I Bought A 4x5 Enlarger! Omega Super Chromega Dii
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- After posting the video about the DSI prints I had received I was prompted to take matters into my own hands and buy a 4x5 enlarger. In this video I clean the beast and fire up for the first time.
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-chris
i picked up a beseler 45 mx ii today for a very pricey amount of $0.
cant wait to get it cleaned up and running.
I gotta say, cleaning this beast was great bonding time! It feels like a friend already! Congrats on yours and happy printing! -chris
Just bought one of these myself! If you (or anyone watching this with this same issue) want to get the low high white readout panel working again, you can unscrew the pivot screw in the arm by sticking a screwdriver through the color filter holder area and unscrewing. The arm for that piece slots into a small wheel that you can see visually through the color dial selector with the color plate cover removed. Also wanted to say, cool video!
Boy's and toy's!. Have a wonderful time with it it's a wonderful life.
I used a Chromega D for many years. My only complaint is that it has poor light sealing where the head comes down on the neg holder; it leaks a horizontal fan of light in all directions. I recommend that you paint the walls closest to the enlarger flat black; if you don't, that fan of light will hit the wall, diffuse, and produce a light fog on your print. Oh, and the Chromega Ds had a bit of a tendency to 'pop' the negative part way during the exposure, due to heat buildup; can get frustrating. But I hope you enjoy your new beast! They were, for many, many years, the standard 'go to' enlarger in professional color labs all around the world.
That’s the enlarger my dad used for his photography business. I’ve been starting to print my black and white negatives on it this winter. I was hoping he’d let me take it back with me so I can’t print from my closet, but I think I’ve encouraged him to start making prints again. He wants to shoot 4x5 once he retires.
I bought a graflex crown graphic 4x5 camera which has inspired me to build a darkroom in my basement. I have running hot and cold water available, and a 9 x 12 space. I started buying the equipment for developing first which was good because I would never have been able to figure out how much space needed for the darkroom sink to hold the trays nor how high to make the cabinets to hold the enlargers. I purchased an Omega 4x5 enlarger and then found additional enlargers for little money. I figured that I didn't want to keep changing the set up on the 4x5 enlarger so I decided I could set up three enlargers (out of six that I eventually bought) I also decided that I would not buy any more enlargers, except if one particular enlarger became available. That is the same one that you have here. When I started building the darkroom I wanted to offer it to enthusiasts in the area to be able to use so that I will have others call me up to see if they can come over so that I don't use it for a little while and then grow tired of using it.
Enjoy using your enlarger and growing with your development.
Man that's awesome seeing the entire process was a really good way of making this into a video cant wait for you get printing I have got paper on the way for my 35mm enlarger and I'm super stoked :D
Yes! That is awesome man! I am about to build an f/stop timer for the darkroom. Have you seen them? And thank you for watching!
I have a mint condition Beseler dichro 67s that an older retired gentleman sold me and I also picked up his complete darkroom setup all for $200. What a blessing as he told me he did not want this art to die and encourage me to take on this wonderful adventure. :-) I been printing in my closet darkroom for over 6 mo and love it. I came from the professional digital world (15 years) and this art process does not compare to the digital side. This is art!!
But I got the large format bug big time. My dichro 67s does not do 4x5. So I just found and picked up a mint condition Beseler Dichro DG Color Head mounted on a Beseler 45MX for $250. It was a steal. I can control the split contrast on the color heads when I print out my black and whites prints or just flip the switch to no filters and use Ilford contract filters.
I hope to see you start making more UA-cam videos soon. You should try Litho printing. I am getting ready to start this adventure real soon. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. ;-)
That's a steal. Working with a colour enlarger will make printing in B&W scads easier. You can increase the contrast by as little as 1 or 2 degrees. Moreover, the diffusion enlarger will make printing a whole lot better with fewer hassles.
It has proved to be quite a great enlarger!
I really enjoyed this vid, dude! It was fun watching you go through the whole process of cleaning it up and prepping it for use. You made it look super easy, which Im sure is going to do well at inspiring others to get into it as well. Great work man, excited to see how your printing goes!
Thanks Nick. I am discovering that the UA-cam community has given me so much more motivation to move forward and not settle. We're in this together!
GRAIN TV yea dude! It's a whole new community aspect over here on the tube! I really dig it
I just got a beast too!: an Omega D5 with Super Chromega Dichroic D II head ! Basically the same you have. So exited!
I scored a superchromega D5 with two dichro heads and two power supplies plus a Paterson 16x20 print washer, 4x5 negative developer tanks and hangers, a bunch of 120 and 35mm stainless developing reels and a stack of trays, negative hangers and a slough of other useful things FOR FREE on Craigslist. Not only that but I also got a complete darkroom setup with a Beseler 45M condenser enlarger for free as well with a set of Nikon El Nikor 55,80,135mm enlarging lenses. I'm sure where you are at 200$ is a killer deal but out here in San Francisco there are a shit load of artists just throwing this stuff away. At least once a week I see an ad in the CL free section with at least an enlarger if not a nearly complete darkroom. I literally have more than a complete darkroom and I only paid what it cost in gas to pick the stuff up. All I need is a 6x6 neg holder for the omega and I'm golden, the Beseler happened to come with both 4x5 and 6x6 holders which was luck but I might have to break down and spend some money to get the 6x6 holder LOL
The plastidip looks good! I thought you were going to say "goo gone" or "goof off" to get the tape off. Nice you didn't even have to replace any bulbs. They could be hard to find.
Niiiiice find. My Omega D2 wont fit in my bathroom, so my livingroom is now my darkroom :-) #progress ;-)
I love your enthusiasm, infectious! That Omega is a steal at $250, couldn't get one in Europe for the that price unless you get lucky! Would love a 4x5 enlarger but my darkroom is my bathroom and I have a Durst M800 on top of the washing machine, one of those 4x5 beasts would not fit!
