Meopta availability in the U.S.?

[dll927]

Some comments: My above-mentioned Opemus III hasn't seen use in a LONG time, but I still have it. As for the tilting head, I was known more than once to turn it "sideways" and put the easel a ways away. Needless to say, that dimmed the 'projection' down to a long exposure, but it usually worked.

As for Frank's Camera, for years that was just about my only place for photo business. I lived for many years in Alhambra, then even more years in West Covina, and it was always worth the drive. I bought my Leica and lenses there, plus most of my darkroom and peripheral stuff. But I'm talking about back in the '70's, and somehow it seemed that they sort of disappeared for a long time. Well, maybe not disappeared, but they were little heard of. It seems apparent form the above observations that they no longer have the 'clout' they once did.

 

[ZorkiKat]

I don't know the magnifax feature set, but from the discussion above, certain Beseler models perform most or all of those functions.

The Meopta Opemus-6 was the first enlarger I had which I bought new. It was quite inexpensive in 1991- costing as much as a well-used Omega B2 (the enlarger which I had before the MO-6). I've used Omega and generic Japanese enlargers prior to the Meopta, and I could say that the Meopta is truly a wonderful machine. I "traded" the Meopta in 2000 for a used Beseler 23CII with a colour head. Sometimes I still think that the Meopta was better in many ways.

For instance, the Meopta had more movements- the lens board tilted to a much greater degree than the Beseler 23C. The Meopta neg carrier was a wonder too. It could take both anti-newton glass plates or metal inserts. When the glass pressure plates were used, there was no need to change carrier masks anymore- the negative carrier had masking arms which not only adjusted for different film formats, but for negative cropping as well. The negative carrier also had a "rangefinder"- a split wedge which could be used to focus a contour on the masking frame which made accurate focusing easy.
It was much easier to use the split wedge than a grain focuser.

The Meopta also converted easily into a copy camera. I still have the film magazine which used 35mm film- copying flat images as well as transparencies
(on BW) was very easy with it.

Like what the previous posters have said, the Meopta is a very robust machine.
I had only one Meopta lens: the Anaret 4,5/50mm. It was also inexpensive but quite amazing. It made a lot of good colour prints even after the Opemus was gone, working in the Beseler instead.

As for voltage issues, if the ordinary condenser head (which uses the standard household Edison screw mount bulbs) is going to be used, there is no problem switching from European 220/230 VAC to American 115VAC. The circuit is very basic: lamp receptacle, wire, switch, more wire, and household plug. If the enlarger is to be operated in a 115V environment, all that's needed to be done is to
install an EL lamp which runs on 115V. It's that easy.

The Meopta is also very portable, unlike the Beseler 23C, which seems to become part of the darkroom structure once installed. 😀

Jay