Beseler 45 - upper bellows adjustment

[Bob Salomon]

First, as to alignment, you're absolutely right. But I'm working on an alignment tool like this using a laser.

Second, with respect to "helping out", right now there is no one so I'm effectively in charge. But I say "helping out" because - in retirement - I'm jealously guarding my flexibility as to time and place and avoiding unnecessary commitments. So it's a labor of love on my own terms.

Third, as to printing and posting signs, I have thought about that but it seems the signs get pretty verbose. I think the difficulty is trying to deal with both beginners and experienced users. Things that might seem obvious to those here may not be so obvious to beginners (and probably weren't obvious to those here when beginning). We really should have a mandatory "intro" course on using the enlargers, but that gets back to my second point. I've also thought about reserving certain enlargers for experienced users, but not sure if that might be too difficult to control on a day-to-day basis.

I should add that this darkroom is part of a larger photography oriented center but, by no means, the focus. It probably doesn't really pay it's own way in terms of square footage used. So we live within those constraints.

Doesn't have to be verbose at all. Pictograms are very easy to understand and they would only take, in this case, the format numbers and an arrow pointing to the proper bellows position.

[John Olsen]

Re: Condenser head.
I'll put my condenser head on tomorrow and post some photos with the scale in place and some measurements. You'll be able to use the measurements once you've seen the photos of the scale. I hope that will help you.

Here are a few photos with the scale attached next to the condenser head. As Doremus posted earlier, you can just measure from the lower screw to the red pointer or make your own device. Hope this helps.

[LabRat]

Here's another thing:

If you are sure that most of the negs the users are going to print are, let's say 35mm, you can move the stage to the height mentioned above, and then change the locking knob to a set screw, and maybe remove the stage lift knob so there is one thing less for the users to mess with, and maybe not tear up something in the enlarger... It could clearly be marked for 35mm, another for 2 1/4'' and so on... Also, this way the stage will not creep around (as they sometimes do) when the carrier is inserted and opened and closed in the enlarger... It will save some wear & tear there...

Steve K

[HMG]

Labrat, I think that's best. We have 3 Bes 45s, I'd set one to 4x5 (though I haven't seen anyone print 4x5 there) and 2 to 6x9. All with lenses to match. We have other enlargers we can "allocate" to 35mm. If, for some reason (like a class), we need to set the 45s to 35mm, we can do that.

As to "tearing up an enlarger", I went in last night and an Omega B66 was broken. The carriage lock screw was snapped. Never reported; my guess is that someone tried to force the carriage up or down with it locked. So the less there is the fiddle with the better off we'll be.

[stawastawa]

So I did a bit of testing. First, both the 23C and the 45 operate the same in that the upper bellows are extended for smaller formats (as Doremus' measurements indicate). But what confuses me is that I see obvious light falloff what the bellows at the 4x5 setting when using a 35mm carrier and a 50mm lens. Better, but still some, with a 75mm lens.

I do realize that the 50mm (or 75mm lens) lens won't have the coverage of a lens typically used for 4x5, but I thought this would be moot when using the 35mm carrier.

What interesting findings, I hope someone can add some information about this observation. If I remember I will try and play around with my 23c and mx45 in a week or two when I have time for it.

[John Dey]

Adjusting the second bellows does effect image quality with the condenser setup on the 45MX. The adjust is not super critical, but it does make a difference that you can see. I have made some measurements for you. The bottom stage is tapered so the measurements would be different between the front edge and the back edge. Your condenser head and negative stage will have pre-drilled wholes for where the scale would attach. The holes are located at the back right hand side of the stage. This is the location from where I have made measurements. Measurements are in inches.

4 x 5 - fully compressed
6 x 9 - 2 1/4
6 x 7 - 2 3/4
6 x 6 - 3 1/8
35mm - 4 3/4 (full height)