How do you align an enlarger?

I just bought a Omega D2 and it is on the way. I am just starting to understand that an out of align enlarger can cause major out of focus problems. Now the question is how do you check the alignment. I don't remember seeing it anywhere in the tons of books I've read. I also have Beseler 45M that I could stand to check also. After you align one how often do you need to check it? Thanks again for all the great help.

Doug

There are several tools for aligning an enlarger. The primary

objective of enlarger alignment is to get 3 planes exactly parallel:

the negative stage, the lens stage, and the "paper" plane, i.e.

easel. While I don't own an Omega, I have owned several Beseler's

and they are not the easiest to align. Beseler makes a device called

the "Bilateral alignment tool" for its 23 and 45 series enlargers.

I've read where it is aggravating to use but have never personally

used one, although it's the cheapest device for this I know of. The

company Zig-Align (www.zig-align.com) makes a contraption using

concentric mirrors that is very clever and is supposedly easy to use.

It is more expensive. Some people have even created a home-made

version of this system. (Zig-align also has a newer LED based

alignment device that's even more expensive. Check their site.) The

device I use is Versalab Parallel Alignment device. (Not cheap,

either.) It is essentially a laser that has been very carefully

aligned to the perpendicular of its own base and, along with some

pieces of glass, uses the reflection of the beam to determine

alignment. I find it easy and intuitive to use, but the zig-align

device might be just as good, for all I know. I usually align my

enlarger (all three planes) about every month or so, or just after I

do any serious "tinkering" with the enlarger. I use my "standard"

8x10 easel as the paper-plane reference for this alignment. Then,

when I start a new printing session with a new easel size

(16x20,20x24), I just re-align the paper-plane. I do this

by "shimming" the easel or my movable baseboard. This way, the 8x10

easel remains the "reference" for the full 3-plane alignment. A lot

more can be said about this topic and you can email me for more

details if you need them. Good luck.

Doug,

Versalab is great and, probably, also Zig-Align. If you can afford

one, don't think twice 'cause they might be much more precise than

anything we can fashion with home tools. Meanwhile, you can try to

lay a large flat glass or anything alike on negative stage and, using

a ruler, check four sides distance from baseboard. That's easy and

can be precise enough for enlargements with one or two stops closed.

Aligning lens is quite a different business, for the small DOF and

distances involved. But if you get a metal ruler and, while standing

it up on the lensboard, use the focus knob till the ruler hits the

under side of negative stage, you can easily see if it's not

parallel. If it's Ok just check other sides same way. Precision may

not be the best, but it works untill some 21th century gadget comes

on your way. Good work.

<p>

Cesar B.

You can use two mirrors, one with a hole in the center. The one with

the hole goes in place of the negative carrier, mirror facing down,

the other on the baseboard, facing up. If you see more than one spot

of light on the bottom mirror, your enlarger is not properly aligned.

Just to expand on Ed's answer, you can make up these mirrors pretty

cheaply at home. Buy a couple of silvered mirrors (you'll place one

on the negative stage and another on the lens and the easel - you can

calculate dimensions accordingly). Make sure the mirror/glass is very

good - no distortions/waves etc. Buy a glass drill bit from your

hardware store. Drill a hole through one of the mirrors - you will

have to do this veeerrrryyy slowly to prevent breaking the glass -

don't put any weight on the drill, let the drill bit do the work.

Then place the mirror with the hole on your negative stage and the

other on the lens or the easel. When you look through the hole in the

mirror on the negative stage, if the two mirrors are absolutely

parallel to one another, you will see a series of concentric circles

going away to infinity. If the surfaces are not absolutely parallel,

you will see the series of circles veering away to one side.

Good luck. Cheers, DJ.

Do you have to drill a hole in the glass. Couldn't you just scrape a

little hole in the silvering on the back. If you can see thru isn't

that all that is needed? I haven't tried it, has anyone?

I agree that there are wonderful tools that help you align an

enlarger. When I first got my Beseler 23C (which was replaced by an

Omega 4x5 enlarger), I went the lazy way. I took a piece of graph

paper and placed it in a negative carrier and projected that image. I

reasoned that if the negative holder, lensboard, and baseboard/easel

were all parallel, then the lines in the grid would be equidistant at

both sides of the field, and therefore parallel. I fiddled with the

adjustments until that was the case, then I put a negative in the

carrier, focused it, and checked all the corners. I either remembered

my high school geometry well, or got really lucky because it worked

fine for me.

