Support our Sponsors, they keep FADU free:   AG Photographic   The Imaging Warehouse   Process Supplies   RH Designs   Second-hand Darkroom Supplies  

Notices

Go Back   Film and Darkroom User > Equipment > Darkroom

  ***   Click here for the FADU 2015/2014 Yearbooks   ***

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 4th January 2021, 06:37 PM
John King John King is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: County Durham
Posts: 3,309
Default 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.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 4th January 2021, 06:52 PM
EdmundH EdmundH is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: North Norfolk
Posts: 394
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 4th January 2021, 07:11 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Daventry, Northants
Posts: 8,962
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 4th January 2021, 07:59 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Glasgow, Scotland.
Posts: 2,663
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 4th January 2021, 11:10 PM
John King John King is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: County Durham
Posts: 3,309
Default Condenser enlargers

Quote:
Originally Posted by EdmundH View Post
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.
It is difficult to say about 'sharpness' at present because the largest MG5 paper I have is 9.5x12 but I can say the contrast is UP and I yet have to make a cropped print. I may have difficulty in getting a much larger print because the column is quite short.

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.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 4th January 2021, 11:12 PM
John King John King is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: County Durham
Posts: 3,309
Default Condenser enlargers

Deleted - double post
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 5th January 2021, 12:59 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Southend on Sea, Essex, England, UK
Posts: 3,775
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 5th January 2021, 01:32 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Jersey Channel Islands
Posts: 5,433
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry S View Post
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
I wondered that myself, I thought that MG3 went 20 or 30 years ago,
Richard
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 5th January 2021, 02:08 PM
John King John King is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: County Durham
Posts: 3,309
Default 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
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	B&W Test prints022.jpg
Views:	246
Size:	295.8 KB
ID:	3951   Click image for larger version

Name:	B&W Test prints023.jpg
Views:	240
Size:	340.1 KB
ID:	3952   Click image for larger version

Name:	B&W Test prints024.jpg
Views:	241
Size:	375.4 KB
ID:	3953   Click image for larger version

Name:	B&W Test prints025.jpg
Views:	231
Size:	248.0 KB
ID:	3954  

Last edited by John King; 5th January 2021 at 02:12 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 5th January 2021, 02:25 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
Friend
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Southend on Sea, Essex, England, UK
Posts: 3,775
Default

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
Reply With Quote
Reply
Support our Sponsors, they keep FADU free:   AG Photographic   The Imaging Warehouse   Process Supplies   RH Designs   Second-hand Darkroom Supplies  

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:20 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.