The Paterson one is very good and certainly on the U.K. e-bay there are always examples for sale quite cheaply. It will only focus in the centre however. For a corner to corner job it is the Peak but if you want to spend as little as poss then I'd rule it out. A recent Peak sale on U.K. e-bay made the equivalent of over $190!
The Focusing aid I have is pretty lame. I would like to have a good quality focuser that works well with glasses.
Of course I want to spend as little as possible but do not want to just get a different "lousy" focuser.
Most people will recommend a Peak model. I have their top-of-the-line model (shown in b) and rarely use it. Its edge-to-edge capability is impressive but hardly ever needed with a well-aligned enlarger and glass carrier. Its 10x magnification is too low to identify the grain in my negatives at my typical 5x enlargements.
I prefer the much cheaper MicroSight (shown in a). It is less sophisticated but has 20x magnification and also a very sturdy aluminum body.
Depends on what you need and what you're willing to spend.
I have one Like Ralph has shown on the left, MicroSight. Mine is a black body rather than silver. I don't know what power it is but maybe it is better than I thought???? The eye piece screws in and out. Is that just to interchange lenses or to also adjust the eye piece?
Do you see a hair-line in the viewer? You'd screw/unscrew so that the hair-line is sharply in focus. This is a necessary step and it is to calibrate the device to your eyes. Then, you'd use the device to focus on the grain.
I believe the model you have is a smaller one of two with 10x magnification.
If you have trouble seeing well, MagnaSight, which is a image focuser, not a grain focuser, may be a better option. I have one and it works well. What happens is, the image get projected to a ground glass. There is an 8x magnifier to view this image for the purpose of focusing. You can see the magnified image well from 1 foot away.
I have one Like Ralph has shown on the left, MicroSight. Mine is a black body rather than silver. I don't know what power it is but maybe it is better than I thought???? The eye piece screws in and out. Is that just to interchange lenses or to also adjust the eye piece?
The MagnaSight is 25x (not 20x) sorry. You'll love the magnification! Adjust the eyepiece until the center of the hairline is sharp.
Before jumping in and declaring that one type is better than another...
How are your eyes?
You said you wear glasses... bifocals???
Near sighted or farsighted???
"Blind as a bat" or just need glasses "for reading"???
I'm blind as a bat.
I've had the usual swapmeet collection over the years,
tossed most of them away... you learn what works for you as things go on...
I now have 2 focusers, a top of the line Peak, and a battered old Magnasight. (The kind shown below, the kind tkamiya mentions)
The Magnasight gets used 95+% of the time.
It's just plain faster and easier to use for low to medium magnification (say, 6-8x), especially if sharp edges (windows, wires, etc) are visible in the image. The big aperture is much easier to view from a reasonable distance, even with glasses.
Sometimes the image doesn't have crisp lines to focus the ground glass of the Magnasight on, so the Peak is better... but squinting thru the eyepiece means putting my face down to the easel while reaching up to adjust the enlarger focus. With really big prints this is a bit awkward...
Find a Magnasight on Craigs List and your search may be over...
I have the expensive Peak, as well, and it is very useful, but as Ralph said, it does not magnify very much. The one you already have, if it is the small one, works well once the eyepiece is adjusted for your vision. If you want more magnification, get the larger version but be sure to adjust the focus. The magnasights have never worked well for me as they magnify the least amount and tend to have optical distortion anywhere but the exact center of the eyepiece.
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Originally Posted by stradibarrius
