4x5 enlarger Home Made

[Csholl]

Hi,

This is just a shot in the dark, but I'll ask: I tried making my own 4x5 enlarger in the style of an antique Rockwell one with a piece of diffusion glass inside it. I used an Omegaron Rodenstock 4x5 lens. I got pretty sharp images, but I noticed I wasn't seeing the grain of the film - close to it, however, but not like a regular enlarger. Basically, I tried to make sure everything is parallel, lens board, negative carrier (Cardboard and glass) and base board. For some reason, I just couldn't see the fine grain when focusing. I'm probably going to end up scrapping the idea, though. I used craft wood and a big, high wattage bulb (white LED) to light it.

[Oslolens]

Use a test negative with high contrast. Or a scrap negative with scratches. It might be the lens is not the sharpest, but at f16-f22 they all will look almost the same.

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[Mark Sampson]

You may be having trouble focusing. I may be Captain Obvious, but use a good focusing scope and find a light/dark edge in your image to be sure you're getting it right.

[Tin Can]

Poor eyesight

Very difficult

I now prefer my rare auto focus 35mm Leitz

[Ulophot]

I wouldn't give up quite so soon. I have a Microsight enlarging magnifier, which is 25x, and with fine grain film on a modest enlargement, zeroing can take patience. You haven't said what grain-focuser you have, film, size of enlargement. And, if the your alignment is off, you can slide by the path of sharpness without realizing it. I see you joined the forum fairly recently. Is this your first enlarger? Perhaps others can assist you more with more info. I'm sure there is a solution.

[Csholl]

I'm using a Patterson Micro focuser. I'm using 4x5 film and enlarging to about 8x10. I'm having a little difficulty getting everything parallel, but couldn't find the grain on the film too well. Other than that its sharp (if everything parallel) the diffusion glass is right behind the negative itself, unless it should be further away, not sure. Basically its a diffusion enlarger with a high wattage bulb. Film is Kodak Tri x 320. Black and white.

[Mal Paso]

Diffusion should be close to the negative for best effect.

Can we see it?

[Daniel Unkefer]

I used 4x5 and 5x7 Omega Omegalites, which are florescent circuline diffusion heads, with acrylic diffusion panel. Cheap and fairly easy to find. A put out a good amount of light. I prefer these heads having tried just about everything. I still use graded paper and tailer my negs to it.

[Doremus Scudder]

All that you need for overall good focus is parallelism between negative, lens and baseboard planes. The tolerances are not so fine as to not be feasible with good cabinetmaking skills. Even if things aren't parallel, there would at least be one spot that you could focus well on. So I'm not sure your problem is there at all.

If this is your first excursion into enlarging 4x5, then maybe you're just expecting more grain than you actually see at a 2x enlargement, especially if you're using slower and/or T-grained film. I don't see hugely pronounced grain from 4x5 Tri-X when enlarging to 11x14 even. It's nothing like grain from a 35mm neg enlarged to 8x10.

Overall softness could be the fault of the lens or stopping down too much (diffraction), or your grain magnifier simply isn't up to the job or not adjusted correctly. Have you used these things before (with the same film in the same size) on another enlarger and seen more grain?

I'd keep at it and examine all components involved before giving up. Do make sure your diffusion material is right down on top of the negative and thick enough to do the job well or you'll end up with a hot spot.

Best,

Doremus

[Csholl]

Yes... I'll attach a print in a few day's that I printed. Basically, all looks sharp if I keep everything parallel. I suppose their might be subtle differences, I could live with that. But, out of curiosity I'm using a very bright bulb to light it LED. I had seen that a: Bioluz LED 60 Watt LED Light Bulbs 4000K Cool White 9 Watts = 60W Non-Dimmable A19 LED gives full tonal values, but that bulb is hardly bright enough for the inside of it. I guess I could cut it down to about half a foot and make the bulb closer. I was also going to try a condenser bulb from my other enlarger as well.