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Beseler 45 hack needed

RSImages

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Oct 7, 2015
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63
Format
35mm
I picked up a Beseler 45 this past year and have been getting various parts for it since. I have a 4x5 holder and a 135mm lens. What I'm struggling to find is the correct lens board. I see plenty of standard flat boards and recessed boards but none that protrude for the 80mm and up lenses. Curious if anyone has a hack for mounting medium and large format lenses.
 
What model do you have? If you have the older type MXT, Mcrx you can use flat boards for 135 mm lenses. The older type has two lots of bellows so plenty of extension. They don't need extension cones like omega enlargers.
 
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You may be using the wrong bellows to focus. The upper set is for adjusting the lamp house / condenser. The bottom bellows under the negative carrier is used to focus. I've used 50 to 180mm lenses with the flat boards.
 
I hadn't tried to use it, I was just looking through a manual. It's a 45S dichro on a base that has a motor with the x brace on the back. Is that the MXT frame?
 
Hack #1: Unscrew the cone of the recessed board and reversing it so it protrudes out instead of in.


Hack #2: Enlarge the hole of the easier-to-obtain 32mm cone with a file.
 
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RSImages said:
I hadn't tried to use it, I was just looking through a manual. It's a 45S dichro on a base that has a motor with the x brace on the back. Is that the MXT frame?
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There's a bunch of different letters. Your's sounds like a 45 MX. If the lower bellows are straight, square it's a MXTAND will accept a lens turret.
The older models have tapered bellows, there's different versions of the dichro s heads. To use the head it needs to be right down on top of the negative carrier, no upper bellows extension. The 4x5 diffusion chamber works fine for all size negatives.
 

This would be an older model then as the lower bellows are in fact tapered.
 
RSImages said:
This would be an older model then as the lower bellows are in fact tapered.
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The only real difference is the newer model will take a 3 lens turret. No big deal. The older models have a handy filter drawer right above the lens for a red safelight filter or for older variable contrast filters. Beseler started making these in the 50's, they are virtually unchanged.
 

Actually, the MXT adds a three-point alignment adjustment at the lens stage (pretty useless unless you stick some foam in there - maybe those aren't for alignment but for attaching a turret? Don't know but they add some alignablility), and loses the perspective-shift control. The red filter moved from the sliding one at the lens area to a swing post below it.

I've never needed any sort of cone or extension on the MXT; I do have a board with an extending cone-thing, never found a use for it. But the smallest I've printed is 5x7. I've made lens boards with scrap aluminum and a hole saw (I've made several "Besalign"-style boards this way).
 
It sounds like I should give it a try with a normal lens board and see if I can get focus. I used the manual on jollinger.com for the mxt to see what parts I needed for it, but I didn't realize that there was a difference in which parts are needed between the different 45 models. I haven't been able to find a sticker on the frame to identify it and was just going off of the two beam and cross bracing frame with a motor. Little did I know of the little I thought I knew. Huh? lol
 
Just give it a go. My enlarger is the older type with the tapered lower bellows and I use flat boards. Delta made a board you could adjust to get it parallel with your negative carrier and baseboard or you could make your own if your crafty. I don't know which negative carrier you have but I find the negaflat for 4x5 to be really helpful in keeping the film flat.
 
Just give it a go. My enlarger is the older type with the tapered lower bellows and I use flat boards. Delta made a board you could adjust to get it parallel with your negative carrier and baseboard or you could make your own if your crafty. I don't know which negative carrier you have but I find the negaflat for 4x5 to be really helpful in keeping the film flat.
 
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