> As a decision about a medium format camera gets closer, questions about > enlarging the negatives are coming to be a consideration. Do those of > you working in medium format find that film flatness is an issue? Do > you use glass carriers, or glassless? Cold light or condenser heads? > Which enlargers do you use? Have you found a particular negative > carrier that works better for you than others? I seem to recall that I > had some problems when working with 2 1/4 negs and a condenser enlarger > many years ago. Negative "popping" was an issue, if I recall.
As you may have read, I recently entered the medium format realm with a 67ii. I've always looked forward to a darkroom, but have been putting it off. However, I've found that the only B&W MF printing in town costs an arm and a leg ... so it looks like I'm going to start a darkroom sooner rather than later. Fortunately I already have a darkroom, but no equipment. I've been giving this issue serious consideration; these are the questions and thoughts I have had about it. Of course, this is from a different perspective than someone who already has a active darkroom and lots of experience. 1) Diffusion enlargers seem to be more readily available in the larger sizes than condensor enlargers. It may be more effective to get a enlarger with a VCCE head up-front if you want to use multi-grade paper. Some diffusion enlargers also have interchangeable mixing boxes for different formats. As grain effects decrease with increased negative size, the difference between condensor and diffusion enlargers may not be as large as with 35mm. Also watch out -- some enlargers only have condensor lamphouses for 6x6 -- they don't support 6x7. 2) Some enlarger families have interchangeable color, VCCE, and condensor lamphouses or filter modules. This can be an affordable (space and $$) way of choosing more than one option. I would like to do some color printing too, and the ability to add in a dichroic head or filter house on 1 enlarger is a powerful attraction. There is even one enlarger which is VCCE and dichoic color in one head, and I think it may have a condensor light path after the dichroic head as well! That's the DUNCO, which was available for a couple of years from Patterson. 3) Do you have any interest in LF (Large Format) in the future? I do, and I'm giving serious consideration to an enlarger which can support 4x5. However I think you loose wall projection and tilt/swings in many 4x5 enlargers. It may be worth spending a bit more now -- and it also eases the transition into the LF world, as you wouldn't need to look for yet another enlarger at that point. It also works for panoramic roll-film backs on a LF body. Didn't Aaron have a 4x5 enlarger from his view-camera days? I wonder how that works with his 67, or does he use something else for MF? 4) Depending on the source there are glass-less and glass (1 and 2 glass) negative carriers for both MF and LF enlargers. Some of the glass carriers can take glassless inserts for a particular smaller format (35, 6xwhatever, slides, etc). 5) Some enlargers accept negative carriers of some "standard" form. If you get one of these enlargers you will often have a wider variety of carriers to select from. This allows you to choose from many manufacturers selections, instead of just one manufacturer. 6) [My understanding of this isn't perfect, I could be misguided] Column length becomes more important with larger formats (MF, LF). That's because you need a larger base-lens distance to make larger prints from a large negative. That effect is due to the longer focal length lens you use. You can use some wide-angle EL lenses to make larger prints from a larger format, but they often have light fall-off in the corners. More expensive "wide angles" (for the format) lenses could compensate for that, however. 7) With a larger negative you want to look at the light output of the enlarger head a bit more than 35mm. A more powerful head can keep exposure times more reasonable and/or allow you a larger choice of usable apertures. Some of the more powerful lamphouses also come with a built in ND filter for those times when you want increased exposure times as well. Such as for complex dodging and burning, or for printing to smaller sizes. Also easier to focus! 8) Cooling the lamphouse is more of an issue. Some use fans, others use a passive convection design that keeps things cool. I don't know how loud the fan driven units are. I'm most likely missing a boatload of important issues, but these are the ones that _seem_ important so far. > I look forward to your comments and suggestions. As do I! I'm finding that MF is forcing me to expand my horizons; that's not a bad thing, sometimes I need a bit of a shove to get going :) Bolo -- Josef T. Burger - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
