foldable/portable Enlarger

raytoei@gmail.com

raytoei@gmail.com

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Hello!

Last year, I came across a japanese made enlarger which
was foldable making it very compact. But I can't seem
to find it now, any idea ?

Not the Russian Zenith one, but I thought it was japanese,
maybe a Hansa ?

thanks

raytoei
 
When I was looking for one I also only found the Russian one (and only one from a seller based in Israel via the auction site).

The smallest non-foldable I am aware of is the LPL 3100d for 35mm BW (bulb + small filter-drawer) with glass-less negative carrier. I bought one from Yahoo Auctions for something like JPY3100 (including shipping) and like it. Only problem with the small size is that this enlarger is not as rigged as my Durst M605, more prone to vibrations. Maximum enlarging size is about 8x10.
 
Many amateur enlargers were designed for quick dis- and reassembly, and were shipped in a storage case - few people had a permanent darkroom.
 
I have an Ilford/MPP folding enlarger but maximum print size is probably only whole-plate (limited by the inside of the case, which forms the enlarger base). As others have noted, although many enlargers be broken down quickly for storage, truly folding enlargers are rare.

Cheers,

R.
 
I've always wondered if a very compact, break down enlarger for 35 mm could be made for battery power using LED illumination. I was thinking of a power supply of 6 'C' cells in a holder that plug into the enlarger and a red LED safelight.
 
The Durst R 305 - Reporter was a small enlarger that packed away fairly easily.

Unfortunately - they're very scarce today.

durst_reporter.jpg


It's a shame that modern equivalents of the Durst Reporter, such as the LPL 3301D are no longer made.
 
Solinar said:
The Durst R 305 - Reporter was a small enlarger that packed away fairly easily.

Unfortunately - they're very scarce today.

durst_reporter.jpg

e.
Click to expand...
Had one. Ok in concept, hard to use in practice. The lens was up inside a helical tube and hard to access the aperture ring. Also opening the neg carrier to slide the negs through was not well thought out. Gave mine away.
 
Linhof used to make enlarging heads ( first condensers, and then cold light heads) that you could mount to the back of their 4x5 cameras turning them into an enlarger. Not a folding solution, but very compact provided you have a copy stand or tripod to mount it on.
I once rigged up my own version of this using a slim 4x5 light box as a light source. I projected onto a wall to make over-sized prints. It worked flawlessly.
 
I think Meopta or Opemus had a folding enlarger. Paterson did, too, as mentioned above. It had a plastic neg carrier that scratched film no matter what you did.
 
CNNY said:
Linhof used to make enlarging heads ( first condensers, and then cold light heads) that you could mount to the back of their 4x5 cameras turning them into an enlarger. Not a folding solution, but very compact provided you have a copy stand or tripod to mount it on.
I once rigged up my own version of this using a slim 4x5 light box as a light source. I projected onto a wall to make over-sized prints. It worked flawlessly.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have one. BIG problem: very blue light = all but useless with VC. Anybody want to buy it? (Assuming of course I can still find it).

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Yeah, I have one. BIG problem: very blue light = all but useless with VC. Anybody want to buy it? (Assuming of course I can still find it).

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...

There were also some made and sold under the "Graf-larger" brand name (or some similar spelling).

Most of these and most other cold light heads were too narrow spectrum to work with VC papers. There were a few cold light heads that used specially coated tubes that would work adequately with VC papers. Even these, while they worked fine, weren't quite a match to the tungsten spectrum thus negating the uniform printing speed correction that is built in to the more modern VC filter sets.

I had a Graf-larger back for a while that I used with a 4x5 wooden field camera attached to a smaller format Durst enlarger's column. In fact, it was a Durst Reporter RS-35, a newer updated version of the one pictured earlier in this thread. The Durst "Resporter" series evolved for quite a number of years though the last two models, the M-300 and M-305, shed the "Reporter" name. All of these would disassemble to fit in a suitcase. The RS-35, M-300, & M-305 would accept a film holder (35mm) and function as a copy camera using the condensors reversed and a frosted plastic screen in the normal negative holder as a VF. You could also remove the whole head and use the column assembly and baseboard as a copy stand.
 
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