Benefits of a Pin Registration System?

[neil poulsen]

I'm kind of curious, what are benefits of a pin registration system for black and white enlarging?

[Bob Salomon]

None for a single exposure. Many if making multiples on one sheet.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Masking to increase or decrease contrast and/or edge sharpness, or for compositional purposes.

[Bruce Pottorff]

It allows one to easily make and use a variety of contrast and unsharp masks. Google Lynn Rydeka, an accomplished practitioner. His website shows great examples of what can be achieved using these masks.

[jeroldharter]

If you do masking, even simple dodge masks (pencil on masking paper), a registration easel makes the process much easier. Radeka makes a unit that fits many enlargers. Hard to beat the Radeka systems if they fit your enlarger.

[Jeff Dexheimer]

Many, even for single exposures. I have the one made by Lynn Radeka and I really enjoy using it. Even if I am not masking, it makes using my enlarger easier. I have one negative carrier for medium format and 4x5. my negatives all get a punch strip taped to them then punched. It makes for streamlined set-up. When masking, it doubles as a contact exposure frame and it holds your masks in perfect registration. Now that I have one, I don't think I'll ever print without one again.

[Drew Wiley]

Pin-registered carriers are needed only when you need to make multiple exposures from within the enlarger onto separate sheets which must themselves be printed
in register. Dye transfer printing would be one application, sequential additive printing another, but only if you needed to remove your paper and put it away in the
dark while fussing with something between exposures. Otherwise, you just need a precision film punch and matching registered contact printing glass for the film itself. Masking can be either as simple or as sophisticated as you wish it to be. I enjoy it, but rarely find it necessary in black and white printing anymore, now that
VC papers have improved so dramatically. It's a very important tool in color darkroom work.

[ic-racer]

Look up "unsharp masking."