Home Made Enlarger

[ColRay]

Hello I started in photography in 1959 now retired spend much of my time collecting and making cameras.

It's not 100% finished but good enough for making some prints from negatives taken with homemade cameras.
A Draw for multi contrast filters
B Negative holder
C Lamp House
D Bogging ... will look okay after sanding
E I'm lazy shouldn't have use the on-board flash

Because of limited space in my home ( small A frame cottage) and I will not be printing over whole plate. I have gone for a very early design of enlarger. The head will be fixed in the top of a three sided box and size adjustment will be by the baseboard the can be moved up and down.
This is the basic layout ,not like the modern enlargers, but on the lines of what the photographic pioneers would have used. Add some colour finish I think It's replicated that aged look
A is the lens
B the paper will go here
Now I must work out some runner system.. thinking cap on!

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[ColRay]

I have just made the first couple of test prints.
Conclusion :
On Foma multi grade ( G3 filter) The tonal range is far better that those digital scanned negatives .
Sharpness the results look better a than the DS.
Because the enlarger is using soft light ..zero dust spots
Couple on downsides:
Focusing isn't that easy . I'm thinking about adding a geared wheel.
Didn't get the magnification quite right. The size range I wanted was from just under 5x4'' - just over 10x8'' . It ended up okay for 5x4 but a tad under 10x8.
At the momet I change the print size by placing a few books on the baseboard.

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[ColRay]

The test negatives where thaken with this homemade camera

Larger format 4x5 400micron pinhole


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[terri]

Great work! ( I saw where you just joined the forum; so happy you found the darkroom section!) I'm completely intrigued by this enlarger - darned if it didn't give you perfectly fine prints from that pinhole. :thumbup: That's how to get it done!

 

[ColRay]

Thanks Terri I'm using one of the Russian Industar studio camera lenes, the focal length is a tad on the long side but and I'm very pleased with the results.

By the way I was using the lens on a old view camera parts I found on Ebay ( when ebay first started and there was some good stuff on offer) The camera was the Blair ( Kodak) Tourograph. Many will say it's a sin using a Russian lens on such a fine camera.. Oh well

 

[ColRay]

Just done another couple of prints. The focal length/pinhole size on the pinhole camera wasn't quite right .. so aftwer a little creative wood work and exposing a sheet of film it's looking better. The negative is Foma 100 processed in Diafine and printed on Ilford RCMG paper. I will scan and post very soon colin

 

[ColRay]

Foma 100 processed in Diafine 4+4

Taken with home-made pinhole camera
Focal length 67mm
300micron f 223
Scaned Ilfod RCMG print 8 1/2 & 6 1/2 ( whole plate )

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[ColRay]

The movement in the trees is because there was a slight breeze and the exposure time was 90 secs