Durst M305 color - Blurry edges with negative carrier

[RWJgr]

Hi all,

Excited to join the world of analogue photography & darkroom printing! I recently purchased my first enlarger and I’m experiencing some issues with distorted edges when loading the film into my M305 Color. While removing the negative carrier gives me crisp projections around the corners, when loading my film strips they get distorted in the edges and have a negative aesthetic impact on my prints later on. Any advice?

 

[koraks]

Welcome to Photrio!

I would guess that what you're seeing is light bouncing along the edges of your negative carrier. It would help if you could post:
1: a picture of the resulting print so the effect on the print is visible
2: a clear picture of the negative carrier and negative mask you're using.

Having owned an M305 in the past, I never noticed this issue. I was using the negative carrier and two-part negative mask that came with it. I still have a set of these masks; one with a larger aperture and one with a smaller aperture; the film is sandwiched between the two. The masks slide into the negative carrier.

 

[RWJgr]

Welcome to Photrio!

I would guess that what you're seeing is light bouncing along the edges of your negative carrier. It would help if you could post:
1: a picture of the resulting print so the effect on the print is visible
2: a clear picture of the negative carrier and negative mask you're using.

Having owned an M305 in the past, I never noticed this issue. I was using the negative carrier and two-part negative mask that came with it. I still have a set of these masks; one with a larger aperture and one with a smaller aperture; the film is sandwiched between the two. The masks slide into the negative carrier.

Hey Koraks, thanks so much for your willingness to help!

Please see attached. Just to clarify: I’m sliding film strips in-between the film carrier, with the shiny side of the film facing up

 

[koraks]

The photos are a bit small, but have you verified that you've got the mask in the right orientation - i.e. it's not upside down? It looks a bit like it as far as I can tell. The beveled edge should point downward, away from the negative, otherwise it'll cast a reflection onto the negative and that will indeed result in oddities along the edges of the print.

 

[RWJgr]

The photos are a bit small, but have you verified that you've got the mask in the right orientation - i.e. it's not upside down? It looks a bit like it as far as I can tell. The beveled edge should point downward, away from the negative, otherwise it'll cast a reflection onto the negative and that will indeed result in oddities along the edges of the print.

Apologies for the small pictures, maybe in the downsizing process to upload them I might have gone too far .

I tried both sided flipping it including the film and this is what I still get:

 

[koraks]

Ok, so perhaps a bit obvious, but aren't you using an easel to mask your borders? That's what we generally do when enlarging. You use the blades of the easel to create clean edges to the image area.

Since I've sold off my M305 long ago I can't replicate anymore what the projected image edges looked like on mine.

Sorry for not spotting this obvious issue earlier; last night's sleep was...suboptimal.

 

[RWJgr]

Ok, so perhaps a bit obvious, but aren't you using an easel to mask your borders? That's what we generally do when enlarging. You use the blades of the easel to create clean edges to the image area.

Since I've sold off my M305 long ago I can't replicate anymore what the projected image edges looked like on mine.

Sorry for not spotting this obvious issue earlier; last night's sleep was...suboptimal.

I was too optimistic that I got everything I needed for my printing…haha!

Roger that thanks so much for your input here, that makes sense! I’ll look into buying or making a DIY temp solution for now

 

[koraks]

No worries
There are plenty of easels around. Especially if you're happy with a 24x30cm model, you'll find truckloads on Marktplaats
Larger ones tend to be a little harder to come by, and models with four movable blades (instead of two) as well.