After much effort which included moving tons of stuff and taking 2 doors off my darkroom I got the 5x7 into its final resting place. I had some initial difficulties figuring out why I was not getting uniform coverage of a 5x7 neg, I was getting fall off on the corners and a cropping of the image down from its 5x7 ratio. After lots of fooling around, different lens, different condenser combinations, different bulbs I finally figured it out. The neg carrier needs to be in just the right spot and the enlarger has built in cropping metal arms that needed to be pulled out of the way. Things look very nice now in with the 5x7 glass carrier and with a 4x5 glassless carrier I got from Jack.
Tomorrow I need to continue to clean the darkroom. I have needed to organize it better for quite a while so getting this new enlarger has forced me to get off my ass and get the darkroom cleaning done. I am going to remove everything from the room the is not essential. I have way to much storage of odds and ends, I need to remove all the boxes and equipment I am not using. If I get a better organized and functioning darkroom together it is bound to help the printing process. I can't become a master printer if I have no where to move and work. It might take me all week, to get the darkroom cleaned up and ready to use. I did not know there was so much dust in the place till I started cleaning.
Here is the new 5x7 enlarger in its final resting place next to the 8x10 Durst enlarger. In the picture you can also see the 20x24 and 11x14 Saunder easels I got for $100 CAD.
Tomorrow I need to continue to clean the darkroom. I have needed to organize it better for quite a while so getting this new enlarger has forced me to get off my ass and get the darkroom cleaning done. I am going to remove everything from the room the is not essential. I have way to much storage of odds and ends, I need to remove all the boxes and equipment I am not using. If I get a better organized and functioning darkroom together it is bound to help the printing process. I can't become a master printer if I have no where to move and work. It might take me all week, to get the darkroom cleaned up and ready to use. I did not know there was so much dust in the place till I started cleaning.
Here is the new 5x7 enlarger in its final resting place next to the 8x10 Durst enlarger. In the picture you can also see the 20x24 and 11x14 Saunder easels I got for $100 CAD.
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| Durst 138S 5x7 condenser enlarger, in its new space |
Update * Jack made a suggestion today after seeing this photo, he suggested I paint the areas around the enlarger black. I will do that, it's something I did around my Saunder LPL 4x5 years ago. I guess by having black around the enlarger you cut down on flaring and fogging of your photo paper. It also increases contrast you can use a 3 filter instead of 3 1/2 etc.
