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Recent outing with a Fotoman 612

johnnygoesdigital

New member
I recently purchased a Fotoman 612 from a member here, and must say wow! What a cool camera!
This camera is so robust! I cannot believe how much fun it is to shoot this size. The lens included is the Schneider 58XL - I think this the perfect all around pano lens, no center filter needed, but the build quality is what really stands out. Regardless what some may say here, film is an outstanding way to express one's artistic expression. Photographer Brian Kosoff uses the Fotoman with great success and it was his photography that initially piqued my interest in panorama's. Film sales and processing in NYC are quite good with the popularity of Holgas. Although, I do my own processing, as this is half the fun, soon I would like to print my own keepers too. Can anyone share experiences with B/W enlargers and the best lenses for those. I probably would only print up to 16x20 max., but any feedback on equipment would be much appreciated.
Thanks
 
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Oren Grad

Active member
You'll need a 4x5 enlarger to accommodate a 6x12cm negative. There are plenty out there to suit every taste. Mine is an LPL 4500II with color head; I use the magenta and yellow filtration to print on variable contrast papers. But others swear by condenser rather than diffusion heads, or dedicated VC heads rather than color heads, or Beseler/Omega/Durst/DeVere/whatever rather than LPL.

There are also plenty of excellent enlarging lenses to choose from - Nikon, Rodenstock and Schneider are the most common modern brands, though there are others. You'll need at least a 100-105mm lens to properly cover 6x12, though a 135 may be a more comfortable fit.

A glass sandwich negative carrier is best if print quality matters, but does require greater discipline in keeping negatives and carrier clean.

There are a grillion little things one could say about darkroom work if you haven't done it before. Do some reading at one of the more film-oriented forums like APUG or the Large Format Photography Forum, and you can focus your questions a bit more.
 
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