Right on! Well done sir. I hope the Colorado move goes great.
Thanks Eric! And thanks for the merch! I'll be in touch!
Notwithstanding the stories of thousands of dollars of enlargers being thrown in the dumpster, $250 for a fully functional, late model Super Chromega with timer, presumably with a decent quality lens for 4x5 use, is quite a deal. My personal leanings toward perfection would have invested your time in changing the burned out panel bulb and lubricating the light intensity readout rather than painting over the front panels, but to each his own. Recommend: that you carefully check the alignment of negative stage, lens board, and baseboard, as being parallel to each other. Having slipped out of alignment is a subtle problem which appears as partial unsharpness in your prints.
I have heard a few of those stories myself! I was glad to catch this one before it met the same demise...because it was headed out the door to the bin. I may replace the bulb and fix the indicator panel down the road but we'll see how things go. I am still dialing in the alignment, but so far things look pretty plumb. Thanks for watching Randall! -chris
I was reading about that alignment / leveling of the head to negative stage, etc in the manual as well... then on to the baseboard that makes sense. Good tip!
great video. really enjoy it. I got also my Axomat 35mm enlarger. but I have not start it yet. but soon am gonna make one of my rooms as darkroom and will try it out.
For a mint? $250.00 for all that stuff? Geeze, I would by several at that price. Excellent piece of equipment. It was the standard for vertical enlargers in its day and commercial labs would have many of them. BTW, the tape is supposed to be behind the light panel. The big issue will be even light coverage across the mixing box on an older one.
Hooking that up to a Beseler timer is sacrilege, BTW. But welcome to my world. Hope you enjoy it.
Another, BTW. As you are putting it back together be sure to check for alignment of both the lens stage and the negative stage. A lot easier to take care of those while it's apart.
But having it aligned is crucial to quality enlarging.
someone may have taped up the "low/high" light because it was fogging paper.
I've had the same problem myself with other enlargers.
Thing is with enlargers, is there's nothing much to them. Just a transformer and a 12V light bulb. Easy to fix.
For a couple of hundred bucks you've got something that cost thousands twenty years ago.
Yes, I noticed with the tape off from the back that light was coming through the front window. It seems pretty light tight now and the bellows look good, etc. Thanks for watching Jon! I should actually credit you for the gentle nudge forward. Thanks!
Great work man! I really like the style of your videos keep it up! :)
Thanks Jacob!
oh man we have the exact same enlarger!
Thanks to NIck we are now connected!!!
Well good! Now I can bug you when I have questions about mine! lol. Nick is a great guy and a pillar of the youtube film folks. Subbed to yours! I was so bummed about the preds btw - fantastic series this year and I wish they would have won it.
They will have to get married now won't they?.
Can you tell how you are able to use this timer?
I see that you have something on the back of your power supply. What is that?
I don't want to use the old timer that came with mine, but can't figure out a way to switch it out.
Thanks
Amazing I just got the same one need to mount it
Hi, sorry but i got the same one as yours but I don’t have the power thingy. What is it called and how can ai get it?
The longer plasti dip is on the harder it is to remove. Keep it original
$200? A bargain. 10 years ago I paid £600 for a second hand DeVere 504. Very pleased I did. Enjoy.....
Hey Chris! Great video, thank you! I actually just picked up a very similar Omega 4x5 enlarger with the same Chromega Super D ii head... however the one I found has many more issues than yours. I was wondering if you could do a walk through/review of the enlarger itself? Sadly, I can't find any enlarger reviews online that show where all of the gears and buttons are, how they work, wiring connections, focus and the like, etc. Just a thought/suggestion. Will see what I can get fixed.
Ah... very cool video.
I have an Omega Super Chromega... I have not used it a long time. Can you explain the oder of the power supplies and the timer. I have a 240 - 110 transformer and a seperate power supply for the Omega. From the mains I know the transformer goes first, then the Omega power supply, its the timer, does it feed between the enlarger and power supply or through the extra power out put from the power supply... I hope that makes sense.
Do you know how to print BW with multi contrast paper using the Omega?
How did you go printing colour?
I had a d2v in 1974
Where do I find one
i like the enlarger very much,how can i buy this？
hay im looking at getting one of these whats the size of the base board and height of the column?
GRAIN TV I can see on your table a circular lens board that seems to take 3 lenses... Is this the standard lens board or there's other boards available to fit this enlarger? Thanks
GRAIN TV could you please confirm what size of lenses actually fits in the Turret board? Is it M39 screw lenses? Thanks
got one of this myself recently, does anyone know how to install a red filter for this, really appreciate the answer
I hacke mine with a safe filter from a friends old broken enlarger.
You shouldn't of painted the CYM front cover. Paint the backside instead. I used to spend hours every day at an enlarger like that one while attending Brooks Institute.
Nice! Brooks is a great school! The nice thing is that this particular paint peels right off with no signs it was ever there. So if down the road I want to remove it I can. I probably will once I fix the indicator bulb and the actuating light indicator but for now I'll keep it covered as it hides my laziness....except when I post it all over the internet lol.Thanks for watching Ryan! -chris
you look like tom cruise
Will you be getting the Intrepid enlarger and make a review?
I am really hoping to do that, yes! It could be a series space saver for me!!
@@GRAINTV same, I would like to optical print my work more often but renting out an enlarger at a darkroom is too expensive and that's why I got so excited when Intrepid announced it! :)
Check Harry's classic enlargers for parts and advice..............................he's the man.
Pause at 0.45 and you will see what causes divorces........They just don't understand.:)
So, Is your wife talking about leaving because she's a photography widow?