Anyone have any experience with this enlarger. It is a small, 35mm only model.

Thanks Peter Schauss

-- Peter Schauss (schauss@worldnet.att.net), November 14, 2001

Answers

I had one for years - actually it was called a 22B Special. Don't know what made it special. Anyhow, I've seen these on ebay, and it looks like different models from different manufacturers have come out (Bogen just slaps their name on them and distributes, I think). Mine had a smooth gray light fixture at the top. Overall, I think it is an underappreciated model. I sold mine and moved to a mighty Omega D2 when I got into large format photography. However, the truth is, I missed that light and easy handling Bogen when I was trying to make 8x10s from 35mm negs on the big Omega. I used my Omega for about 15 years and it was still in excellent condition. While not built like a tank, it was none-the-less built reasonably well. I used a El-Nikkor 50 mm lens, and now I can't tell which photos were enlarged on it and which on the Omega. It has its limitations, to be sure, but if you plan on printing 8x10s from 35mm black and white negatives, it will give excellent service. The biggest you can go with it is probably 11x14, but I think you'd have to be careful because that would place the head pretty high on a rather light-weight column, but I certainly did it a few times.

By the way, the 22 stands for 2x2 - it will handle negatives up to 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches if you can find a negative carrier. You'll also need a 75 to 80 mm enlarging lens.

-- Jeff Damron (damronjd@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.