Science for the Curious Photographer, 2nd Edition

APPENDIX A A Historical Note on Enlargers

 

 

Photographic enlargers have existed since the earliest days of photography. The first enlarging system was described by Sir John Herschel in 1839. Since transparent negatives were not available until about 1850, all of the early enlargers were essentially large copy cameras. The problem for both copy cameras and negative projection systems was to find bright enough light sources so that exposures could be made in a reasonable amount of time. One solution was to use sunlight, and solar enlargers known as solar cameras were in use with some success throughout the 19th century. The exposures were typically so long that the solar cameras had to be continually adjusted to track the motion of the sun, and ...