Saunders 4550XLG Enlarger

Review Date
October 15, 2009

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Reviewed by
mitch1 , Intermediate

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Fine Art

Summary
Personally I prefer the Beseler 23CIII XL to this enlarger. The amount of time it takes to make a decent print is way to long and I prefer using my own filters instead of the seamless filters in the enlarger head.

Weaknesses
Long exposure times.
Not enough contrast
Huge learning curve.
Not simple to use

Similar Products Used
Beseler 23CIII XL

Review Date
November 1, 2001

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Smallman , Expert , from Sydney, Australia

Price Paid
$2250.00 at Sydney Australia

Photography Experience
11-20 years , Fine Art

Summary
Strong, robust well made unit for almost any enlarging duty. Made in Japan by LPL and marketed as the LPL7452 outside USA.Comes with VCCE, Dichro colour and plain B&W light modules.

Strengths
All operations smooth and precise. Fine focus knob very welcome.Stays in alignment.Easy to use with 4x5", 6x7 or 35mm. Lens is 355 mm in front of the column allowing a Saunders 20x24" four blade easel to be used easily and centred properly.

Weaknesses
A couple of grumbles. The 4x5 frame does not allow the full 4x5 negative to be projectd, a bit is trimmed off all round.
The blades on the negative stage plate do not close down enough to mask a 35mm neg correctly. I got around this by making a mask the correct size from a discarded piece of 4x5 film and taped this beneath the negative carrier.

Similar Products Used
Omega D2

Customer Service
Very good from CR Kennedy in Sydney

Review Date
July 15, 2001

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Reviewed by
Ken Grunzweig , Expert , from Los Altos CA

Price Paid
$2100.00 at Keeble and Shuchatt

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Fine Art

Summary
Get it for 4X5, very solid. I bought the VCC head and love the fact that I can go to color with a simple module change.

Strengths
Excellent and durable enlarger. Perfect alignment out of the box. Easy to use.

Weaknesses
None

Similar Products Used
Beseler, Omega

Customer Service
NO problems