Well I never thought I would do it … and I even said I never would do it … but I did it.

A while back I wrote about my acquisition of what many consider the King and at a minimum, the Crown Prince of enlargers. What other than the Leitz Focomat 2C and 1C … the Leica’s of enlargers!  And I mentioned that my mighty Devere 504 with its diffusion color head wasn’t going to be going anywhere. More recently I penned a somewhat detailed user comparison with points to be considered when thinking about these noble machines.

I finally realized I had a difficult and complicated dilemma on my hands with three world class enlargers sitting on my work bench.  While there certainly was enough room for all of them, I felt cramped when printing. On the other hand, the Devere was like an old friend. I knew and understood it and didn’t have to think much about it when in use, except that it was my able helper. Always there when I needed it … always dependable. It also allowed me to use my Zone VI Compensating Enlarger timer with the color head, making everything so damn easy!  It really was the bee’s knees!  But here’s the thing … the bee’s knees was standing in the way of me using the Focomats, and if it remained in place I would probably only use them sparingly at best, and maybe hardly at all.

The easy solution would be to remove it from the darkroom and store it elsewhere. I tried that before and it didn’t last very long. I just couldn’t bare knowing it was sitting by itself, maybe even gathering dust. I couldn’t do it to myself or to my old friend! There was only one answer. Sell it. But not just to anyone. Only to someone I knew and respected … someone who would give it a good home and use it as it was meant to be used.

And that’s what I did. Turns out a colleague in Monalog that had purchased my Focomat V35 was interested. So I offered him a fair price with all the accessories and two extra enlarging heads I never used. I know I could have got more, but it didn’t matter. The price was agreed to and a couple of weeks ago we carried the Devere up the stairs, out the front door, and loaded it into his car.

I hope I did the right thing. Now I don’t have a choice but to use what many consider the King and Crown Prince of enlargers. I even located what may be one of the only surviving glass negative carriers for the 1C from Glennview in Chicago, and it should arrive sometime this week.

It’s like moving from the old neighborhood. You make knew friends. You never forget the old ones and maybe even get together and see them again. My Monalog colleague has offered to sell me back the Devere if I ever want and I can always come over for a visit. But now it is time to make new memories.

Stay well,

Michael