Adapting an enlarger for DSLR scanning

Ahhyes

Ahhyes

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Alex
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After doing my first home development and using an angle-poise lamp arm to mount the camera I think I need something more sturdy/suitable. Been looking at copy stands and they either seem to be cheap and nasty or good but pricey. A lot of people have recommended getting a used enlarger, I've seen quite a few (that are reasonably priced) but it's not obvious how I'd adapt it for mounting a DSLR/mirrorless camera.

For example this colour enlarger:
1641820638824.png

I presume I can take off the light, and lens etc. but not sure how to fit the camera to it. It'll probably depend on which one I get but Paterson colour one seems most common. Does it have a thread somewhere I can put a tripod mount or something?

Thanks,
 
I use a tripod. Many tripods allow you to mount the camera underneath or allow the centre column that goes horizontal, if yours doesn't it's a good excuse to buy a new one ;)
 
sirch said:
I use a tripod. Many tripods allow you to mount the camera underneath or allow the centre column that goes horizontal, if yours doesn't it's a good excuse to buy a new one ;)
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I've been looking at tripods too. I do like that idea as at least the tripod has other uses and maybe having more than one might be useful one day.
 
I haven't tried it, but I would think a camera clamp could be used on the column to attach the camera. Depending on the enlarger and what you can remove, it might be possible to attach it to the moving part to allow height adjustment.

From memory, my very first enlarger could have sufficient parts removed to allow a camera to sit in place of the negative holder, with the lens poking through where a lens would normally be.
 
Just adding. It looks as if, were the lens removed, you could fit a clamp at the bottom of the head without removing much, if anything.
 
I bought an LEL 3500 B&W enlarger off Ebay for about £80, the enlarger unscrews and the camera can be attached to it using the tripod mount as you can see in the photo.
Jessops used to have them but they are long obsolete, Jessops rebranded them and I don't know what they called it.
Search on Ebay and you might get lucky.
It works really well.

Copier stand.jpg
 
@Asha modified a Phillips enlarger column to use with an Intrepid enlarger.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Plenty for me to go on and do some searching.
 
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