hand-holding vc filrer against lens....

[bspeed]

It seems, that "it's always something"

found out to my dismay, that my cheap little enlarger filter holder wont fit the 135 and 150 lenses.

so, dumb as this is..

is there any reason I cant just hold it by hand...assuming of course a steady hand.
It appears to be ok, in that the filters frame is not blocking light.
Just wondering if there is a reason to keep the filter a little ways away from the lens, other than scratching my already scratched lens....

[Robert Oliver]

i set my gelatin VC filters on top of the lens... not ideal, but ok for now.

[Brian Ellis]

Seems like it would be fine. I hand-held all my Lee filters against the camera lenses rather than fooling around with the Lee adapter. That always worked fine with the camera as long as I made sure my hand wasn't in the picutre and it should work equally well with an enlarger.

[Gem Singer]

Brian,

Does your enlarger have a filter drawer? If so, you can get gel filters to fit it.

If your enlarger has a swing away red filter, remove the red filter and adapt the swing away frame to accept the Kodak VC filters.

If worse comes to worse, get a larger size under the lens filter holder to fit your 135 and 150 lenses.

It will work okay, but hand holding a VC filter under the lens while making the exposure is going to be a PITI. You will need a hand to operate the timer and a hand to use for burning and dodging. You'll need to grow a third hand to use for scratching your head.

[Merg Ross]

Against the lens might cause unwanted enlarger vibration, but just underneath should work. It might make dodging and burning a bit difficult with your free hand. I would be inclined to modify the holder that you have, if that would be possible.

For what it is worth my friend, who is into testing just about everything pertaining to projection printing, discovered the following: if the below lens filter is not exactly parallel to the lens, the image will suffer degradation due to the angle of the light passing through the filter. I have never made such a test but follow his advice. However, if your lens is scratched you may have other issues anyway.

Give the hand holding a try, and report back. It should work fine.

[Merg Ross]

Brian,

Does your enlarger have a filter drawer? If so, you can get gel filters to fit it.

If your enlarger has a swing away red filter, remove the red filter and adapt the swing away frame to accept the Kodak VC filters.

If worse comes to worse, get a larger size under the lens filter holder to fit your 135 and 150 lenses.

It will work okay, but hand holding a VC filter under the lens while making the exposure is going to be a PITI. You will need a hand to operate the timer and a hand to use for burning and dodging. You'll need to grow a third hand to use for scratching your head.

Hi Gem, we were posting at the same time. We came to the same conclusion about not enough hands!

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I don't know what lens(es) you are using, but many enlarger lenses are threaded for filters. That said, if yours is like that, there may be another solution to your problem in the form of a gel filter adapter. These are frames that hold 3x3 or 4x4 filters and are attached to the lens with a series filter adapter. If you can find one of these in a size that can be adapted you your lens, you could then just slip the contrast filters into the slot and away you go.

[Gem Singer]

Robert,

His 135 Schneider Componon-S should be familiar to you. Before you sold it to me, it was yours. I recently sold it to Brian.

[Andrew O'Neill]

i set my gelatin VC filters on top of the lens... not ideal, but ok for now.

I've done this and it works fine...as long as you are not split filter printing. Removing the lens and putting it back may render image not as sharp.

Holding the filter under the lens by hand is fine too, but you would want the filter as close to the lens as possible. Using the swinging red filter thingy under the lens wouldn't be a good idea, as it's too far from the lens...at least it is on mine (Fujimoto 4x5). If you need both hands for dodging and burning, just tape it. Use some of that painter's tape as it's not so sticky and doesn't leave a residue.

[bspeed]

thanks for the replies
In the past, I never spent much - actually never, dodge and burn....I am so inexperienced, I am doing good to just get a decent print.

it's the nickel and dime things that get you ... a good swing away is about 50 dollars.
my exisiting filter holder only fits the 50mm lens.

The swing away is real nice, the cheap clamp-to-the-lens holder I have blocks some vision of the fstop scale

Eventaully I will get all the little things taken care of.