Awhile back I wrote about selling my Leitz Focomat V35 and acquiring a Focomat 1C and a Focomat 2.  I used the V35 with its color head, as I did with my beloved Devere 504. Both enlargers were a dream to use and the color heads made printing with variable contrast paper a breeze. Also, the V35 and the Devere were equipped with top-drawer lenses. The V35 came from the factory with the outstanding Focotar-2 lens, and I had outfitted the Devere with a set of incomparable Schneider Apo Componon HM enlarging lenses. The V35 is an autofocus enlarger and the Devere, while being a traditional manual focus tank of an enlarger used ingenious and easy to use below the baseboard focusing wheel controls.

Well so much for my past logic for using these world class tools and on to indulging my apparently not to hidden lust for what many consider the ultimate! Had I lost my mind?

While I had built out my enlarging bench to accommodate three enlargers instead of the previous configuration of two, my darkroom quickly became a storage location while I was remodeling my basement and sat idle since the beginning of the year. I completed my basement project at the end of May and then finally finished emptying my darkroom of everything non-photographic, purchased some missing parts for the 2C in Germany and installed them (the missing tiny ball bearings that went into the adjustable lens mounting assembly were particularly expensive and fun to install properly $^%#&&!).  Meanwhile roll after roll of exposed film was gradually taking over what empty space remained on the bench … I’ve actually made quite a bit of photographs this year despite a very busy work schedule and juggling the basement project.

So now sitting in my darkroom along with the Devere, my trusty companion of the last twenty five year or so, were what many consider the King (Focomat 2C) and at a minimum, the Crown Prince (Focomat1C) of enlargers … the Leicas of enlargers!  And of course neither was equipped with diffusion color heads and therefore lacked the convenience I love so much!  But not so fast! Why worry about ease of use and great results when you can have a 1C for 35mm and a 2C dedicated for medium format in their last incarnations, complete with the finest of Leitz lenses? No contest; they’re things of true beauty and functional magnificence!

This lovely picture brings us to the past week. What to do! Maybe I’m not thinking straight, but every time I walked into that room I knew the Devere was going to be a problem for me. I knew it so well and could use it so intuitively that it would be too easy to fall back and turn to it as I tried to get used to the Focomats sans color heads and my Zone VI compensating timer.

There was only one answer … yes maybe I am a bozo … I called my neighbor and soon we had taken my beloved Devere away. Yes, I ripped off the band aid and while it hurt I thought it was for the best. It sits atop a rolling table I built to hold my dry mount press in a storage room elsewhere in the basement … removed but not to far away.

I’ve recently picked up some Ilford variable contrast filters and several first generation mechanical Zone VI Dry Down Enlarging Timers.  Now with no choices and no excuses it’s time to get on with it!

Step one is to develop all that film sitting in the middle of the now more spacious enlarging bench. Then make proof sheets and finally on to making some prints if I got some keepers.

I’ll let you know how it goes … but if anyone has any thoughts I’d love to hear from you!

Stay well,

Michael