jens_jensen

If anyone is interested I have a copy of both the new and the old brochure from Nikon covering the APO EL NIKKOR lenses. They are in PDF format and anyone wanting a copy only need to drop me an email and I will be glad to email a copy. Email; DURST-PRO-USA@msn.com.

I have spoken to an old Nikon rep, used to sell APO EL's, and he told me that the newer lenses do not have the flourite element and also that the older versions were hand assembled, that is using a laser to align the individual elements, as opposed to the new lenses that are partially machine assembled and using different glass to substitute for the Flourite - this makes sense if you compare the new and old lenses side by side. BUT, this is just hearsay. So make your own conclusions. One difference between the new and the old 105 is that the old 105 is in a brass housing where the new are the modern aluminum casing.

I have seveal APO EL's for sale, 105's new and used, 210mm - new type and also as new and one 300mm. The 210 and the 300 are both in commission for customers, the 300 have not even arrived yet, and therefore I have little influence over price. I can say though that the 210mm was purhased for $5,000, the last 300mm we sold sold for 9,500 and the one previous to that for $11,800.

I have heard from a friend in Seattle that the 105 is now used on Digital cameras and therefore the interest in those lenses have surged. The last 105 that sold on Ebay, about 3 weeks ago, sold for $2,750.00

Jensen

Two days ago I met a wonderful carbro printer, his name is Robert Green, he demonstrated the process to me and shared his prints with me. I have rarely seen anything more beautiful. Mr. Green has published a "How to" book on both monochrome and Color carbon. He has printed for Polaroid, Andrew Kertez, Robert Maplethorpe and many other celebrity photographers.

He is an extremely interesting person, 81years old, as bright as a nail and had more energy than my self eventhough I am more than 30 years younger.

He is a real source.

Mr. Green can be contacted through email Gallery614@aol.com

If anyone has infor as to where to purchase the tissue paper and/or the pigments he would like to know as his stock is running out.

Jensen

Yes, we certainly have condit-type punches in stock. They are available both as diagonal punches and as side punches firring Durst Micro Pin system. Durst Micro pins and Condit original pins have exactly the same size, the difference in thickness is 0.024 milimeter Our Condit type punches are in many ways improved over the original Condit punches, the have double pin action springs, double pressure bar system and the side punches have a variable start-stop point.

Jensen, DURST-PRO-USA, Inc.

DURST-PRO-USA, Inc is a very small independent and personal company. You are welcome to contact us, or me personally, for any kind of advice in regards enlarging and Durst enlargers.

DURST-PRO-USA Inc, is a small company independent of the factory except for the fact that we are their distributor of optical enlargers. Our price level is certainly aimed at small individual users, and we back it with a 5-year warranty, 8 days of unrestricted right of return, our personal service etc.

Sincerely, Jens J Jensen DURST-PRO-USA, Inc and WORLD-IMAGES, Inc.

DURST-PRO-USA, Inc is a very small independent and personal company. You are welcome to contact us, or me personally, for any kind of advice in regards to Durst enlargers. durst-pro-usa.com

DURST-PRO-USA Inc, is a small company independent of the factory except for the fact that we are their distributor of optical enlargers. Our price level is certainly aimed at small individual users, and we back it with a 5-year warranty, 8 days of unrestricted right of return, our personal service etc.

Sincerely, Jens J Jensen DURST-PRO-USA, Inc and WORLD-IMAGES, Inc.

DURST-PRO-USA, Inc is a very small independent and personal company. You are welcome to contact us, or me personally, for any kind of advice in regards to shipping and assembly of the enlargers.

We ship Durst enlargers on a weekly basis. We ship L138S enlargers anywhere in the continental US for a flat fee of $250.00 we have never had a damage so far on domestic transport. We have shipped enlargers to Singapore, Nepal, countries in Africa, The Philippines, even to a photographer in the hometown of the Durst factory. On overseas shipments we have only had damages two times. Once we had a crate dropped out of an airplane, I believe it rolled off the loading device, and we had a crate damaged by a forklift 4-5 years ago also in an airport. Since 1994 we have had only 3 issues with UPS for smaller packages. Considering the number of packages they ship I think they have a very low error margin.

