Brian

I found a vintage (1950s?) Brumberger (up to) 5x7in contact printing box for sale locally. Needs a bit of a cleaning, but it's otherwise in great shape. These kinds of contact printers were meant to be used with now-hard-to-find, contact-printing-specific, silver-chloride papers like Kodak AZO. (As far as I know, Lodima is the only place to get similar paper... and it's not cheap.) That said, I've read that you can use modern enlarging photo paper as long as you don't mind a certain loss of control. Modern papers are several stops (at least) faster than silver chloride... so the exposure times will be much shorter.

I'm excited to experiment with it.

#filmphotography #largeformat #photography #darkroom #printmaking #photoprinting

Apr 6 at 6:22pmWeb
Show threadBrianApr 8

First test prints using the contact printer are *very* overexposed. 😂 The "these kinds of contact printers are meant for slower paper" was *not* a lie. From left to right, the exposure times were: 4 seconds, 1 second, and 0.5 seconds. This was using very expired Kodak Polycontrast III RC paper (I don't know the exact expiration date, but the box says Kodak is an "Official Sponsor of the 1996 Summer Olympics", so...) along with a 100+ year old negative. I needed to stop for the evening, but I'm not at all disappointed for a first attempt.

#photography #filmphotography #printmaking #darkroom #photoprinting #vintage

Show threadTom NorthenscoldApr 8
@brian Is there any way to place a neutral density gel between the light source and the print? I do this with my Beseler 23CII to lengthen the exposure times. I have 2 stop and 4 stop gels that I bought from B&H. I’ve confirmed that they are neutral. They have no impact on the contrast of the prints.
Show threadBrianApr 8
@tomnorthfilm That is a good idea. I think I’ll need to disassemble it a bit to get it where it should go, but I imagine it would work.
Show threadMüslimanApr 8
You can only use baryta photo paper with a fixed gradation. That takes a bit longer. Perhaps a dimmer bulb would be better (for example, a 5W LED).