Chapter - 4 The Printing Room/8×10 Enlarger
Loading a negative into the 8x10 enlarger before printing.
Throughout my career the 8×10 camera and enlarger have been my most often used tools. I’ve had several 8×10 cameras but only one enlarger. Made in the mid 20th century by J.G. Saltzman and Caesar Manufacturing, this large format enlarger is a ten foot tall 1,500 pound workhorse. I bought it in 1997 from a commercial photographer who was going digital. I later bought the 11×14 from the same person. At the time he told me that it was once owned by the world famous portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh.
Electrostatic cleaning of an 8×10 negative to remove dust before loading into the enlarger.
A Gralab 545 digital timer controls the 8x10 Aristo V-54 cold light head with absolute precision.
Saltzman enlargers are nearly indestructible and have a very high degree of precision. The head, base and column are designed for precise optical alignment and work perfectly to this day. I restored it completely and installed new bellows, several bushings and gears and a new Aristo V-54 12×12” cold light head. I have done 90% of my printing with this instrument and it never fails me. Controlled by a Gralab 545 Digital timer, it is extremely accurate.
A view from the easel looking up into the lens. Contrast is controlled by Kodak Polymax 4×4 inch print contrast filters (not shown).
Hand adjusting the enlarger height using the manual crank control. This image shows some of the height of this nearly 11 foot enlarger.
I prefer to use variable contrast filters under the lens rather than a variable contrast light source. Simplicity rules in my world! I use two lenses with this enlarger and the 11×14; a 240mm Rodenstock Apo-Ronar f/9 and a 360mm Rodenstock Apo-Gerogon f/9. These are apochromatic lenses used in graphic arts and deliver razor sharp black and white images even at extreme print sizes like 3 ½×6 feet.
One of the two Apochromatic lenses used to enlarge 8×10 and 11×14 negatives.
My printing room has a 10 foot ceiling and still I had to create a boxed enclosure between ceiling rafters to accommodate its nearly 11 foot height. The focus and height controls on this unit are manual crank wheels that provide a healthy aerobic workout whenever composing an image on the easel. I use a 32×40” vacuum easel with a remote controlled vacuum pump under this enlarger. The combination of perfect optical alignment, vacuum flattened paper, Apo lenses and a cold light source make this one of the best large format film enlargers ever made.
This photograph shows the other enlargers in the printing room. They handle negatives ranging in size from 35 millimeter to 8×10 inches.
In addition to the two big enlargers, the printing room (which is about 350 square feet) also contains three more enlargers. The first is a 5×7” Omega enlarger with a high intensity Aristo V-54 5×7” cold light head. This is a superb enlarger and I use it with Schneider Componon lenses for 4×5” and 5×7” negatives. Next is another 8×10” enlarger made by Elwood. This unit is smaller than the Caesar Saltzman and is wall mounted. It accommodates 4x5”, 5×7” and 8×10” negatives. I often use it for smaller prints and the occasional reduction print (a print smaller than the negative). Finally I have a Beseler 23CII with a dual dichroic color diffusion head for 35mm and 120 size negatives. Having multiple enlargers is actually quite efficient if the space is available. It eliminates lens changes and calibrations on a single enlarger whenever a different size negative is used.