Someone told me that I can enlarge 4x5 on my Beseler 23CII...is this possible?

The markinings on the rail show max neg size 2 1/4 x 3 1/4"; that ain't even close...

I'd just about resigned myself to contact prints only...are larger prints in my future???

Mabye its possible, there is a conversion kit for beseler 35 to 6x7

I've never seen a conversion kit for the 23C, but I'm sure you could make one. But why? With so many Beseler 45 enlargers for sale, usually less than $100, it would be cheaper, and better, to get the 45.

I had a couple of 23C for a while. I don't think you can make it a 4x5 although there are kit to mount a 4x5 color head on it but it's still a 6x9cm enlarger.

Thanks guys. I'll admit that when I heard it, I was scratching my head...

i suppose you could try, but it would really be out of balance, very top heavy among other things.

If beseler had designed the 23c to do that, be sure they would have the proper 8x10 head to fit the strut.

There are just some limits to the 23c that make it unfit for 4x5 conversion. The negative carrier stage size, for one thing. The bellows throw for another. You might be able to make it work if you were doing only really large projection prints, but then the 4x5 Dichro head wouldn't fit between the chassis rails.

Nope, can't be done. That's why they made the 45m series. You can adapt a 45m to do 8x10.

there a listing for a complete darkroom under zone vi that sayes it has a 23c modified by zone vi to be a 4x5 . it looks like a mxt however when asked they replied it was a 23c modified by fred picker. take a look. http://cgi.ebay.com/ZONE-VI-FRED-PICKER-COMPLETE-DARKROOM-SETUP-GREAT-DEAL_W0QQitemZ230001063664QQihZ013QQcategoryZ29993 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
mitch

strange as that is a 45 strut

I own both the 23c and 45mxt. That is NOT a 23c, not the head and not the rails. Maybe the baseboard.

Conversion would be more trouble than it would be worth! I purchased a perfectly good Beseler 45 last year on ePay with a Color Head for around $37.00. However the shipping was $110.00! Still a great deal... :)

That eBay listing is of a late model 45M, and it has a standard, newer lens stage as evidenced by the square instead of tapered focus bellows. The only thing that is not standard on this enlarger is the Zone IV head, and one of these can be put on any 45m series enlarger, period. Nothing special to see here, overpriced, time to move on....