Opemus enlarger--Help

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pmrick - 11 Mar 2005 01:01 GMT

I the expense of really sounding stupid I need to ask a very naiv
question. Hope someone can help.

My son purchased an enlarger off of E-bay. Its an Opemus III. He's a
eager young photo enthusiast and is trying to set up his darkroom. Whe
you turn the enlarger on, there is only a small "circular" light on th
board, completely out of focus, and very "unintense".

Is there something missing? How do you go from a bulb, through th
rectangular negative carrier, then through a circular lense to expose
rectangular print paper.

There is a tray that pulls out from the upper light housing that'
empty. Is it suppose to hold some kind of lense? It looks like it wa
intended to hold something.

Dumb question but we're a couple of rookies and we're stuck

--
pmrick

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Scott Coutts - 11 Mar 2005 03:54 GMT

> I the expense of really sounding stupid I need to ask a very naive
> question. Hope someone can help.
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> rectangular negative carrier, then through a circular lense to expose a
> rectangular print paper.

You might need to move the enlarger head up and down until it projects
the image large enough to cover your paper. Your enlarger should have a
knob for moving the head up and down (making the image larger) and a
knob for focussing the image.

Also, is there a negative carrier in there? It should slide out of the
front of the enlarger, above the lens but below the light bulb
somewhere. It'll be a square or rectangular thing that you can open in
half like a toasted-sandwich maker (couldnt think of a better example!).
It'll be hinged at the back and you can put a strip of negatives in
between the top and bottom plates, and it and it'll have a hole in both
plates that's the same size as the negative frame.

> There is a tray that pulls out from the upper light housing that's
> empty. Is it suppose to hold some kind of lense? It looks like it was
> intended to hold something.

The tray is designed for holding a filter, so you can change the
contrast of the negative you're printing (i.e. Ilford Multigrade filters)

> Dumb question but we're a couple of rookies and we're stuck.

I'd highly recommend buying a book on darkroom technique! (:

Scott.

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Kokon - 11 Mar 2005 09:06 GMT

> I the expense of really sounding stupid I need to ask a very naive
> question. Hope someone can help.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> empty. Is it suppose to hold some kind of lense? It looks like it was
> intended to hold something.

It seems that the condenser is missing.

Blazej

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Luka Gojceta - 11 Mar 2005 11:27 GMT

Do make sure there's an enlarging lens on the very bottom of the enlarger's
head...It should say "meopta belar" or something similar...

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f/256 - 12 Mar 2005 14:33 GMT

> My son purchased an enlarger off of E-bay. Its an Opemus III. He's an
> eager young photo enthusiast and is trying to set up his darkroom. When
> you turn the enlarger on, there is only a small "circular" light on the
> board, completely out of focus, and very "unintense".

Your enlarger must have at least 2 knobs, one that moves the whole enlarger
head up and down (this changes the enlargement factor) and the other that
moves the enlarger lens stage closer of farther from the negative stage
(this focuses the projected image)

> Is there something missing? How do you go from a bulb, through the
> rectangular negative carrier, then through a circular lense to expose a
> rectangular print paper.

See this image http://tinyurl.com/6ktw4 You may be missing the 2
condenser lenses inside the lamp housing. If so, you may want to contact
http://www.meopta.co.uk/index.html to purchase them. With out them, your
exposure times may be very long and the light impinging on the negative not
that even.

> There is a tray that pulls out from the upper light housing that's
> empty. Is it suppose to hold some kind of lense? It looks like it was
> intended to hold something.

It is probably the filter tray, when you print with variable contrast
papers, you need to purchase a set of VC filters and place the one you want
to use in that tray.

Go to your nearest library and start reading.

This is the -not that good- manual of the Opemus 6
http://www.meopta.co.uk/opemusmanual.html
it may be very similar to your enlarger, youmay want to read it.

Guillermo

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Ken Hart - 14 Mar 2005 22:36 GMT

> > My son purchased an enlarger off of E-bay. Its an Opemus III. He's an
> > eager young photo enthusiast and is trying to set up his darkroom. When
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
> Guillermo

The OP does, in fact, have a lens installed at the bottom of the bellows?

Ken Hart

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