Hello!

I found an old Leitz enlarger for $60, complete with dusty lens, crud on the condenser glass, no neg carrier and no plug to stick into an electricity source. Well, I cleaned it up, got help to fix the plug and made a makeshift neg carrier. It works, in a weird way.

The enlarger head is all crinkle finish black, it says just Leitz in white on the front of the enlarger head. The head is all-metal with round holes on the upper part where the cable from the lamp comes out. Via one sturdy diagonal arm with a hole on the upper side (going downward from the head) it connects with a wing nut to the column.

The lens, marked with numbers from 1 to 10 is in a helical focus mount which itself is attached by four small screws to where the neg carrier goes. There is no indication what the f-stop is on the lens.

All this is connected to the baseboard with four screws from the underside of the baseboard. The baseboard is made of wood, with several dovetail channels in the board. The board has grey rubber feet. The form of the board could best be described as a square with a point on the back part, where the column is mounted. Overall, the enlarger is really small, easily carried.

Does anyone have a guess at what it is? Could the lens be changed for something else? Should I use a glassless carrier with it?

Overall, the enlarger is really small, and doing an 8x10 print would probably be pushing it. As it is now, anything bigger than 5x7 is a no-go, due to uneven illumination.

Printing times with the lens at the "10" position is in the range of 5-10 secs. I use a 100 watt bulb. (maybe this is too much wattage?) With this lamp in it, I can fry eggs on the enlarger head within two minutes. I like it a lot, due to it being so basic and sturdy.

Thanks for any input, Jimi

-- Jimi Axelsson (jimi@earthling.net), March 17, 2002

Answers

Sounds like a Valoy 1 with Leitz Varob lens. Is the lens nickel which it should be if it's a Varob?

-- Tony Brookes (gdz00@lineone.net), March 17, 2002.

Well, if you mean it's like dull chrome colour, then yes. But if it's a Valoy 1, then why isn't it marked as such? But anyway, this will give me some idea of what to look for...

Thanks, Jimi

-- Jimi Axelsson (jimi@earthling.net), March 18, 2002.