Negative carrier etc.

[Gene M]

Equipment involved.

Beseler 45MXT with Dichro color head Schneider Componon - S 150 lens Beseler 4x5 negative carrier (glassless)

I've been printing 4x5 B&W for several months with a used but clean Beseler 45mxt that I bought a while ago.. When focussing the beast I use a Micro Sight grain magnifier and I can easily see the grain snap into focus when it's right.

Up until tonight I simply focused on the dead center of the easel. For some reason I decided to check off center and found that the areas away from dead center are mushy.

I leveled the base and attempted to level the negative and lens sections with a 8" bubble level. I have no manual so I'm not sure I did everything correctly. I did manage to get the stages pretty level with the bubble level. They were off before the alignment attempt.

Upon rechecking the focus I found it still pretty far off. I don't have to move the grain focuser very far off center before I lose sharpness.

What do you guys think is going on here ? Does this sound like an aligning problem ? Do any of you use glass carriers for your 4x5 negatives ? Any experience with Beseler's "Negaflat" negative holder ?

I can't find any detailed information on the web regarding the proper way to align an MXT. I plan on getting hold of Beseler tomorrow to see about a manual but I thought someone might have some advice in the mean time.

Thanks.

[Henry Friedman]

Not an answer, but another two questions: First, are you sure that your grain magnifier is meant to be used off-center? Second, what do your prints look like?

Perhaps another member will chime in with knowledge about the grain magnifier.

[Michael Kadillak]

Sounds like a job for a laser leveler such as The Parallel by Versalab. These units are absolutely necessary for getting your enlarger aligned correctly. Even a subtle error can be visually devistating in a large print while it might not even show up in a small one. Maybe someone in your area has one that you could use?

Cheers!

[Gene M]

Henry

My prints are unsharp at the edges. I don't see why a grain magnifier would not function off center. Opinions ?

[Bill_1856]

Focus on one corner. If the other three corners are in focus (regardless of what the center looks like) then then enlarger is properly aligned. When you've got all four corners equally focused, if the center is not in focus it's either a buckled negative (usually) or a bum enlarging lens. Bessler made a glassless carrier which puts tension on the negative and probably works as well as a glass carrier without all the dust problem -- they are on ebay often.

[Jay DeFehr]

I use the negaflat carrier and it makes me wonder why all negative carriers aren't made the same way. It's the only carrier I've seen that could reasonably be described as a precision instrument. Most other carriers are no better than the ones I cut out of laminate, and some are much worse. I highly recommend it.

[Charlie Skelton]

I played this game with my enlarger a couple of years back. Having noticed that the edges were out of focus under the grain magnifier, I started adjusting things and found that I could not get sharp grain 'edge to edge' no matter what I did, eventually I put the spirit level on the various bits to square them up again and got on with printing. As I had never noticed lack of sharpness on prints before, my conclusion was that the 10X magnification of the grain focuser made things look a lot worse than they really were.

Charlie.

[Leonard Robertson]

Here is a page on aligning the 4X5 Beseler: http://www.tech-diy.com/45mxt.htm This page describes the "mirror method" of alignment: http://www.photonet.demon.nl/align.html

[Eric Wagner]

I use a glassless carrier in a Beseler with good results. It helps to use a long lens because of the greater depth of focus. I use a 180 with 4x5 and a 135 with roll film. The 180 works fine on a flat board, but a 210 would probably require a board with an extension. Also, the lens will perform best when stopped down a few stops. I use the grain magnifier at f11 and tweak the focus until both the center and edges are sharp, then stop down to f16 or 22 for the exposure. As Bill pointed out, if the corners are the same, then the enlarger is in good alignment.

[Bob Salomon]

All enlarging lenses, for all formats, are manufactured under the assumption that the enlarger is in proper and critical alignment - something that can not really be determined with bubble levels - in all 3 planes, lens, film and baseboard. This is best done with a Zigalign. They also assume that the film is flat and does not move during the exposure. That means the lens will only perform optimally if the system is properly aligned and the film is in a glass negative carrier. There are no exceptions to the above if you want to squeeze out all of the performance the lens is capable of and the negative can provide.

[Jay DeFehr]

Bob, why is a glass carrier better than a tensioning carrier like the Beseler Negaflat?

[Brian Ellis]

I don't believe a glass carrier is necessary with 4x5 and smaller negatives. I have one, I've tested it vs. glassless up to 16x20 and the glass carrier made absolutely no difference that I could see in the print. Maybe it would if I printed posters, I don't know, but for the work most of us do I don't believe it makes a difference. I derive some comfort from the fact that of the two fine printers with whom I'm acquainted through workshops (John Sexton and Bruce Barnbaum) neither uses a glass carrier.

With respect to the question about why the grain focuser wouldn't work well off center, I don't know the technical/optical reason but I know that there are grain focusers that sell for $15 and there are grain focusers that sell for $250. I've always understood that the reason for the price difference was the ability of the more expensive focusers to focus out to the edge of the image. Why that's so (if it is) I don't know but there must be some reason why people buy the $250 jobs besides build quality.