[LargeFormat] "Best" 4x5 enlarger?

[Clive Warren]

At 09:57 08/11/2003 -0800, Paul Butzi wrote:

> > My camera club is considering buying an LF enlarger, and
>is considering an
> > Omega D2 or D2V.
> > What do people recommend?
snip
>So far, no one has mentioned that evenness of illumination
>is a factor worth careful thought.
>
>When I took a workshop from John Sexton, he commented that
>he'd received a Durst to evaluate, but found that the
>illumination was not very even, so he didn't care for it.
snip

Paul, good point. I find John Sexton's comment rather surprising, however I 
haven't used one of the newer Durst enlargers.......

The Omega enlarger heads do a good job. The Chromega light boxes are very 
well thought out using various optics and baffles in the light path 
together with an opal glass that varies in thickness to ensure even 
illumination. There are a range of light boxes to cover various formats as 
appropriate for each head.

I was lucky to find a new old stock 5x7 light box for the Chromega head 
sitting on my Durst 138S. Illumination is definitely even and I use the 
same lightbox regardless of format - the twin bulbs pump of plenty of light 
and keep the darkroom warm.

Cheers,
            Clive