Enlarging with a Jupiter 8, or jury-rigging a darkroom

[mascarenhas]

I bought a Durst M301 (perfect for my tiny bathroom) without a lens, and as the paper and developer I ordered from freestylephoto arrived before the lens I got on eBay I decided to do an experiment and stick one of my Jupiter 8's (a 50/2 lens in Leica thread mount, for those who don't know 🙂 ) in it and test with a quick 4x6 (I don't have trays for anything larger yet). But that's not all, I put a regular 40W white lightbulb (the only white bulb I had in the house), and as I couldn't find the M301 filters I got a set of Kodak filters and cut the little handles that show the filter factor so they would fit in the M301's filter drawer. I haven't got a timer yet either, so I tapped on my leg to count the seconds. 🙂

The result of all this jury-rigging? Not so bad, it took me a couple test strips and two wasted 4x6s (I found out the hard way that you should not use clear glass bulbs), but the final print I did turned out fine (better than the print a nearby lab did on color paper from the scanned negative)! Not bad for a first try... eventually I will have all the pieces of a proper darkroom assembled together, but I hope this tale encourages others to experiment and not wait until every piece of gear is procured (as these can be hard to find, or be very expensive, here in Brazil and probably other third-world countries...). I am going shopping for 8x10 trays tomorrow, so I'm going to try bigger prints soon, and post the results if they turn up any good. 🙂

 

[John Noble]

Excellent!

I think the prepackaged consumer age we live in has fooled a lot of people (myself included, sometimes) into thinking you can't do anything unless you have the exact gizmo you're supposed to have. Our grandparents knew otherwise.

 

[Bryce]

My darkroom started in a similar way, and grew. So did my obsession with image quality, and I haven't found another way to get it.
Enjoy your adventure! I'm sure you'll find yourself more and more dissatisfied with commercially or electronically printed B+W's.

 

[payasam]

There's much to be said for ingenuity and for doing a great deal with little.

 

[Peter_Jones]

After the house move, I'll have a room to experiment with 🙂 I was waiting for all the right bits , but will give it a go 😀

 

[rxmd]

Interesting to see that it works on your enlarger. on my Meopta Magnifax it doesn't 🙂

Philipp

 

[vicmortelmans]

Excellent!

I think the prepackaged consumer age we live in has fooled a lot of people (myself included, sometimes) into thinking you can't do anything unless you have the exact gizmo you're supposed to have. Our grandparents knew otherwise.

John,

exactly what I was thinking! I have this experience nearly daily. Frustrating problem in this matter is that it's very very hard to convince people of the fact that their pricy gizmo's are superfluous.

Groeten,
Vic

 

[vicmortelmans]

By the way, my enlarger is carrying a 55mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens (m42 mount). Seems to work fine as well.

I only re-installed my darkroom a couple of weeks ago after years on the attic, so I'm building up experience again.

I'm stopping down the lens to f/8, at this aperture I have to expose the paper (13x18cm) for about 8 seconds. I was wondering what the effect of aperture is on the image. I guess that stopping down is favourable for sharpness, but is it really needed?

As for my latest addition to the darkroom: I bought a 5euro grain magnifier (is that what it's called?) from a pro photographer who's closing down his wet darkroom.

Groeten,
Vic

 

[mascarenhas]

The Jupiter is a very small fifty, not much bigger than an enlarger lens, and the M301 lensboard takes M39 lenses (I don't know how it is with other enlargers...).

Interesting to see that it works on your enlarger. on my Meopta Magnifax it doesn't 🙂

Philipp

 

[rxmd]

The Jupiter is a very small fifty, not much bigger than an enlarger lens, and the M301 lensboard takes M39 lenses (I don't know how it is with other enlargers...).

That's not the problem, the Magnifax takes M39 lenses as well. The problem is that I don't get the image in focus because of the way the M39 lensboard is built, there is simply no way of cranking the lens far enough. This affects not only the J-8, but M39 lenses in general - the reason is simple enough, if it won't work with one fifty throughout the lens' and enlarger's focusing range, then it won't with another either.

Then again, enlarger lenses are cheap. You can get a Menopta Anaret 2,8/50 for under $10 which is a decent lens, and with a bit of looking you get Componon-S and Rodagons, which are world-class lenses, for under $50. So the lens presents really the smallest of problems when building your first darkroom 😉 While especially the Industar-61 would probably have made a good enlarging lens, there isn't really any need for one; I'm currently using a Rodagon 105 (12 EUR) and an Anaret 50 (came with an 1 EUR + shipping enlarger) and am happy with those. 🙂

Philipp

 

[oftheherd]

By the way, my enlarger is carrying a 55mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lens (m42 mount). Seems to work fine as well.

I only re-installed my darkroom a couple of weeks ago after years on the attic, so I'm building up experience again.

I'm stopping down the lens to f/8, at this aperture I have to expose the paper (13x18cm) for about 8 seconds. I was wondering what the effect of aperture is on the image. I guess that stopping down is favourable for sharpness, but is it really needed?

