Tag Archives: De Vere

Building a darkroom from scratch

I’ve moved house a few times over the last 10 years and at each place I’ve set up my own darkroom. I started with a rented flat, where I would develop film in the bathroom sink but there was no room for printing. At a later rented house, I made a makeshift darkroom in theContinue reading “Building a darkroom from scratch”

Another LED upgrade to the De Vere 54

I’ve owned a De Vere 54 enlarger for a few months, and in that time I have modified it several times. First I spruced up the bulb-powered condenser head by converting to diffusion and making it use a halogen reflector lamp. This proved unsatisfactory and I couldn’t get the illumination even enough. Plus it wasContinue reading “Another LED upgrade to the De Vere 54”

Further modifications to the De Vere 54

A few weeks ago I made the jump to large format photography, and upgraded my LPL C7700 medium format enlarger to a De Vere 54 large format. The C7700 is a fairly sophisticated machine from the 1970s/80s, while the 54 is a primitive beast, cast in the fires of Mordor back in 1952. It neededContinue reading “Further modifications to the De Vere 54”

Converting a De Vere 54 condenser enlarger to diffusion

I recently picked up a De Vere 54 enlarger for a bargain price. It’s a 1950s machine, designed to take 5×4″ negatives. In order to use the light most efficiently when making large prints, the enlarger is fitted with a condenser to give parallel illumination to the negative. However, the flip side of a condenserContinue reading “Converting a De Vere 54 condenser enlarger to diffusion”