Bestwell Optical Magna Sight Enlarger Magnifying Focusing Sight

Please note - I am a novice with no darkroom experience and in the process of setting up a darkroom. I read that a acquiring a grain focuser is a good idea. I am currently on a trip back to the States and I took the opportunity to purchase this Magna Sight focusing aid on e-bay (see image). How can I tell if it is functional? I do not have access to an enlarger right now. The mirror is in pretty good shape. But when I look through the sighting mechanism I see an opaque slightly bluish screen. I don't see the mirror. Is this normal? Item can be returned to seller.

traveler_101 said:

Please note - I am a novice with no darkroom experience and in the process of setting up a darkroom. I read that a acquiring a grain focuser is a good idea. I am currently on a trip back to the States and I took the opportunity to purchase this Magna Sight focusing aid on e-bay (see image). How can I tell if it is functional? I do not have access to an enlarger right now. The mirror is in pretty good shape. But when I look through the sighting mechanism I see an opaque slightly bluish screen. I don't see the mirror. Is this normal? Item can be returned to seller.

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These are nice. They were made on Long Island for decades by a family business. As long as the lenses are intact it's good. These are nice because you can move around a big area on the easel. Grain focusing devices that are real expensive high magnification are nice,but the film made today is ,to my eye not grainy enough to use grain to focus. I have just about every grain focuser ever made. I like these the best, I try to find a line or sharp detail and focus on that. For really tall enlargers you don't need to be right on top of the instrument, these are easy to see from a foot away. Looks like you got a nice one.

You would never be able to see the mirror. What you will see is a magnified version of the image projected by the enlarger.
I like the fact that you can use these with your eye a little farther away from it, which makes it easier to focus with bigger enlargements.
I use mine in conjunction with a more traditional higher magnification grain focuser, but would be comfortable if I had to rely on this one alone.

Sounds like it is working as intended, technically the Bestwell is an image magnifier not a grain magnifier, but it does a fine job and as others have said the long eye relief is nice when you have the enlarger head up high.

Thanks all for your help! Great to hear I made a good choice.
Ok, it's a image magnifier rather than a grain enlarger and I suppose that's because it's has more limited magnification power? 8x magnification?
Just noticing on a related thread from 2013 that the Bestwell Mini-Sight 10x grain focuser has a "wire which is strung across the focusing reticle." In the case of the "Magna Sight" there is no such wire?

Yes, with the mini-sight you focus your eye on the wire and use the aerial image to see the grain.
I've not been successful using a grain magnifier. Others have no problem.
What can I say?

traveler_101 said:

Thanks all for your help! Great to hear I made a good choice.
Ok, it's a image magnifier rather than a grain enlarger and I suppose that's because it's has more limited magnification power? 8x magnification?
Just noticing on a related thread from 2013 that the Bestwell Mini-Sight 10x grain focuser has a "wire which is strung across the focusing reticle." In the case of the "Magna Sight" there is no such wire?

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Correct, no wire.

John Koehrer said:

Yes, with the mini-sight you focus your eye on the wire and use the aerial image to see the grain.
I've not been successful using a grain magnifier. Others have no problem.
What can I say?

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Sounds like a personal problem to me <joke>. I, too, have problems with the Bestwell Mini, and the problems have become worse as my eyes get older, but I also have both of the Paterson grain focusers and a rather beat up Omega (the good one) and don't have those problems with any of those finders. The only one I absolutely can not make work is an old aerial image focuser that was made by Bausch & Lomb.

I have one of those Magna Sight things around here somewhere, but apparently I put it "somewhere it will be safe!" I years back switched to a grain focuser for my usual medium format enlarging. But alas, a while back I shot some Delta 100 in my Minox B, and I couldn't see squat with the grain focuser, so I do need to find the Magna Sight, as I suspect it would have been perfect for that! In my youth I could just slowly adjust from slightly out-of-focus one way, through focused, to OOF the other way, then back up halfway to get quite acceptable results, but I do find some optical assistance helpful at my present age!

I have a couple of these (only need one, if someone wants one...) - they are nice, as mentioned, esp. for both-eyes-viewing from longer distance. I use a Peak model 3 also, which is a super instrument but of a different design.