Omega B22 enlarger

theinvisiblecity · Feb 19, 2006

...got one from my neighbor...bulb is burned out but a new one is on the way.....anyone know anything about it?.....it looks like it probably can't make prints much larger than 11x14's but I can't tell until I get it turned on......

..worth messing with or should I still be on the lookout?

Torus34 · Feb 20, 2006

The Omegas were well built. I use a Cromega C for printing B&W 35mm & 6x6cm. The 22's were considered to be very good enlargers when they were still being manufactured. I had the honor of meeting Mr. Simmons, the designer of the Omega line.

KevinR · Feb 20, 2006

It's a nice enlarger. You can get the column for the B-22XL if you want to make bigger prints. What kind of lens is with it? Because that will be a quality issue if your worried about it.

theinvisiblecity · Feb 21, 2006

right now it's a 50mm rodenstock omegar lens....needs a good cleaning but should be decent?....perhaps it would be wise to invest in something really nice? - seeing is how the enlarger was free...I also have a 50mm Beslar (yes Beslar, not bessler) and a 75mm Omergeron....I have no clue as to the quality of these lenses as I've always just used the Nikons on the enlargers at the school and never gave it another thought...perhaps someone can shed some light on what I have?

theinvisiblecity · Feb 21, 2006

oh yea and I got the new bulb....it looks like it's make up to 16x20's as is....not bad..not bad....

...I assume the XL column is just a taller version of what I have?

KevinR · Feb 22, 2006

...I assume the XL column is just a taller version of what I have?

That's right

The omegar is a 3 element design. This is Rodenstocks cheapest line. On the other hand, I have one and it works really nice.

The Omegaron is a 4 element coated design. This is a pretty nice lens.

The beslar is a pretty cheap one. Try it out, but I would think you would end up using the others.

terri · Feb 22, 2006

Congrats on getting the enlarger! :thumbup:

The best way to decide about lenses is to just start printing, and try them all. Do you have a reasonably good grain focuser? Use that, and if you're convinced you are well focused, but you believe your prints are soft, you might want to look around for higher quality.

Sometimes simply stopping down a lens will give you better results (say, the images are soft at f.8 but noticably sharper at f.16). This might make for longer exposure times, but it's a workaround if you want to use what you have to save $$ while learning. Good luck with it!