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Old 8th December 2016, 07:28 PM
M Stewart M Stewart is offline
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Default Leitz Focomat V35 column "collar" query

I bought a used V35 a short time ago, and have now got it assembled. Several things puzzle me, but perhaps someone can explain what this collar is on the base of the enlarger column. I've looked for references in Leitz instructions without finding a mention, so far. I have also looked through "Leica Darkroom Practice" by Rudolph Seck without finding any specific comment.



I've tried annotating the parts, and the arrows indicate what I've found. The collar can rotate around the column, and can also be moved up and down. With care I can push it a short way down from the position shown, so if it's meant to show the absolute "height" of the column, how does that work? In its lowest position, is this meant to indicate the "0" position of the paper easel thickness compensation feature?

Many thanks
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Old 8th December 2016, 08:35 PM
ymgandy ymgandy is offline
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The winder on the top of the post is used to higher or lower the enlarger head height against the baseboard. You set the height to match the thickness of your enlarging easel. This is because the V35 is auto focus and once the height is set as long as you use the same easel you will always be in focus.
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Old 8th December 2016, 08:41 PM
Michael Michael is online now
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I googled focomat v35 collar and I think you will find good answers in the first few links.

Sorry, ymgandy - you got there first.

Last edited by Michael; 8th December 2016 at 08:43 PM. Reason: apologies
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Old 8th December 2016, 08:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ymgandy View Post
The winder on the top of the post is used to higher or lower the enlarger head height against the baseboard. You set the height to match the thickness of your enlarging easel. This is because the V35 is auto focus and once the height is set as long as you use the same easel you will always be in focus.
Correct! ;-)
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Old 8th December 2016, 09:54 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Hi M Stewart.
The method for aligning the enlarger with your easel is as described above. You slacken the large knob which is behind the column base and then rotate the knob on top of the column to raise the head to the measured height of your easel surface above baseboard. The issue you have, as I understand it, is that the collar near the base of the enlarger moves up and down, and around the column. I have just looked at mine, and this part is quite solid, almost as if it's part of the column base. I can't see how it's fixed, but it remains in place with the lower knob slackened off for column adjustment. I would suggest that you investigate this area to see if there is an obvious way of locking it in place. It may be a press fit and has become detached, or there could be a locking screw, perhaps below the level of the transformer casing. It has to be fixed for it to be any use as an index for the adjustment. The enlarger can, of course, be used without the adjustment. It just means the autofocus won't work. There have been several V35 parts on eBay this week, including a column base. They were fairly cheap, so might be worth a look if you can't work out how to fix this, and you want to use autofocus.
Alex.
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Old 9th December 2016, 02:02 AM
M Stewart M Stewart is offline
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Many thanks for all of the suggestions; I now think I've established that the position shown in my snap is correct for the collar, and I think I can detect traces of adhesive where the collar was glued in place. The links suggested led me to lots more information which I'm certainly going to need.

Ahh! The fun of buying used equipment, and then battling with subtle modifications done by previous owners.
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Old 9th December 2016, 10:15 PM
M Stewart M Stewart is offline
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Quote:
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Many thanks for all of the suggestions; ... ,,, The links suggested led me to lots more information which I'm certainly going to need.
...
Amazing - I've now downloaded a Leitz V35 brochure dated '92 (in French) describing the enlarger, and its illustrations show precisely how my enlarger is set-up i.e. the collar is shown as clearly as on my photograph. The UK brochures I have are dated '78 and '85, and do not show the collar, so I guess there was some modification in this area.
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Old 10th December 2016, 12:28 AM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Mine is a '79 model, which I believe was the first available in the U.K., and it has the collar. I would like it to be much later example, but sadly it's not....
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