| Technically The Complete Enlarger is
not an Omega since it was launched before the Simmon Bros. adopted
the Omega trademark, and the Omega name never appeared on it.
Nevertheless, it was the first Simmon Bros. enlarger and is
therefore the forerunner of all Omega enlargers which followed. It
was a very clever and innovative design - an enlarger with
safelight, electric timer, adjustable 8x10 easel, and magnifier,
that folded up into a case.
In order to fit into the case and be
adjustable for height, the projector assembly was mounted on
parallelogram arms, the weight counterbalanced by two tape-style reels mounted
in the bottom rear of the case. Because the easel could only be
moved forward and backward, there was provision to move the head
from side to side to allow for composing and cropping the image.
Illumination came from a clear low-wattage lamp with an opal disc
mounted between the lamp and condenser lenses to diffuse the light.
Focusing was accomplished by turning a chrome knob on either end of
a pinion bar which ran across the front of the lamphouse. The pinion
turned geared crank wheels on either side which moved the
telescoping focus tube up and down.
The 2-blade adjustable easel was
almost entirely metal and had a very unique adjustment for border
width. Two discs, with vertical pins acting as paper stops,
were mounted at the top and side of the upper left corner. Each disc
could be rotated independently, changing the position of the pin and thus altering
the width of the border, by levers on the outside edge
of the easel. The position of the easel was adjusted by sliding the
entire assembly along metal tracks mounted to the sides of the case
bottom. A magnifying glass on an articulated arm attached to the
easel was provided as a means of checking focus.
To the rear and between the
parallelogram arms a box is mounted which houses the
transformer for the low voltage lamp, a safelight, and a 60 second
timer. The safelight was a simple red bulb which shone down
through an amber panel, directing light onto the work area. The
timer was a clever adaptation of a Telechron movement. Instead of
using a sweep hand which might be difficult to see in the dark, the
face of the timer was backlit by the safelight. A slot in a disc on
the shaft of the timer movement projected a narrow slit of light
which acted as the sweep hand.
The case itself was wood, covered in
a thin layer of faux leather. To keep the case from accidentally
folding up while working, two aluminum bars were extended from the
sides of the bottom into the other half of the case, where two long
rods running from the top of the case were screwed down to clamp
them in position. Although it was presented as a portable
enlarger, with all the metal and the wood case, The Complete
Enlarger weighed over 50 pounds!
Two versions were offered: the Model
A was for 35mm negatives, and the Model B was for 35mm to
2¼"x2¼" negatives. The Omega practice of
letter designations for different format enlargers was thus
established with The Complete Enlarger.
The first Complete Enlargers were shipped in
April 1936, but it wasn't long before the brothers found that The
Complete Enlarger was perhaps too ambitious an undertaking for their
first product. It was too complicated to manufacture efficiently in
their early shop, and they found they were losing money on each unit
they sold.
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