The L138S does come apart in several pieces, base, base column, top column, head, baseboard etc. And as such they easily ship with UPS and are virtually indestructible. However this shipping method is more expensive than shipping it in one piece with all the parts, such as head and accessories, well packaged in the opening between the different portions of the chassis.

DURST-PRO-USA Inc, is a small company independent of the factory except for the fact that we are their distributor of optical enlargers. Our price level is certainly aimed at small individual users, and we back it with a 5-year warranty, 8 days of unrestricted right of return, our personal service etc.

Sincerely, Jens J Jensen DURST-PRO-USA, Inc and WORLD-IMAGES, Inc.

We have several 5x7" Durst enlargers in stock. We also manufacture a very sophisticated 6x17" negative holder for Durst enlargers. Our prices can easily compete with ZoneVI prices and the quality certainly exceedes it.

Sincerely

Jens J Jensen, DURST-PRO-USA, Inc 503 846 1492

Re. PHOTO.NET posting. May 7, 2003.

I have now posted some of the more than 140 emails and replies from Rene Quan on our website. The link is: www.durst-pro-usa.com\complaint.htm

I have chosen to post the last few emails first since the satisfaction expressed in these emails are the last emails we have received from Mr. Quan. These emails is in stark contrast to the issue described on PHOTO.NET.

After the initial 3 emails I have tried to post emails illustrating the issues of Pre-payment and delivery. The emails clearly illustrate that we have bent over backwards to satisfy Mr. Quan, using his own words.

It has been quite a job going through that file and I decided to post only a few emails and documents in order to make it accessible. I have posted the emails in their full length and have highlighted the parts that I find of importance. If anyone wants the subjects covered in more detail, just let me know.

The emails are available for inspection, both as paper originals and on our hard drive, for anyone whom may want to insure them selves that they are authentic.

You may find that I am blowing this issue out of proportion, and I regret having to do go through this issue in this manner. However, I have already had orders canceled because of this unfair smear campaign, and feel it necessary to defend my self. I am not a big multinational company and loosing one $15,000.00 really hurts, not only the economy but also my pride.

Another reason for going to these lengths is that I have learned that another small Optical supplier was attacked in a similar manner last year, and that he lost a large chunk of his turnover in the following months.

None of us are without fault, even Mr. Eastman (Kodak) made mistakes, in his first years and had to recall 100 thousands of cameras and almost went out of business because of it.

The internet is really powerful and can ruin years of work in no time. Take care how you use it.

Sincerely, Jens J Jensen, Optical enlargers in USA.

I was just going over the Rene Quan file and want to make a clarification to my previous reply.

�Anatole France� writes �He got taken for $11,000.00� The reason the amount differs from the $17,000 I mention is that the order originally was made for a $17,000.00 machine. Mr. Quan then reduced it to $11,000.00 Mr. Quan actually reduced his order to $11,002.00 from the original $17,000.00, he did so over several adjustments without having the original rebate reduced. Mr Quan called and emailed several times and explained how badly he needed this machine and how little funds he had. And I tried to help.

After the machine was received we got lots of praise from Mr. Quan, and we recently helped him make modifications to fit his needs. He must have forgotten to tell �Anatole France� about this �Happy ending� on the story.

And then a question, how can a person have expressed satisfaction have been �taken� ?.

I will post some of Mr. Quans emails and his amended order confirmations on our webpage sometime next week. I will then post a link on this page.

Mike, I got your email and saw the very negative remarks about my company and my self. I am truly sorry about this very unfair and untrue story.

I have never before heard the name Anatole France before. Anatole France is not a customer of ours.

And Anatole France is committing a grave sin here, she is spreading malicious slander, and that is illegal and punishable. The remarks made by �Anatole France� are untrue.

I dare Anatole France to come forward with her name and address. I will be glad to send her full documentation for my remarks below. I will not pursue the slander issue.

Let me tell you about our customer Rene Quan in Singapore. I believe that �Anatoile France� is Mr. Rene Quan or that Mr. Quan is a friend of Anatole France. I recognize the remarks made as being 100% identical to the remarks made by Mr. Quan.

