Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
But how do you assure alignment between the film, the lens and the easel?
Hi Bob, the negative sits in a holder on the back of the camera, in a similar way to how you would use the camera when taking a picture, you square everything up in the usual way using the 0 indents or marks on the camera, that gets you your negative and film squared up. You then point it down and use the levels to get it roughly right and either dial it in using a grain finder or more simply using a sheet of graph paper or a cutting mat with a grid, when your image is square on the grid and aligned in all four corners you are good to go, in practise it really isn't that hard to do and takes very little time to get an accurate and useable setup. You could also attach the camera to a good copy stand, Kaiser make a lot of compatible ones, many of which can fold away and are a lot easier to store than a massive 4x5 enlarger.

I appreciate for people who have often had access to high quality enlargers or have the space to have one setup at home- the idea of using your 4x5 camera as an enlarger seems a bit strange. But for a lot of people, particularly young people just getting starting out with film; A tool that lets you setup your own mini darkroom that can be cleared away when not being used, allows you to start printing for the first time, and allows you to make really beautiful prints is a very useful tool indeed.

Happy to answer any other questions people might have