I haven't personally used, but they seem well-made, and have a good reputation.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), December 05, 2000.

Reponse to Enlarger for a beginner

To All,

Thanks for all the advice. It's great to have such a valuable online community bringing together amateurs and professional around the world. I'm going to starting looking around for equipment and prices and I'll certainly keep an eye open for some of the makes mentioned. Look forward to communicating with you all again (ie next time I get stuck!)
Anna

-- Anna (annabella0000@hotmail.com), December 05, 2000.

Hi Anna, I would also like to recomend the krokus enlargers as they are a great piece of kit for a beginner, as they have a filter drawer to accomodate multigrade filters and, if you have the patience the various CC filters for colour. The enlarger that I use is a Krokus 66 which can handle up to 6x6 and print up to (I think) 12x16 on the baseboard, and is fairly compact. Again as a great many others have said spend the cash on the lens. BTW depending on where you are you could try looking in secondhand shops like Quiggs - Glasgow, Mr Cad - Croydon (I think), and so on. If you look through the back of Amateur Photographer you should find a few decent enlargers going cheap.

-- David Kirk (david_j_kirk@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.