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Picked a thrift store enlarger over a fancy one, the test strip showed I was right
Found a beat-up Omega D2 at a garage sale for $40 last month, and my buddy kept pushing me to grab a brand new condenser setup online. I went with the thrift find because it came with three lenses and a timer, figured I could fix any light leak myself. First roll of HP5 I developed came out clean, but the real win was the 8x10 print of my dog, sharp in the corners with zero vignetting. That old thing needed a new bellows and some grease on the focus rail, total fix cost $25. Has anyone else gotten lucky with a junk bin enlarger over something shiny, or am I just a cheap thrill?
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the_vera2d ago
Man, that reminds me of the time I bought a beat to hell Beseler 23C off a guy who was using it as a doorstop in his shed. Paid $15, dragged it home, and my wife looked at me like I'd lost my mind hauling a rust bucket into the house. Spent a weekend scrubbing the rails and swapping the lens board, and that thing ended up making better prints than the shiny new one at the community college darkroom. There's something about a machine that's already been through hell and still works that makes you trust it more. New gear is nice but it hasn't proven anything yet.
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