Focomat 1c questions.

Hilo said:

Loren, what do you mean when you say this? Leitz did not make an anti newton condenser for the Focomat Ic. They made a seperate AN glass that we can slide over the bottom of the Ic condenser.

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Hilo, I am not home for a few days to take a closer look. I have it in my mind that I have AN glass but not sure about any details. I do occasionally get Newton rings. Will check later and update.

Here are photos of my AN glass. The holder slips on to the condenser. As mentioned above, I still fight Newton rings occasionally with this setup. I will try the masking idea mentioned above.

Perhaps someone can offer a solution to my photos posting sideways? I took these with an iPhone and uploaded them to Photrio with a MacBook Air. They appear correctly on the phone and computer.

Loren Sattler said:

They appear correctly on the phone and computer.

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The preview photos in your post are sideways but they show properly when I click on them.

Loren Sattler said:

Here are photos of my AN glass. The holder slips on to the condenser. As mentioned above, I still fight Newton rings occasionally with this setup. I will try the masking idea mentioned above.

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Your AN glass looks okay to me, but I can't see if there's any damage on the lower surface. If not, it should work fine.

Is there a lot of humidity where you are, or when you do not use your enlarger, is it cold in the room where you keep it? Turning on a heater just before using a darkroom can lead to Newton rings. I had a friend in Cairns, Australia where it can be extremely humid. He had lots of problems with Newton rings and, if I remember well, the self-made masks were the solution.

Hilo said:

Your AN glass looks okay to me, but I can't see if there's any damage on the lower surface. If not, it should work fine.

Is there a lot of humidity where you are, or when you do not use your enlarger, is it cold in the room where you keep it? Turning on a heater just before using a darkroom can lead to Newton rings. I had a friend in Cairns, Australia where it can be extremely humid. He had lots of problems with Newton rings and, if I remember well, the self-made masks were the solution.

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Hilo, my AN glass looks fine. I live in the US in the midwest. There is a fair amount of humidity during parts of the year, but I do not believe that is the problem especially since I do most of my printing during winter months in a heated room. The enlarger is stored at room temperature. I have not done much printing lately. When I get back into it I will make a mask and try that when newton rings show up.

Tmax films can be especially prone to Newton rings. The secondary mask should work in every instance.

Chris Coppola said:

Hello Everyone,
i havent posted a lot lately. Im setting up a new darkroom at my home. I currently have the besseler 45v-xl with the vc controller. I plan to keep that setup for 120. I came across a focomat 1c locally I am picking up for dedicated 35mm And teaching my 9 yr old son With. I’ve never used one but I know it’s very well liked. It has a slightly hazed focotar. I have a few questions maybe some people can help with.
- it says it is "autofocus". Will this be intuitively obvious when I pick it up and set it up? I’m trying to visualize how this autofocuses. If I use autofocus does it remove need for grain magnification?
- I generally split grade on the 45vxl but it’s built into the controller. I ordered the ilford 0-5 filter set. What’s the best tray to adapt for it?
- is there a timer people seem to like with this enlarger?
- if the focotar Is too hazed, will my 50mm rodagon or componon work ok? I figure they will but I don’t know about it with the autofocus
- anything else anyone can tell me?

thanks a lot for the help. Looking forward to get back into printing soon

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The autofocus is basicllly when you move your enlarger head up and down it will focus itsself and doesn't require you use a focus finder, mine was calabrited by my self and it's really good at it. The attachment is the manual and have an instructuon for setting it up(you need to set up every time you change lenses)

Loren Sattler said:

Hopefully your enlarger will come with the original instruction manual. It will explain how the autofocus functions and how to calibrate it properly. It only takes a few minutes once you understand the principle of how to make adjustments.

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This is the manual, and i believe that you'll need to set up autofocus everytime you change lenses

Focomatter said:

I have a late model Ic - the grey finished version with white baseboard and is the color model which means it does have a filter drawer.

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i have one with a color filter, it's black finished version and have a wood baseboard(just wood, not white) Any ideas about between what year it might be manufactured?

Hilo said:

some pictures:









View attachment 389841

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mine have the filter holder, but it doesn't have something like this. Any ideas?

Don_ih said:

It really only works with totally flat paper and, even then, it's a pain to get it aligned correctly. It has two adjustable metal slides that don't seem to do anything. It has a white rectangle that doesn't line up with the edge of the paper if the paper is aligned correctly. It's just bizarre.

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The thickness of the paper should not matter one iota. The natural depth of field created with the stopped down enlarger lens will be more than enough to cover the thickness of any commercially produced paper. I find a lot of people tend to imagine all descriptions of possible difficulties resulting in hand wringing imagining non existing problems.

You are for more likely to get a focus shift when the enlarger heats up with the lamp being left on for long exposures and a glassless carrier, even a single anti newton ring glass will stop most of this shift. I think Leica enlargers had a single AN glass in the top half of the carriers. Certainly their V35 had one.

Without going into complicated mathematical calculations a 50mm F2.8 lens, stopped down to F5.6 will give a depth of field that will cover most minor focussing errors.

However, in a late 1950's Leica manual I own, it does state that AF enlargers produced by Ernst Leitz have their enlargers supplied with a lens calibrated in the factory for that particular enlarger, so in all probability using a non Leitz lens that did not come with the enlarger will not necessarily give accurate AF. Being individually calibrated ensures that slight manufacturing differences are cancelled out.

In the years since manufacture of a 1C, AF does not guarantee that the lens it comes with is the one it was originally calibrated with. If in doubt get a good grain focussing magnifier.

BMbikerider said:

The thickness of the paper should not matter one iota.

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You need to be familiar with the easel to know what I was talking about. I wasn't talking about depth of focus or the autofocus of the enlarger. But, since you mention it, the Leitz easels are an inch thick and the autofocus is set for that height off the baseboard.

What I was talking about was trying to align the paper on the easel which has pretty non-sensical stops for positioning the corner of the paper and almost no way to be certain the paper is square under the blades.

I'll borrow a photo from an ebay listing to show:



Those two grey metal things slide in those slots and can be used to position the paper. The white rectangle is paint and the edge of it is ok for seeing if your paper is square. But if there's any curl to the edge of the sheet of paper, and almost all my paper has some curl, it will move when you lower the easel frame. It's just a little annoying.

BMbikerider said:

I think Leica enlargers had a single AN glass in the top half of the carriers. Certainly their V35 had one.

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The condenser clamps down on the negative. It does not have an AN surface. There is a slip-on AN ring that you'll see on a lot of the enlargers. See post 52 above for a photo of the AN glass. The negative holder is glassless.