I picked up a few odds and ends the week before last, although they fall in the realm of darkroom stuff rather than strictly camera accessories.
I walked into my favorite used camera store with the store manager fussing about an enlarger that the owner had bought earlier that day. I ended up buying the enlarger, all the darkroom "stuff" that came in with it, and managed to talk the owner into a 50mm 2.8 El-Nikkor for the enlarger(I don't have a 50mm enlarger lens).
This whole bundle of stuff is special. It is arguably the best enlarger made for 35mm film-a Leitz Focomat V35. Unfortunately, it was missing the original 40mm Focotar, but the auto-focus is close enough with the 50mm El-Nikkor that it only needs a small tweak to get it into focus after an adjustment.
I've been printing for years on a Beseler 23C, which is a fine enlarger but getting it reconfigured when switching formats is a bit time consuming. I also only have an 80mm Rodenstock on it, which again is an excellent lens but is a bit too long for 35mm. I can now leave it permanently set up for medium format.
In any case, going back to the Focomat-it is absolutely the sturdiest enlarger I've ever used. The head moves with a light touch, but it stays perfectly in place and there's no flex or wobble anywhere in it. The Besseler is a bit rickety by comparison. I'm use to using condenser enlargers, which give very sharp images but also well defined grain and magnify any defects of the negatives. The Focomat is sort of a hybrid condenser-diffuser as it incorporates elements of both. A diffusion head is often said to print about 1 contrast grade softer than a condenser, and I'm finding that I need to go about 1/2 grade higher on contrast on the same negatives.
On the subject of contrast, though, the Focomat also has a color head. I don't have any intention of printing color for the time being, but a color head allows you to "dial in" the contrast with multi-grade papers rather than using a contrast filter. I only use Ilford papers these days(not a lot of choice, and Ilford paper is great) and I just taped their published filtration values on the enlarger head.
It doesn't stop there, though. The enlarger came with a nice little digital Gralab timer-it's so nice to just set the time, hit a button, and get perfectly timed exposures.
The biggest surprise, though, was the developing tank. I just looked at it and saw two reels and figured they go into the rotation. I was working through some film the other night, needed some reels, so just grabbed this tank and tossed it in the changing bag. When I pulled the reels out, I knew I was holding something special-they were heavier and more sturdy than any 35mm reel I've handled, and seemed to virtually load themselves.
After I finished developing, I looked and saw that they were Hewes reels. I've heard about them for years, but never bothered to look for them. I've used Nikor, Omega, and even no-name reels and all are fine as long as they aren't bent. The Nikor 120 reels are solid pieces, but I've bent more 35mm reels than I care to count. It would take a concentrated effort, and not a mis-step like dropping in the sink to bend one of the Hewes reels.
Amazingly enough, the made in England Hewes tank was the also the only stainless tank I've ever used that didn't leak. That's impressive for something made in England
I've been piddling in the darkroom for years, and this is the first time in a while I've been excited about something like this. I'm now looking at picking up some more Hewes reels on Ebay
