Durst Laborator 138S enlarger

Hello,

 

I was recently lucky enough to come across one of these enlargers in mint condition with many accessories and now I am trying to figure out how to use it. I have an owner's manual, and despite this I still have some questions for anyone who is familiar with this enlarger.

 

It came with a NEGA 138 negative carrier with two pieces of glass. One question I have is how do you line up the negative (I will be printing from 6x17 negatives) straight between the glass so that it is aligned with the cropping blades in the enlarger?

 

I also have a 6x17 mask that goes in the carrier, taking the place of the glass. When printing a negative as large as this one, will it stay flat enough in the carrier without being sandwiched between two pieces of glass?

 

The filter drawer has a piece of glass inside with the metal frame creating an opening measuring 3 3/4 x 3 1/2 inches. Do I need to hand cut a filter to go in that space next to the glass?

 

Thank you

One question I have is how do you line up the negative (I will be printing from 6x17 negatives) straight between the glass so that it is aligned with the cropping blades in the enlarger?

By eye.

And you can always rotate the masking frame and paper on the baseboard.

I also have a 6x17 mask that goes in the carrier, taking the place of the glass. When printing a negative as large as this one, will it stay flat enough in the carrier without being sandwiched between two pieces of glass?

That depends how well the neg carrier is designed, but IME most glassless carriers are good enough as long as the lens is stopped down to f/8 or f/11. Heat from the light-source may also induce buckling or 'popping', but IME Durst enlargers generally deal with lamp heat more than adequately.

 

I've printed in commercial darkrooms, and nobody used glass carriers there, simply because of the hassle of dealing with 4 more dust-catching surfaces and the added hazard of Newton's rings.

 

At the risk of upsetting glass-carrier proponents; I'll say that IMO and experience glass carriers really aren't worth the bother. Anyway, just suck it and see. You have the luxury of being able to compare glass with glassless results.

By f/11 you're losing lens performance due to diffraction. OTOH, do you want to test lenses or make prints? :) Lamp heat can be a huge issue, but with a heat absorbing glass it's usually OK. I've never used a commercial glass carrier in my life, but on one or two occasions put odd sized films between glass when nothing else would work. No question, keeping glass clean would be a pita. Even with 4x5, a plain carrier has always worked fine for me.

By f/11 you're losing lens performance due to diffraction.

It's going to take at least a 150mm enlarging lens to cover the 6x17 format, and those lenses start with a maximum aperture of f/5.6. So f/11 is only two stops down from wide-open. Not an unreasonable aperture to print at, and f/11 will still give you grain-sharp images using a medium-to-slow film.

True; I was thinking 35mm. With larger formats lots of good images get taken at F/22 and well beyond.

When I made test prints with my El Nikkor lenses my Zone VI enlarger (VC cold light) , my 150 f/5.6 was best at f/16. My 80 f/5.6 and 105 f/5.6 were best at f/11. My 50 was best at f/8. YMMV.