Hi there,

I'm setting up a darkroom at home. I am thinking about buying a Durst M370 "Graduate" or Meopta Opemus6 but am wondering which one I should go for. The price for Opemus6 w/two lens is about USD$60 higher than Durst Graduate (Enlarger only w/o lens) here in Taiwan. As I don't have any extra space for my darkroom in the house, I might have to "setup" everything everytime before printing, my enlarger might have to be robust enough so it will be able to stand for being moved up and down frequently. Any suggestion ? I'm taking 35mm B&W only and have no plan for 6x6 or larger size in the future.

BTW, if Graduate is the one I should buy, then any suggestion for the lens to work with it ?

Any suggestion will be appreciated !

Thanks in advance,

-------- Wang-hua Li

-- Wang-hua Li (mack@ms1.hinet.net), April 18, 2002

Answers

Wang-hua,
I have not done darkroom work in almost 20 years, so I am probably not the one to take definitive advice from. But since nobody has answered your question so far, I'd offer a few opinions which may help (or confuse) you:
I started learning with Meopta Opemus 5 and Axomat 4 enlargers in a junior-high photo class. I remember these Czechoslovakian enlargers as fairly rugged (they had to be to survive in that environment) but also rather crude in finish.
The enlargers were for most parts equipped with the generic Meopta lenses (Anaret), while adequate to make decent images, we quickly learned that we could improve the quality of our prints when we used the one Axomat 4 w. an El-nikkor mounted.

In Denmark these enlargers were very popular among amateurs primarily due to their low price, Durst enlargers w. similar features would easily cost the double.

I am currently thinking about getting a wet darkroom again, and I would, given your options, choose the Durst and make sure to get a quality lens.

Mike Johnston -former editor of Camera & Darkroom and Photo Technique, now editor of The 37th Frame (www.37thframe.com) - gave me the following advice regarding choice of enlarger lens:

As for lenses, pick up a late model f/2.8 50mm 6-element lens, either a Componon-S, Rodagon or Apo-Rodagon, or f/2.8 El-Nikkor. A "hot tip" (if anything relating to darkrooms can be said to be hot these days) is to look for an Omega Omicron-El--they were relabeled El-Nikkors but typically sell for as little as a third of the cost of the Nikon-labeled variant.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), April 22, 2002.