Durst 138 condenser enlarger lamps ?

[Rob Hale]

Hi

What bulbs, lamps are you using in your Durst 138s condenser now that the “proper” opal lamps are no longer available ??

Regards

Rob

[Stan160]

What type of opal lamp does your enlarger take? If it's one of the standard 75W or 150W Philips P3/3 or P3/4 or equivalent then it's still possible to buy replacements from a smaller manufacturer (I forget who).

Ag-photographic sell the 75W version at least.

Ian

[Dave miller]

Time to stock up?

[Trevor Crone]

Depending on wattage and fitting, THESE guys still supply older type lamps. I've used this company a lot and I can certainly recommended them.

[Richard Gould]

75 watt enlarger bulbs are still available generally, and I believe 150 watt enlarger bulbs are still offered from smaller makers, although at a price, as they are specialist bulbs they are still allowed by EU regulations, you just have to look for them.
Richard

[GeorgeGiralt]

Hello !
The 138, like the 1000 I own need large bulbs to even the light falling on the condenser system.
The original bulbs were 100 mm dia and around 300 w. These are, if I'm not mistaken, unavailable (except in the USA, but in 120V).
So you've to buy 65 mm dia bulbs (they exists up to 250w ) from a maker in Germany (Fotoimpex sell them) and take a lot of precaution centering them in order to get a decent lighting on the baseboard. If you can't get a good lighting, try inserting a frosted glass between the bulb and the mirror.
On the Laborator 1000, I can get very very good evenness on the baseboard.
P.S. One can find 95 mm dia halogen bulbs (made by Philips) for decoration. the most powerful are 150 W. This is a bad idea because the bulb blackens very rapidly getting black spots showing on the prints. (I think the bulb is devised for continuous operation)

[Trevor Crone]

I don't know if these are of any use? They used to provide them up to 150w but sadly no longer available. I use them for some of the contact printing I do, because of their large size the light is very even. Also available with BC fitting.

[Rob Hale]

Hi

Currently I have 100 watt 150 watt and 300 watt – sort of ! they are dying gently.

Trevor the “globe” ones look like a runner. I will spend some time in the Lamp warehouses in AKL next time I am in town to see what they have in this pattern.

Happy Christmas Everyone.

Rob