As a newby to B&W printing I'm planning to set up a small dark room but haven"t had much luck finding used (cheap) equipment. I noticed that both B&H and Adorama sell enlarger kits from a few different manufacturers for around $300. Will I get satisfactory results from these inexpensive units? Or will it be like the cheap tripod and head exercise every new photo nut goes through until you finally bite the bullet and spend the money for the good one?

-- Ed Whitney (ejj405@netzero.net), April 12, 2000

Answers

If you think you are really going to be interested in making lots of b&w enlargements over the next few years, I would certainly recommend you at least find a used Beseler 23C or equivalent. Have you tried e- bay, looked at Shutterbug, etc..?

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 12, 2000.

If you can afford it try to get a used 4X5 enlarger. Back in 1968, I went with the Omega B8XL (2 1/4 X 3 1/3 format max), it is a fine enlarger I use it daily for 6X9cm and 35mm...one of the best...I've always,however, regretted not spending the few extra $$ for the D2V (4X5 format max). I believe your best bet is a used Omega or Bessler 4X5 BTW if you are looking for a used Omega try Harry Taylor's "Classic Enlarger" web site. He located a supplementary condencer and lens board for me a couple of years ago when I started printing 35mm on the B8XL.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), April 12, 2000.

Some decades ago, the price of a piece of equipment used to give at least some indication of its quality. Today, that is not so. There is extremely expensive LOUSY equipment, and there is affordable stuff that is really good. Therefore, you should differentiate a bit. Personally, I bought an affordable Czech 120 enlarger some time ago, and it has recently become my favourite, as the illumination (see below) is fairly even (-1/7 stop fall-off at the edges of full format, practically nothing over 35 mm format), and it's almost indestructible.

Although a 4x5 is surely nice to have, you should see the disadvantages (price, size and weight), too. If you can afford it, it's a good idea to buy your enlarger at least one format bigger than the negatives you intend to print. The illumination is usually more uniform when you only use the centre of the field (which you do when using a 120 enlarger for 35 mm). Illumination always tends to fall off near the border of the field. Regardless of the enlarger format, you should, however use a normal focal length for the format you are printing, i.e. 50 mm for 35 mm, 80 mm for 120 asf. to achieve optimal results.

Who can guess at your future photographic ambitions? Maybe photography quickly becomes an addiction to you, and no format is big enough for you. In that case, you will have to buy new equipment if you buy too small now. Maybe after some time in b&w you find colour more attractive. Then a colour enlarger will suit you better than a b&w one.

Personally, I would advise you to be reasonably conservative, i.e. to buy an average (maybe second-hand) enlarger, an excellent lens for the format you wish to print, and some basic darkroom equipment. This is likely to keep you happy for a while. Your ambitions will probably evolve, as will your skills, but that will take some time if you are not a natural talent. If you have to "bite the bullet" in a few years, well, so be it. But if you drop photography because you haven't got the time any more, you can clap your own shoulder saying: "Good thing I didn't spend too much money on it!"

-- Thomas Wollstein (thomas_wollstein@web.de), April 13, 2000.

Ed,

Keep looking. The kits contain the basic stuff to get started, but the pieces are not top of the line, so you will probably end up replacing just about all of them.

Try eBay (www.ebay.com). Try your local newspaper, especially if yo uhave some form of Penny Saver or local classified only type thing. The other thing is just start mentioning that you are looking to build a darkroom. I happened to mention it to a friend, turns out he had a darkroom he hadn't used in many years, so he sold it to me complete.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), April 13, 2000.

Shop the used market. Lots of people are leaving film for "bits and bytes", thus making a lot of darkroom equipment available. There seems to be more now than I can ever remember.

Good luck.

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), April 18, 2000.

Hi Ed,

Your right in searching around, but I feel the main thing that you should not comprimise on, is the enlarger lens itself.

You would be betterr spending a couple of hundred pounds (sorry dollars) on a good quality enlarger lens, and look out for a second hand enlarger. The quality of the lens is paramount and really there is no use spending $300 on a piece of kit that you will change in six months.

Sean

-- Sean Allen (SALLENAPS@aol.com), April 25, 2000.