Brand

Used Durst enlargers

Durst started with two brothers in Brixen, in the Italian South Tyrol. Julius and Gilbert Durst were building and repairing photo gear at home by 1929, and their first patent, in 1934, already covered enlargers, negative holders and automatic focus. With money from the Oberrauch leather family of Bozen, Durst Phototechnik opened in 1936. The firm made cameras too, from the Gil box camera to the Automatica, until 1963, when enlargers became the whole business. Julius died in a car crash in 1964, and his young team carried on, launching a color head with automatic exposure for formats up to 13x18 cm in 1966. Amateur gear made up 60 percent of turnover by 1977. Durst's factory code names live on in the accessories, so the Laborator 1200 (FEMO) takes FEMOMASK carriers and the M605 (SIRIO) takes a Siriokit condenser. Leica Camera took over US distribution of the amateur line in 1993. Durst built its last enlargers around 2006 and now makes industrial printers, and its own service list says amateur spare parts ran out at the end of 2008.

6 models we cover.