not really ot: vc printing with a leitz focomat IIa

[shiver_me_timbrrrre]

I'd look for a IIC, skeeter. Have you seen the condenser in a IIC? It is a huge chunk of water white optical glass. Condensers got a bad rap because Omega and Beseler used Coke bottle glass for its condensers. Leitz used water white optical quality glass for its condensers (the other enlargers with great condensers come from Durst AG, Brixen, Italy).

 

Heiland Electronics makes a Splitgrade head for the IIC which replaces the top half of its head. With this you get automatic splitgrade filter printing.

 

Another reason to go for the IIC is its great build quality.

 

I am sure one can make a great print with either the Beseler 23C-II or the Leitz IIC. But for my money, I'd spring for a IIC.

[skeeter]

mark, you are correct. i misspoke. the alignment is off front to back, so i will try to thim it as you have suggested. thanks again to everyone for their input.

[jonathan_reynolds]

Enlarger alignment, fore and aft. Enlarger baseboards and columns are generally inadequately engineered, and the column bends as the head is raised, causing alignment problems. I'm sure someone will tell me this is negligible in the Focomat, but some bending seems to me inevitable unless the column is hideously massive. In case it helps anyone, this (free, gratis and for nothing) is what I did with my Phillips (who? what?) enlarger.

 

I discarded the baseboard and fastened the column directly to the worksurface. I fastened the top of the enlarger column to the wall by means of a length of threaded rod screwed into an expanding fixing in the wall at one end, and passing through a drilled hole into the top of the enlarger column at the other end. Two nuts (one inside, one outside the colum) allow forward and backward adjustment of the column. With the enlarger head at the top of the column (max bending), I then checked alignment (using a piece of developed film end with lines scratched on it as a test 'negative'; lens wide open, of course). After adjusting and tightening the nuts, the whole column became rock solid. It is then advisable to check alignment at lower enlarger head heights, but this should be spot on. Sideways alignment is adjusted on the enlarger head in the usual way.

 

Man, has that cured my problem! I am not even slightly tempted to buy a better enlarger.

[skeeter]

thanks for the tip jonathan. the beseler has a pretty substantial frame and my impression is that it is not subject to that kind of stress movement, but i will check it at high and low settings.

[jonathan_reynolds]

Don't forget you have three planes to get parallel: negative, lens and baseboard. Until I secured the top of my enlarger column I thought my alignment problem required shims under the negative carrier. I started with temporary shims, as a result of which I found that I needed fewer shims for smaller prints, and the truth dawned.

 

By the way, I hate enlarger baseboards - they're never big enough, and things slip underneath them.

[richard_volet]

Hello Skeeter. I just read this old post of yours. With my Beseler, mounted to a work bench, I also have the alignment problem (east-west), for which there is no adjustment on the enlarger. I have some shims under one side of my easel which does the trick, using the two mirror/pinhole method. In my case it required quite a lot to align, I'm guessing around 3mm.

Richard

 

the 23 has a way to align it from front to back, but there is no way to adjust horizontal tilt (as you look at the negative stage from the front). mine has a slight horizontal misalignment compared to the baseboard which is level. i'm not sure if the misalignment is significant. my feeling is that the negative curve with an open carrier is more significant (especially with 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 negs). perhaps a glass negative carrier and better lenses will solve the problem (which, it occurs to me, i never really described...some of my prints seem to not be sharply focused over the entire frame. i haven't been able to determine whether this is an enlarger or lens problem). hey guys thanks for your input. i got more action here in two hours than "over there" in two days.