I have just acquired one of these from the well known and disliked auction site. When I insert it between the negative stage and the carrier, it pretty much just sits there with no real positioning feel. Is this normal or am I missing something?
There should be four studs on the bottom that keep it place. Mine is a bit sloppy but it does keep in more or less in place. Did you put it in upside done by chance?
Here's a picture of the bottom of the masking stage. The four red arrows indicate the four studs referred to by George. These shallow studs sit inside the circular negative stage cutout on the D5 itself. When correctly seated the masking attachment can thus rotate within the D5 circular cutout, same as a negative carrier. The negative carrier then fits into the similar circular cutout on the top of the masking attachment above the moveable blades.
if youre used to these things sort of 'locking' in ..as on other enlargers... the d5 can be a bit odd in this regard.. it never felt quite right to me when i was using these... thats 'progress' for ya