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> More on MG5 |
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More on MG5
A few months ago, I was given an old Durst M60 B&W enlarger and I used it for the 1st time today. The contrast with the condensers was higher than I remembered and almost too much to handle. Negatives from which I had previously made prints using my LPL7700 colour enlarger. The filtration then was equal to grade 2.5 on MG5. Today I had to use Grade 1 to to avoid soot and whitewash prints, even then I was struggling.
I was surprised even with the low contrast filter, I was still getting good blacks, but had to work on the print with 'burning in' to get and a full range of tones. I think I am going to have to seriously reconsider my standard developing. These prints were made from 120 negs, and after dinner I will be trying it out on a few from 35mm stock, including some XP2 versions. Oh happy days Last edited by John King; 4th January 2021 at 06:41 PM. |
#2
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Interesting. Are you finding your prints 'sharper' with this condenser enlarger? - I'm convinced that my prints looked sharper before I moved to an LPL 7700. Like you I need the LPL for colour work, but unfortunately I don't have space for a dedicated B&W enlarger.
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#3
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Just speculation on my part but on this general theme of how much things have changed, I do wonder of we brought back a 1960's darkroom worker to today's papers, chemicals, enlargers etc that he may be very surprised at the adjustments required to get what he felt was "normal"
Mike |
#4
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I’m sure that you used to find information about alternative development times for condensers, as opposed to diffusers with some films. I’ve certainly seen it somewhere, perhaps with film developers?
Alex. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro |
#5
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Condenser enlargers
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Possibly an 11x14 is the max. However looking at the grain under the magnifier it certainly is more clearly defined so a sharper print may be possible.(So long as the negative is sharp as well). I printed another 2 negatives after dinner and this time from 35mm. The contrast is still very high and with one of them I had to use the .5 filter on one of them. Well I say 'had' to, I could have got around it by dodging and burning, but even with the 2nd softest filter in the box I still got a decent black as well a a white. I will scan and upload the 4 prints in the morning. All I can say at present is MG5 is one hell of a cracking paper. |
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Condenser enlargers
Deleted - double post
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#7
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John King, I just have to ask, but is the title 'More on MG3' a typo? For having read all the posts so far, I can see no obvious connection between title and posts? Should it have read 'More on MG5'?
Terry S |
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Quote:
Richard
__________________
jerseyinblackandwhite.blogspot.com |
#9
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Prints on MG5
I stated earlier it was MG3 - a typo. (It was late at night)
Anyway four prints from the Durst as attached. The enlarger lens was a 80/5.6 a quite old Rodagon which I have had for years, but still a damn good lens. Enlarge the thumbnails to see the description. The ones here are all from 120 film Last edited by John King; 5th January 2021 at 02:12 PM. |
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I think you've done a great job with those negatives and prints John.
I too rarely go lower than grade 2 with my condenser enlarger, but mostly use grade 3. All of your images have been printed very well, with a good range of tones in all of them. I particularly like the snow scene (which can be hard enough to print at the best of times) and the spanner images. As you've said MG5 is a great paper, of which I'm only just finding out. It seems to have blacker blacks and gives a wider range of tones than the previous MGIV paper. Well done on all this! Terry S |
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