Mr. Quan placed an order for a $17,000.00 custom build enlarger. He placed the order on November 2001. He paid the down payment of $860.00 (!!!!!) several weeks later via a refund check issued by another supplier. Mr. Quan had asked for and was granted permission to pay the first 50% of the machine price in increments over the next 10 months. Mr. Quan asked for and was granted delivery before the full payment had been received from us. Remember he is in Singapore and I gave him the credit without even asking for credit references.

We did not receive any payments at all until August of 2002. We had a fully finished $17,000.00 machine sitting for 9 months. At that time we did not want to ship without getting paid in full.

The suddenly the payment arrived and then delivery had to go fast. Before delivery could take place Mr. Quan changed the contents of the accessory package 3-4 times which we accepted without any extra charge.

It is correct that this order was delayed first 2 and then 1 week in respect to the date the customer wanted it delivered.

When we did not hear anything from Mr. Quan for 9 months we had �borrowed� parts from Mr. Quans order for other customers and needed two weeks to replace those items. Then Mr. Quan suddenly contacted us and asked us to delay shipping for a few days because he had bought a 5x7� Durst from another dealer. Mr. Quan asked us to pack the 5x7� with the enlarger he had bought from us. WE offered to do so at no charge. Five weeks later he contacted us and told us that the 5x7� deal had went sour and that we should not expect to pack it for him. He the wanted us to ship the enlarger he bought from us the same day. I was not in the office and because of all the previous confusion it did not get shipped till one week later.

We did not charge any interest for the 9 months where we did not get paid.

Mr. Quan is one of the four dissatisfied customers we have had since November 2001 when he placed his order.

In contrast to �Anatole France� I can document every word I have stated.

We are not perfect, and we do not have a 100% success rate. We are a very small company striving to make our selves worthy of the markets trust and confidence; it is not easy in a �cutthroat� market where recession is the daily news.

We offer our customers a 5-year warranty which we honor 100%, we have had less than 10 issues since the start in 1997.

We offer a 5-day unrestricted right of return on all items, show me anyone else doing that.

We never ask for full pre-payment. 20 to 50% is our normal request depending on the type of order. We have taken full prepayment for enlargers only three times in the last year and none of those customers have had any complaints.

We have had to refund funds received twice since January 2002. We have had some serious delivery problems with glass and with vacuum walls. We paid interest on the returns. Our glass delivery is still not working and we are seriously considering giving up that project. We did give up delivering vacuum walls and easels, as it turned out we were unable to do it right.

I am very proud of the work I do, I have many satisfied customers, several have become friends, a fast calculation tells me that we have about one dissatisfied customer for each 30 satisfied customer.

We have customers who take advantage of us, more than 3 in 30. The most grave example was a customer who purchased a custom built $27,000.00 enlarger, and returned it within the 8 days with more than 6000 exposures made, he did not know the electronics had a counter!!!!

What can I say, the world is not perfect.

Finally, I am curious to know who it was that told you we had tried to rip him off for $2,500.00? I have no knowledge of such an instance.

Sincerely

Jens J Jensen, DURST-PRO-USA, Inc.

Enlarging on Kodak AZO paper is a challenge due to the very low speed of the AZO paper. As is evident from Kodak�s web page, covering the issue of AZO paper, this paper is entirely intended for contact printing in a contact printer using incandescent lamps. Kodak actually makes it a point to underline the fact that this paper is not intended for enlarging. The fact Kodak make this remark is entirely due to the speed of the paper. No other qualities prevents the paper from being used for enlarging.

Kodak points out that AZO paper is �blue sensitive�, which translated into spectral terms means that it�s spectral sensitivity is in the area 350nm to 400nm � being most sensitive in the high end. (More details at http://www.durst-pro-usa.com/explantion_light.htm)

The paper being blue sensitive is also the reason for it�s very slow speed (ISO speed P4). Incandescent lamps produce least light in the blue spectrum thus making exposure to incandescent lamps extremely ineffective = slow speed.

A tungsten or tungsten halogen lamp converts only approx. 8% of the energy consumed into visible light ( 380-780nm). Of these 8% only the smallest fraction is radiation emitted in the blue area � 350 to 400nm. If we decide to name the 8% turned into visible light �100% usable light� then only approx. 2% of the �100% usable light� is in the blue area. Or with other words, only 2% of the light you see emitted by a given lamp is seen by the AZO paper.

