Darkroom Enlarger
I had the opportunity to buy a new-old stock of the LPL6600. It is a condenser enlarger that takes up to 6x6 film negatives from 120 format.
There are two types of darkroom enlargers: condenser and diffusion. The condenser enlarger is said to create b&w prints that are sharper and have more contrast. On the other hand, the advantage of diffusion enlargers is that they produce a more even print and better hide scratches and dusts on the film negative.
There are many other functions on the darkroom enlarger, like this red filter. As darkroom paper is not sensitive to red light, the image passing through red light allows me to position my paper in the dark without risking exposure.
If there’s enough interest to go in-depth, I’ll share more about things that are on the enlarger that will affect printing, like the bulb and filters.
Enlarger Lens
I have two enlarger lenses.
Rodenstock APO-Rodagon N 50mm f2.8 (left)
Schneider-Kreuznach Compono-S 80mm f4 (right)
I use the former lens for 35mm film negatives and the latter for 120 medium format film negatives.
I believe the consensus is to stop down 2 stops while printing to achieve maximum sharpness.
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Coming up, I will be sharing my film storage and archiving process.
Thank you for reading.
