Alingment, lenses and other...

[haris]

Hi, I am new on this forum, and have some questions about my enlarger. I have old Meopta Opemus5(6x6) enlarger. I have both b/w and colur herad for it. Enlarger do have condensors, but non changeable. So, it make 35mm enlargments like cropping off negative 6x6 size... I have Anaret 50mm f4.5 and Anaret 80mm f4.5 lenses. Now, I am not happy with 50mm lens. Yes it is cheap toy, with only four aperture blades. I am thinking to replace both lenses with respective Rodenstock Rodagon or Schneider Componon-S. My questions are: How to chect alingment of my enlarger(without test negative), recommendations for other enlarger(up to 6x7cm) and if anyone has good experience with Opemus5 enlarger any advice will be werry welcome.

Thanks, Haris

[Ole]

Hey - I use one of those, too!

I've never used condensors, only colour head with 6x6 mixing chamber. No problem at all.

While the Anaret lenses have only 4 aperture blades, I wouldn't dismiss them as "cheap toys"! I have Anaret S lenses, 50mm and 80mm: I also have a 60mm Componon, but the Anaret S 50mm/f:4.5 is good enough that I use that instead of taking the 60 off the camera lensboard (it gets used as a macro lens... Anaret lenses can be very good indeed, edge sharpness is better than many other lenses at five times the price.

[Robert]

Start with a small level. Place it on the base board. Is it level? If not correct it. Both front to back and side to side. Then the negative stage. Check that. The lensboard stage.

This won't get you to absolutely perfect alignment but it should get you close enough. Well unless you make extra large enlargements.

[haris]

I exactly have problems with edge sharpness. Well, not exactly edge, but: if you look at print in portrait format, for examlpe from bottom to top, about 5/6th of print is sharp(bottom), and 1/6th(or close to that) on top, is unsharp(or vice versa . That is why I asked about how to performe alingment checking. So, Ole, you said in fact to take condensors out of enlarger when use colour head? I do use mostly colour head as I work with Ilfors Multigrade papers...

Never think of that... Thank you very much.

[haris]

Thanks robert. I dont have small levels, but two large ones (50cm and 90cm lenghts)... Oh, Ole, I have simple Anaret, not Anatret-s lenses. 50mm has 4 blades, and 80mm has 8 blades apertures...

[Robert]

Small ones would be better. Say less then 10cm.

[Nige]

The best way to align an enlarger is one of those laser devices, but since you probably don't have access to one, there's a trick you can do with two mirrors. Never tried it myself but a web search should turn up an explanation. I think you get two mirrors, scratch a tiny bit of the backing off one and stick that in your neg carrier, lay the other bit on the baseboard and then make adjustments to the enlarger head until the beam of light passing thru the top mirror reflects back on itself. Something like that. The problem with using a level is how do you get it to show the neg holders relative levelness. Depending on the design of the enlarger, this might be possible, might not. Another think you can try is to get and old bit of clear film and draw a cross (and possibly some more lines) on it with a pen. Stick that in the enlarger and focus. Check that the lines are sharp all over, make adjustments until you're happy

[Ole]

haris, you're right and I was wrong.

I have read the manual on http://www.meopta.cz/history/products/enla..._with_Meochrom/

On the 5, the condensors should NOT be removed when using the colour head. I have the 6, which is different...

My Anaret S 50mm has 4 blades. So does the Componon...

[haris]

Thank you all. Ole, if you can belive me I never had manual for my Opemus5

[Les McLean]

I tried all the methods suggested here, the scratched neg, using small levels and checking each stage but still had problems with slight unsharpness in part of the print. The only way that I could improve the sharpness was to stop down the enlarger which resulted in quite long exposures. Three years ago I did a printing workshop with Richard Newman for Calumet in the US and he introduced me to the Versalab Laser alignment tool which O promptly purchased and have never regretted it. I check the alignment every day that I'm working, it takes about two minutes and I know that the prints are goibng to be sharp from corner to corner. Save yourself a lot of frustration and wasted time and buy one, you'll never regret it.