Why would any sane person have TWO Focomat IIc's?

Already covered I know, but there are so many different ways to set up 2 similar or identical enlargers. I've got 2 Beselers that share near-identical baseboards and uprights, but one is a condenser type (23CII) and the other diffusion (67S). If I only used the condenser type I'd still want 2, just to avoid changing it over between 35mm and MF.
 
Durst Laborator 1200 with vls 500 and M800 with condensors.

Feeling rather mediocre on the sanity level.

Tomorrow I am off to do a weeks worth of rockhopping in Brittany.
 
sykotec said:
I'd still want 2, just to avoid changing it over between 35mm and MF.
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The beauty of the IIc and Durst 900 is that to change from 35mm to MF is just a slide of plate. In the Durst when using condensers, the Unicon 85 condenser moves automatically up and down as well to be absolutely perfectly adjusted between 50mm and 80mm objectives. The Unicon 50 can also be set to work with the pair 28mm and 50mm. The only thing really to change on these is the negative mask or, in the case of the Durst with the Autoneg, the blades that define the mask. One can, however, just have multiple film carriers set to their formats... Changing formats on the Ic is also totally trivial.. its just tilt the head and remove the film mask carrier and insert the appropriate one to the format.. Masking carriers were made for everything from 8x11mm (Minox) to 4x4 cm as well as 5x5cm slides. The swap takes just a few seconds..
 
Now that sounds pretty handy. In the case of my Beselers it's a matter of swapping diffusion chambers on the 67S (you can use the 6x7 one for 35mm, but exposures are longer than they'd otherwise have to be) or adjustments that I suppose could be marked for each format on the 23CII.



Edward C. Zimmermann said:
The beauty of the IIc and Durst 900 is that to change from 35mm to MF is just a slide of plate. In the Durst when using condensers, the Unicon 85 condenser moves automatically up and down as well to be absolutely perfectly adjusted between 50mm and 80mm objectives. The Unicon 50 can also be set to work with the pair 28mm and 50mm. The only thing really to change on these is the negative mask or, in the case of the Durst with the Autoneg, the blades that define the mask. One can, however, just have multiple film carriers set to their formats... Changing formats on the Ic is also totally trivial.. its just tilt the head and remove the film mask carrier and insert the appropriate one to the format.. Masking carriers were made for everything from 8x11mm (Minox) to 4x4 cm as well as 5x5cm slides. The swap takes just a few seconds..
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sepiareverb said:
Personally I don't know why anyone would want even one Focomat.
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Why not? The IIc is not my favorite but its still better, more solid and faster to use than many, if not most, of the enlargers out there.. There really are many worse choices to be had.. The low tech design makes them easy to keep in operation.... no electronics.. just sheet metal, some machined bits, brass and cast iron... and the they do look very retro cool!
 
What's wrong with owning two Focomat IIc's? I find it completely normal - though one is on the floor at the moment and I keep walking into it (a Ic is on the enlarger table instead).
 
I like the IIc very much, also for 35mm work. The strong points of the IIc are the evenness of the illumination and the ergonomy the special 35mm carrier provides. When you intend to do 35mm work with the IIc this special carrier is essential. This 35mm carrier has only on one side glass, anti-Newton glass. The glass holds the negative flat in the same way the condenser in an Ic does, but it has the advantage that there also is a small clip that holds the negative in place. This clip is very convenient. It can hold in place a piece of film as small as the length of one frame. Now try to do that with an Ic.
When you want to print the whole negative with a black border, you'll have to file out the cut-out of the brass mask. The brass is 2mm thick. The filing takes some patience, but is not hard to do.
The 60mm Focotar is very good for prints up to 24x30cm. On prints of 30x40cm you'll notice a very slight unsharpness of the grain towards the corners, but the prints are nevertheless beautiful.
When choosing a IIc you should look for one with a filter drawer. The IIc is a bit too big to take off the lamp housing every time you change the filter.
I love my Focomat IIc as much as I love my Leicas. It certainly is the most beautiful enlarger in the world.

Erik.
 
Two years ago, I owned three 2c (black color with 60 focotar & 100 elmar; grey color with 60 focotar & 100 elmar; grey color with 60 focotar & 100 focotar-2 & enlarging indcator) and two 1c (grey hammertone & black color) as well as all leitz enlarging len series except elmar one.

Now, I retained hammertone and some leitz accessories for collection purpose.
 
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