So it is understandable that the AZO paper is slow when rated against an incandescent light source.

When considering a light source for enlarging on AZO paper it is therefore very important to consider both the quantitive properties and the spectral qualities of the light source.

Some Metal Halogen lamps and some fluorescent tubes emit up to 5x more light (10% of the total emission) in the blue area.

Based on numerous tests I have found that it is very hard, if not impossible, to obtain high concentrations of light from a Fluorescent lamp on a relative small area, none of the tubes that are commercially available can compete in output (Lux) with a Halogen lamp. 2% of the visible output from a 5000 Watt halogen lamp is under any circumstances �more� than 10% of a 100 or 200 watt fluorescent tube, which physical size also is far greater than any halogen lamp, even a 5000 watt halogen lamp is smaller in physical size than a 100-200 watt Fluorescent tube.

There is no doubt that a bank of fluorescent tubes will be a more efficient light source for contact printing on AZO paper than most any incandescent lamp of the same wattage. A bank of fluorescent lamps will be the best light source for contact printing as long as there is no need for local dodging and burning by turning on and/or off single lamps in a series of incandescent lamps.

Still a 1000 watt or even a 500 watt bare incandescent lamp will print even faster when contact printing on AZO.

I have not even considered the metal halogen lamp in this context due to its extensive warm up period which would require the lamp to be on constantly and the enlarging lens to be outfitted with a shutter. And also due to the bulkiness and price of Metal Halogen lamps. I will appreciate any comments or ideas on how to overcome the problems involved in using a Metal halogen lamp for AZO printing.

When I examine the above findings together with the knowledge that I have obtained by comparing diffused light sources to Specular light sources (Condenser) I have concluded that the best possible compromise, when enlarging on AZO paper, is a condenser head with a powerful diffused tungsten halogen lamp. (I have posted my comparison of diffused light sources and Specular light sources on http://216.87.164.59/artcon.htm )

To my knowledge no other lamp type exists that can both be concentrated on small areas (35mm) and at the same time emit enough useable light to produce a print with a reasonable exposure time which I consider to be less than 5 minutes for a 20x24� print from any size negative.

It is possible that a lamp can be designed that will be more effective than a generally available tungsten halogen lamp. However with knowledge of the cost involved in producing much less complicated lamps (100watt � 24Volt point light lamps) I very seriously doubt that such a venture is economically possible due to the size of the market interested in enlarging on AZO paper. We are not talking about thousands of orders for such a lamp source, rather dozens, and thousands are necessary to produce a lamp with special spectral properties at a reasonable cost.

Based on my previous conclusion, and the size of the market interested in AZO enlarging, I have designed a 1000 watt and a 5000 watt Durst condenser head perfectly suited for printing on AZO.

The fact that a condenser head produce a print with a higher contrast than a diffused light source would, from the same negative, the Condenser head actually work in our favor since it will allow us to expose and develop negatives for enlarging on AZO paper LESS than we normally would for contact printing and will therefore in it self reduce the exposure time.

Since the world rarely is perfect there are also drawbacks to using a condenser head for enlarging on AZO paper. Existing negatives originally produced for contact printing on AZO paper tend to produce rather contrasty and grainy prints when enlarged with a condenser head.

However if you have a stock of normally exposed and normally developed negatives you are ready to start printing on AZO, your normal negatives will print beautifully with an AZO Condenser head. Whether you choose a 1000 watt type or a 5000 watt type is merely a question of temperament and print size. Kodak does stock AZO in 20x24�. There are a 2-stop difference in speed between a 1000 and a 5000 watt AZO Condenser head.

You are welcome to contact my self for further discussions, email durst-pro-usa@msn.com or simply call 503 846 1492. If you are interested in user details such as actual exposure times and practical details I can suggest to contact Dr. Zdral at jlzdral@msn.com. Or lock on to our webpage DURST-PRO-USA.COM for more technical details.

Good luck

Jens J Jensen.

Kodaks azo site: http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/g10/g10.jhtml#ISO%20Paper%20Speed%20and%20Range