As for my latest addition to the darkroom: I bought a 5euro grain magnifier (is that what it's called?) from a pro photographer who's closing down his wet darkroom.

Groeten,
Vic

I never did any experiments to confirm it, but I used to read that it was the same for improving the depth of focus on the paper. I think I remember a couple of times I tilted the paper for minor perspective control and changed the f/stop and resultant exposure time to compensate. 8 seconds is about the shortest time I would think you would want.

Just curious, do any of you turn the lens so the back of the lens faces the paper, or us it with the front facing the paper. Seems I used to read the back was corrected for flatness since it needed to be flat for the flatness of the film, and that was recommended if you used a regular camera lens on an enlarger.

Regardless, I congratulate all you you who experiment and jury rig. That was the way I grew up. Experiment and try to make it work. God willing, this Thanskgiving my brother should bring me a camera my father made about 50 some years ago, combining an old folder (probably a 9x12 press type as I recall) and a plastic camera with the lens hacked-sawed off and glued to a board to slide in the cut film slot. The camera was loaded with a small film. I don't remember what. Might have been 35mm but just as likely was 127 or so. If I get it I will show it here in the forums, and try to take some photos again. I used it my first year in college, taking photos of paintings and dioramas in our local museum.

 

[payasam]

On the assumption that enlarging lenses have a "sweet spot" as camera lenses do, it is probably best to stop them down to f/8 at least. I generally stopped down a bit more so that exposure time was increased, making dodging and burning in a more relaxed affair.

Meopta has its own thread, and for an M39 lens I had to get a special plate (board). It is convex/concave and can be reversed: because 50 mm and 75 mm lenses, for example, need to be at different distances from the film.

 

[fidget]

While you are sourcing alternative bits for your darkroom and are shopping for some trays (which can be expensive for what they are), remember that many darkrooms operate using kitty litter trays for these. I also was desperate to get going, for a month or so I used some plastic trays made for raising plants from seeds.
Dave...

 

[fidget]

Using RF and SLR lenses on your enlarger highlights some aspects of lens operation worth knowing. On my enlargers (all worked to MF as well as 35mm) the 50mm lenses needed to be nearer the negative, particularly as the size of the enlargement increased. For my 50s a concave lens panel was needed. This became much more acute when trying LTM camera lenses to the point where I could not get the lens near enough to the negative, even with a deep panel.
The reason is that the distance at which the LTM lens focuses is much smaller than an enlarger lens and the similar SLR lens.
Try focusing an image of your brightest object, say window or light, onto the wall etc. You may see that the enlarger/SLR lens is nearly twice the distance from the wall as the LTM lens.

Dave.....

 

[mascarenhas]

One of the few stores left here that sells old photo equipment was selling its old darkroom's stuff, so I got a proper tray on the cheap that I will use for developing (I wanted to get as close to the size of the paper as possible so I wouldn't waste too much developer), and picked some oversized plastic trays in another store that I will use for the other stuff. They also had a moderately-priced safelight (but the easel was bloody expensive, I will have to make do without it for now). Going to try 8x10s (the biggest my enlarger allows) tomorrow.

While you are sourcing alternative bits for your darkroom and are shopping for some trays (which can be expensive for what they are), remember that many darkrooms operate using kitty litter trays for these. I also was desperate to get going, for a month or so I used some plastic trays made for raising plants from seeds.
Dave...

 

[vicmortelmans]

Going to try 8x10s (the biggest my enlarger allows) tomorrow.

Can't you tilt the enlarger, to point it to the wall? Then your size is unlimited (well, maybe depending on focus abilities?). And the bath tub is a nice tray.

Note that I never did any larger than 8x10 either... but it's tempting.

Groeten,
Vic

 

[mascarenhas]

If it ever came to that I could tilt and use the wall (although you have to tape the paper to the wall, a much bigger hassle), or even have a taller column and bigger baseboard made, but I am not feeling a pressing need for bigger enlargements right now. 🙂 Prices climb rapidly after 8x10, also (paper and framing).

 

[han1953]

I would hesitate using a camera lens in my enlarger. The condensor focusses all the light to the middle of this lens, and if you have any cemented glass there, it would heat up. The result will look like spiderweb-like cracks. Usually a true enlarger lens costs less than the postage required...

 

[MartinP]

Just read post #16 about projecting on to a wall to make larger prints than is possible with the normal column-height. This may work fine, but it is tricky to align it properly for the wall, and then getting it right again when you set up with the head over the baseboard in the usual way afterwards.

Assuming that the enlarger is on a table, a simpler idea is to turn round the column, about it's axis, and then project on to the floor by putting a weight on the baseboard to keep things stable.

You can check the floor (or a piece of heavy board on the floor, if necessary) with a long spirit-level, and then block up the enlarger baseboard with bits of cardboard etc. so that it is parallel to the floor. This makes alignment easier.

There is still the focussing problem though - unless you have triple-jointed five foot long arms it is often awkward to turn the focus knob and look through a grain-magnifier simultaneously....

 

[Xmas]

Enlarger lenses are built to tolerate heat, a jupiter has several sandwitched elements and might not like the temperature cycling...

Noel