Enlarger recomendations

Blackdog67

Blackdog67

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I have been offered a Yashica 6x6 TLR on long term loan and I would like to try developing & printing my own prints. I have a small room at the back of my garage which i plan to covert to a darkroom. I have been looking on Marketplace for a secondhand enlarger but I’m not sure what I am looking for. Any recommendations for a decent budget enlarger to look out for. Initially i plan to just shoot mono but may want to try colour later on.
 
I use a Durst for medium format negatives, but LPL for 5x4. Both makes are reputable. De Vere are excellent, but normally large format and large in size. Philips enlargers are rare, but good. Look out for getting an enlarger that will handle your negatives. I had a Philips PCS130 enlarger that was made to cover up to 6x7 but required a different negatives carrier and condensers to work above the 35mm negatives I had it for.

You'll usually find enlarger have condensers (give higher vontrast, show defects more clearly) or diffusers. Diffusers are usually in colour heads, which let you use multitude papers without extra filters.

There are a lot of older British enlargers but these are probably rare on the market.
 
I like the ability to project onto the floor. I found that useful with my first enlarger, a Photax Paragon.
 
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For a budget level MF 6x6 enlarger there is the Meopta Opemus series. It even has an inbuilt focus system so you don't need a separate focus finder. Built like a tank.

There are number on eBay currently from £40 but a couple don't have the baseboard making them unusable as is. They often come in the original cardboard suitcase box making storage when not in use more convenient.

I have the Opemus 3 plus one of their 35mm Axomat series. If you come across their Magnifax for 6x9 in your searches please let me know as I'm after one!
 
In my opinion, the most important point about an enlarger is the stability of the column and its attatchment to the head and baseboard.

I would look for a unit with a heavy box section column on which the head moves via some kind of heavy duty clamp. Some of the eastern European enlargers had columns consisting of three sturdy metal bars - they could be effective as well and are rather lighter than the heavy duty box section units.
 
Over the last 15 years or so I've used three different enlargers

The first was a Durst M690 which I got for free. Generally it was a very sturdy affair except the mechanism which raised or lowered the column, which involved an incongruous plastic cog. The cog wasn't strong enough and I resorted to clamping the column at a fixed height.

That was replaced by an Omega Cromega 6700 - again obtained for free. Apart from only handling up to 6*7 negs rather than the 6*9 of the Durst, that was fine.

Later I got into 4x5 so wanted an enlarger that could print 4x5 negatives. Many seemed out of my budget but I found one on eBay for £550 and drove 100 miles to collect it. This is a Durst L1200. The enlarger came with lots of different condensers, negative holders, and lenses. I was able to recover some of my outlay by selling some of these parts and just keeping a subset that I really need.

Although all three of these enlargers came with colour heads, I don't use the inbuilt colour filtration even for multigrade papers; I use below the lens Ilford filters. The reason is thAt for split grade printing - where you typically use one exposure at grade zero and one exposure at grade 5 - I can't see a way to change the built in filtration without having a light source to read the dials, which would fog the paper.

I wouldn't worry too much about the make and model, just make sure all the parts are there and that the enlarger can be collected within a reasonable distance
 
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