[Leica] 6x7 Enlarger?

[benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)]

>> I use an Omega B8. It will also do 6x9.
>That's what I used back when I did wet printing. It is a great enlarger.

I can vouch for that, absolutely.  I can also confirm that if
carefully disassembled and shipped, the Omegas reassemble at the other
end easily and retain their regidity and alignment (this is not always
the case for all enlargers).  This place:
http://www.classic-enlargers.com/ is a great resource for them.

I second Slobodan's comments both about most Beseler 23s needing a
rebuild and about the Saunders/LPL enlargers seeming flat-ish.  Most
of my 'grade 3' 35mm negs need grade 3.5-4 on an LPL, leaving you
little room to go up in case of an accidentally flat neg.

I'd imagine you could easily get something for much less than you
indicate the Saunders/LPL is going for, particularly living in the US.

Durst M70s are tremendous and Dante's suggestion of a 605 is also very
good.  Make sure you get your neg carriers with your enlarger unless
you already have a source with parts - they are increasingly hard to
find for out-of-production machines (e.g. *all* Dursts).

A VC or colour head is unnecessary but nice.  Below the lens gel VC
filters work just fine and you can dodge with them, providing a useful
amount of local contrast control.  If you keep them clean and dry they
will not degrade image quality.

Big prints from good 6x7 negs are a joy to behold and carefully made
Acros, TMX and Delta 100 negs can have you fooling your friends you
have gone seriously big with large format.  Send us the invite to the
show.

Marty