De Vere Enlarger Manually

I have a 4x5 DeVere with the colour head (not closed loop) and it's beautiful. DeVere equipment is very rugged, but also very well-machined. They are a dream to use. However, they weigh a ton. Check out the cost of shipping before bidding too high.

I had an opportunity to buy a 5x7 closed loop DeVere but I passed because I am distrustful of the long term dependability of electronics (yah, I know, the colour head has electronics). Having said that, ANYONE will tell you that such opinions are foolish and that DeVere equipment is very dependable. The auction being discussed is It says that it has '4x5' / MF / 35mm masks' and was made 12 years ago, so it must be a conventional enlarger for projecting film rather than a very new model that projects a digital LCD to the paper. I agree with Don, and this also applies to the Durst closed loop models. What happens if the fancy custom electronics breaks in ten years? It might be unrepairable.

DE VERE 203 PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGER. DE VERE 203 PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGER Ilford Ilfospeed Multigrade. DE VERE 203 PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGER. A catalog of User Guides and Instruction Manuals for De Vere enlargers and darkroom products available from KHB Photografix. De Vere / De. Enlarger Instruction Manual. Topics covered in the manual include: Specifications. Installation and Assembly. Electrical Connections.

The mechanices on these enlarger can be fixed by an excellent machinst, but the electronics could be harder, particularly if there are custom parts. This was probably the ulimate enlarger for the pro lab that wanted very high through-put, but how much time is auto-focus going to save the amateur?

Of course its a normal enlarger - i.e. For negs and positive. The point is that this 504 DeVere co-ordinated the Closed Loop head with the motorised Autofocus mechanism to mean that they work together for better productivity and accuracy. Very different to the regular 504, which you can find all the time.

I used an AF one once, and you simply tap in the size you want on the keyboard, and then it moves and focuses at exactly the right point. You can set it up with as many of your lenses as you want, from 40mm to 210mm. The AF on that one was always spot on. Which for some reason surprised me! The same keyboard controls the color head values, and exposure timer.

It seems built like a tank, and the AF mechanism is completely over engineered, so thats likely to give decades of good service untouched. In any case the manual focussing handwheels are right there still. As for the C/L color head, well, I know they can be serviced, and in the total worst case, you could just put a regular (non closed loop) DeVere color head on there. I have also moved a regular Freestanding 504 before, and its not so bad - put the head to the top, remove the color head and drop table, split the column (4 bolts) and it fitted in my car. These were very expensive items new though, and I dont think a lot were made, so kind of surprised to see an individual photographer had one, when you could buy a nice car for the same $. Raj - I've had two of these exact enlargers for 10 years, and nothing has gone wrong with either of them, not even once.

So I have no idea where you get your information from, (durst?) but its dubious. Yes ZBE no longer makes this models guts, but they are still very much in business, and there's plenty of people in the UK who service them and have the knowledge to fix anything, and have parts.

But like I say, all I ever needed was the rare service. If it did go wrong, theres always the manual handwheels (like a normal 504 DeVere) so - thats the worst that could happen: having to use it like a regular 504! Mine have worked flawlessly for over a decade. Seems boring to report it, but thats how it is. Peter, I too have a couple of these incredible enlargers and recommend them highly. The ultimate tag mentioned in the epay listing isnt quite right and would have to go to Zac Bogarts (ZBE) Sentinel enlarger.