From: korfhage@weston.poly.edu (Willard Korfhage)
Subject: Re: Saunders 4x5 enlargers
Organization: Polytechnic University, New York
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 17:53:41 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.233005.7661@u.washington.edu>, gray@cac.washington.edu (Te
rry Gray) writes:
|> In article <Ef_=RuO00Uh_A24khk@andrew.cmu.edu> "Frank A. Reynolds" <fr0c+@and
rew.cmu.edu> writes:
|> >Has anyone used a Saunders/LPL 4500 4x5 enlarger?  I first saw them in a
|> >Salthill catalogue which in part says that the Saunders "it is
|> >essentially the first truly modern enlarger to appear in the marketplace
|> >in many years."  PR or not what is of interest to me is that rather than
|> >having different heads the Saunders has one head with interchangeable
|> >filter modules, one each for color, variable contrast papers and
|> >straight B&W.  I got a quote of, $1595.00 for the enlarger with the
|> >color (dichroic) filter module and $350.00 for the variable contrast
|> >filter module, $1945.00 total.  Some color heads (and VC heads) cost
|> >that much.
|>
|> Frank,
|> I was just looking at one of these today, and was quite impressed.
|> Seemed to be a very smooth handling machine.  The two-speed focusing
|> was particularly nice.  I liked the feel of it better than either the
|> Beseler 45MXT or Omega D5 that were also on display.
|>
|> The interchangeable filter modules seems like a nice way to go, but I
|> do have a couple of questions/concerns:
|>
|> 1. I'm suspicious of the impact of the fan in the head, even though most
|>    dichroic heads have them.  Doesn't a fan cause *some* vibration?

I have a Saunders 4500, and have been extremely happy with it. I haven't
found any evidence of vibration problems from the fan. I know that a number
of color heads from various manufacturers have fans in them, so its presence
doesn't necessarily indicate problems.

|>
|> 2. There is no cold-light option, though the "diffusion B&W" module is
|>    probably fine.  However, there's a bit of piece-of-mind in being able
|>    to use 3rd party or mainstream heads (e.g. Beseler 45A, Aristo), which
|>    doesn't seem possible with this enlarger.

True, the enlargers are not so utterly widespread that companies sell
adapters. I don't know how difficult it would be to do its yourself.

|>
|> 3. It wasn't obvious to me how easy it is to align the neg and lens stages,
|>    but this is (hopefully) just my ignorance.

No, it sounds very alarming, but there is no way to align them. More
specifically, they are aligned at the factory (which implies that they can
be aligned, but it might not be easy to do), and your enlarger components are
a matched set. Saunder's claim is that by making a very sturdy enlarger,
they can align it and it will stay that way. So far I have no reason to
disagree with them.

|>
|> 4. B&H lists a new version, the "Deluxe 4550" at about $250 more than the
|>    4500-II.  Any idea what the difference is?  (Incidentally, B&H shows
|>    the "LPL Super Dichroic 4500-II" costing about $1260.  Even if shipping
|>    was well over $50, that's still a lot less...)

Some of the recent darkroom magazines have covered this. I don't remember
myself.

|> Please share (or email me) any other comments you have on this enlarger,
|> as I'm thinking about getting one myself.

I'm quite happy with mine. They got good reviews a couple years back, and
it seemed like good value for the price, so I got one. Their four-blade
masker is nice for printing widelux negatives.

   Willard
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