Well, I got rid of my enlarger today.... (Page 3): I feel your pain! In 2008 my wife and I retired from our custom photo lab business of 40 years in NYC's "Photo District." As we also...

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

srt101fan wrote:

Mixed feelings... For a number of reasons I hadn't actually used the darkroom in many years... but it still was a sad event....

I feel your pain! In 2008 my wife and I retired from our custom photo lab business of 40 years in NYC's "Photo District." As we also sold our 5000 square feet space as well, we needed to get rid of everything!
We donated six 4x5 Chromega Color Enlargers and accessories to the University of Mexico where one of our former employees had just started working at their art and photography department. The other 6 units were given to the guy who helped us clear out the space. We also gave him silver recovery units with sludge, stainless steel sinks and trays, a 30" Type C color print processor, a 30" Type R color print processor, and other darkroom equipment. We did sell an 8x10 Saltzman enlarger to a customer for the cost of the enlarging lens ($400) who refurbished it and is still using it today! The 2 images are for illustration only! Ours were similar!

Many memories, both good and bad! Cheers. Ed

korat Loc: Eastern Shore Virginia

Kmgw9v wrote:

When I got rid of the enlarger, I kept my film processing gear too. It doesn't take up much room.

I'm curious. How do you get rid of an enlarger? I still have my late husband's Minolta Mod III color enlarger. I know I'll never use it, and I'd love to sell it, but I have no idea how to go about doing it. For that matter, is it even worth anything?

BebuLamar

korat wrote:

I'm curious. How do you get rid of an enlarger? I still have my late husband's Minolta Mod III color enlarger. I know I'll never use it, and I'd love to sell it, but I have no idea how to go about doing it. For that matter, is it even worth anything?

If I have your enlarger I would convert it to a copying stand and a slide copier. It's small enough. It has a small but decent dichroic head. Good for light source to copy slide or negatives.

jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

carl hervol wrote:

I just sold 3 of my enlargers in the last 2 months but kept my bestler 23c with the color head just picket up all the chemistry and getting ready to go back to the old school digital is to easy film processing is more challenging that way I like it .

Too easy??? Have you watched some of those You Tube videos where people use dozens of layers, each with adjustments?

Jimbo1947

Many years ago, gave my color darkroom equipment, Besler 23c dual dichro to a cousin. It all has since disappeared and no one knows where. I do miss the challenge of spending many hours trying to get a perfect picture. Now days with photo shop or other program, images can be perfected much quicker and easier ( well I don't know about easier) and many people don't have the time to spend in a dark room. I'm just now getting back into photography and find media such as photo shop a bid confusing. Working on that. Still, I have fond memories of my hours in the dark room. strugling away trying for that perfect print.

tbpmusic Loc: LaPorte, Indiana

elee950021 wrote:

One Millennial to another -

"Wow, what's that thing??"
Other Millennial - "The description says it's an enlarger."
First Millennial - "What does it enlarge?"
Other Millennial - "I don't know, let's see (unzipping)".

Jonathan

oh man, painful to read. I have my Bessler 23c, Omega D2 and Omega B22 sitting up in the attic. Like Mr. dpullum, I've thought of making lamps out of them but then get very nostalgic. I miss the smell of fixer in the morning...I have a decent printer, Canon Pro 100 but am learning that getting it calibrated and performing the way I would like is a bit trickier than playing with chemical concentrations and development techniques.

Jonathan

oh man, painful to read. I have my Bessler 23c, Omega D2 and Omega B22 sitting up in the attic. Like Mr. dpullum, I've thought of making lamps out of them but then get very nostalgic. I miss the smell of fixer in the morning...I have a decent printer, Canon Pro 100 but am learning that getting it calibrated and performing the way I would like is a bit trickier than playing with chemical concentrations and development techniques.

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

A few years ago I organized everything into two complete setups and advertised it locally. Everything was gone in a few hours and people were asking if I had more, enlargers, trays, darkroom lights. For me, the biggest thing was taking out the water pipes from the darkroom. That made everything seem so permanent, but at the same time protected all my electronic gear from any burst pipe or failing gasket. I don't not miss the darkroom. Hated the fumes (and my darkroom was well ventilated), didn't like hands that always smelt like fixer. I didn't like being in the dark for hours a day. Love digital. Still though, years later, everyone in the house calls my computer room/office, the darkroom.
...Cam

srt101fan wrote:

Mixed feelings... For a number of reasons I hadn't actually used the darkroom in many years... but it still was a sad event....

But I kept my film developing gear. I'm thinking of firing up my trusty ole Minolta SRT-101 every once in a while and go shoot some B&W film and then scan the negatives for digital image processing.

Any of you still do film but scan the negatives instead of creating prints in a darkroom?

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

CamB wrote:

< snip > Still though, years later, everyone in the house calls my computer room/office, the darkroom.

Same here. My light-tight basement room with sink was a film darkroom for almost 30 years. All it has in it now is printers (two Pro-10s, and a little Epson C88 for when I want to print something fast), cartridges and ink for refilling. But everybody still calls it the darkroom, even though all the film equipment went away more than 15 years ago.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

korat wrote:

I'm curious. How do you get rid of an enlarger? I still have my late husband's Minolta Mod III color enlarger. I know I'll never use it, and I'd love to sell it, but I have no idea how to go about doing it. For that matter, is it even worth anything?

My enlarger was not an expensive one. Like many purchases that mean so much at one time, resale value was not there—-so I bit the bullet and dumped it.

srt101fan

TriX wrote:

Although I don’t use it every week, I am NOT givin... (show quote)

Sounds like you got quite a setup! Mine was a lot more modest. I always meant to build a fiberglass darkroom sink but never got past building the supporting base which I then used to hold the trays. I got the electrical work done, including a fan, but never finished the plumbing.

srt101fan

AndyH wrote:

This makes me sad, but happy. I also built a tempe... (show quote)

Sounds like you understand the mixed feelings well, Andy.

srt101fan

dpullum wrote:

LAMP !! Like with many things... make a lamp out of old equipment. Click image heading:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/306455949625881107/?lp=true

Ha, Ha! I don't think my wife would take to kindly to one of those lamps! We're downsizing and she was thrilled to see the enlarger go out the door!

Tim Stapp Loc: Mid Mitten

BebuLamar wrote:

I had almost all Beseler enlargers. The 67, 23c, 45mx and my last one is my favorite the CB-7.

Amazing, I also have a CB-7. Fantastic enlarger that I paid the pricey sum of $20 for. In the last three years I have outfitted my entire darkroom for less than $500 with two 23C IIs (one is equipped with a new/in the box color head), the CB-7, a Jobo, trays, timers for each enlarger (I actually have 6, but use only 3 enlargers-one for each format that I shoot).