After doing enlarger alignment "manually" for many years, I bought a

Versalab Parallel (on eBay, like new, but less than full retail).

It's great. Much faster and I think it's more accurate that any

method I used previously, as well as much less frustrating.

To add my 2 cents worth, I thought I had properly aligned my 8X10

Beseler using a sheet of glass and a bubble level. This was my idea

of how to do it. Then I noticed that one corner of a particular

print looked a bit fuzzy and I blamed the lens. Then I checked the

negative and realized I had a problem. I followed the instructions

from Beseler (for the first time) and aligned it using a carpenter's

square placed on the baseboard. I followed the recommended method

step by step, then found that Beseler forgot that the lens board has

an internal adjustment so I figured that out. The problem was

solved. A good test (more or less similar to the graph paper

comment) is to cut a little piece of screen from a screen door. Get

a good flat piece with no bends in it, stick it in the negative

carrier and with the lens wide open focus the image on the easel.

The screen makes an extremely contrasty grid and if your alignment is

off, you will notice it in a second. If the grid is sharp with the

lens wide open, stopping down it will be just fine. All that being

said, those alignment gadgets look pretty neat and I may get one

anyway. But the simple cheap method works pretty well.

Since the '40s, improvements in enlargers have not kept up with

improvements in cameras. Because most photographers base their needs on

observations of small prints, they have not demanded better enlargers.

Please consider the following:

<p>

Since zig-align began in the spring of 1987, every inquiry received

about enlarger alignment has originated from noticing that one or more

corners of a print are not as sharp as the others. The assumption here is

that this problem could be solved with better alignment, and that improving

sharpness is the only role of alignment. However, it is misleading to use

print inspection as the basis for deciding whether better alignment is

needed (this is discussed in the Alignment Checking Methods section of The

Basics, <http://www.zig-align.com/basics.html>). Sharpness is an

edge function, and the average 8x10 print size simply is not big enough to

make inspection of grain a sensitive indicator of alignment.

<p>

Digital photographers can make accurate visual inspections of final

image quality because it is easy for them to view high magnifications on

screen. They do not have to view small prints. But digital photographers

have no need for enlarger alignment. For photographers using enlargers,

now there is a better way to go: optical alignment. It works on a simple and

basic principle, and in keeping with the times, it's significantly

more hi-tech and user-friendly than any of the old ways.

<p>

Once you get beyond merely out-of-focus prints, the main reason to align an

enlarger is to optimize the performance of your enlarging lens, and

therefore preserve the performance of your taking lens. Maximized lens

performance is available only when using a means of optical alignment that

shows a symmetrical pattern of repeated images made by two facing mirrors

when the mirrors are parallel. Such alignment is 32 times more precise (based

on a two-foot distance between planes) than any one-mirror/laser system. A

homemade system (that almost certainly does not take advantage of the

precision available in CNC milling), or one using mechanical measurements

(such as rulers, grids and the like), and all one-mirror systems simply do not

have enough sensitivity to even approach maximizing the capability of a lens.

And it is lens alignment that is so important to obtain, not just sharpness

uniformity in a print.

<p>

Most enlargers have relatively good alignment between lens and negative

(the enlarger stages), but because enlargers usually lean forward, they tend

to have poor alignment between the enlarger stages and the paper. Also,

position of the enlarger's light head on the upright, bellows draw,

temperature, and humidity can cause alignment to change. In addition,

manufacturer's failure to make enlargers easy to adjust leads to infrequent

checking, and that invites disaster.

<p>

Photographers might want enlargers that are as well aligned as cameras, but

at the same time their practices, and their prior inability to judge the

mechanical and optical alignment of their enlargers allow this technological

gap to persist.

<p>

If you want to take control of this problem, I suggest you visit the zig-align

site. Then call me and describe what you want to do (phone contact only,

please).

<p>

Bill Ziegler

650-324-3704 8 to 5 M-F or Sat 8-12 only PST

http://www.zig-align.com/

Before you spend a lot of money on an alignment tool, use the

enlarger to make a few prints. The D2 is built like a tank and it may

not need aligment at all. I've owned my D2 since 1953 and it's still

perfect.