4x5 enlarger Home Made

[Ulophot]

One additional note, on reflection, adn please forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know.

It gets harder to focus on the grain as you stop down, to 16 and smaller, especially if the grain is fine to begin with and you're expecting something larger, as Doremus indicates. I make no pretenses to expertise in optics. However, in my experience with quality enlarging lenses, the cautions from many decades ago about focus-shifts as the aperture changes have not be relevant. I focus wide-open, or (rarely) at f/4 with my 50mm 2.8, then stop down to printing aperture.

[Graham Patterson]

I have trouble seeing grain on roll-film enlarged at 4x (8x10), even with a grain magnifier. With 4x5 at 2x I just don't have the vision. I usually go by edges in the image.

[Erik Larsen]

I think at such a modest enlargement as has been mentioned that the grain will be very difficult to discern. Just for reference you might try to frame a large enlargement and look through your focuser and see if the grain becomes sharp. If the grain is sharp at the large ratio then you can be reasonably assured that all is well and it’s just too difficult to find the grain on a small enlargement factor. I too have difficulty seeing grain on small enlargements with sheet film, it’s nothing like how grain pops into focus with 35mm film.

[dsphotog]

Is the eyepiece set properly on the Patterson Focusing aid? It adjusts by loosening the setscrew slightly, then slide the eyepiece until the line in the finder in sharp, then tighten the setscrew.

[Csholl]

Yes, everything is aligned properly. I'm using a cube level to keep everything straight as I can. I do see some grain, but I had thought it was more with the other enlarger. It could be off a hair, I don't know if that makes a big difference.

[Tim Meisburger]

I have trouble seeing grain in x-ray negatives sometimes, and just focus on an edge.

[Tin Can]

Great advice!

I primarily capture X-Ray

Thank you

I have trouble seeing grain in x-ray negatives sometimes, and just focus on an edge.

[Havoc]

Very stupid question, but you are putting your focus finder on a piece of paper?

[Csholl]

yes

[LabRat]

A printing test run should answer most focus questions...

Grain is difficult to see when focusing LF negs even with a good magnifier, but the trick is to set magnifier on an area with a sliver of higher density that is over a thinner area and look at the contrast between them... Focus the darkest area for max contrast darkening, and note grain between dark + clearer area will pop and max visual contrast there...

The next big question will be how even will the focus be across the print and how even is the illumination from corner to corner???

Steve K