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  #31  
Old 13th January 2012, 09:25 PM
Tom Stanworth Tom Stanworth is offline
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Check your negs over with a quality loupe to determine that they are indeed sharp. Prime lenses and quality body or not, things do go wrong. A hasselblad and Zeiss prime will produce awful negs if things are out of alignment and it DOES happen. Drops, knocks, manufacturing/assembly errors...

After the camera variable is covered:
  • Glass carrier with quality top and bottom glasses (as in those from the manufacturer). IMHO you are wasting your time with other combos as they are not reliable enough.
  • Check enlarger alignment with a laser alignment tool. Sadly it does take something with this level of accuracy for the sharpest prints at large sizes.

I struggled with various issues getting v sharp 35mm prints, but now have a set up where the only limiting factor is lens performance. I too have a Durst Neonon 50 2.8 (Pentax made) and it is one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used in an enlarger.

Believe it or not, most enlarger columns are not perfectly straight. I check (and adjust alignment) for every print I make if the column moves a significant amount. With small prints, you can be in the rough ballpark for alignment and get a tack sharp print, but at bigger sizes, you have to be smack on assuming you don;t want to stop down to F11.

I make most prints at F4-5.6 on a F2.8 lens, but find with my Nikkor 63mm that F5.6 has a noticeable edge for prints larger than 12x16 in the outer field. So the message here is there are lots of quirks to get to know!
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  #32  
Old 13th January 2012, 10:30 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Argentum View Post
I rekon that Thorton idea sounds somewhat implausible. A big stretchy piece of rubber isn't going to give you fine control IMO..
That is certainly my worry but without seeing how B Thornton did it this is just my assumption.

Mike
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