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Want to Buy grain focuser works in corners

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chris77

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Jan 11, 2015
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Location
Paris
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hello.
i am in europe and need a grain focuser that works also in all four corners for large prints.
thank you,
chris
 
Not too many grain focusers work well on corners since it's so far away from the center of the projected image. What I suggest if you want corner to corner sharpness, align your enlarger. What also helps is stopping down your lens while keeping your negative flat as possible.
 
Chris, I do not use a dedicated grain focus. Instead, I take a magnifying glass, hold it up to my eye, then bend toward the print area that I wish to inspect. It works very well and, as long as the glass is clean, the grain pops right up. - David Lyga
 
tiny misalignement multiplies in big prints. in case of my 5x7 studio camera converted to work as enlarger a peak I or similar will be a useful tool.
i use double glass carrier and am of course trying to stop down as little as necessary.
but thanks anyway...
 
hello david. what kind of loupe do you use fort that?
 
chris77 said:
hello david. what kind of loupe do you use fort that?
Click to expand...
An interesting question. I have never found a magnifying glass to get me anywhere near to finding grain. Even the Paterson grain focuser can have difficulties with high resolution film developed in a fine grain developer such as Perceptol and that I think is at least 25x magnification. Unfortunately it works only in the centre of the negative.

I believe the Peak focuser to work in the corners but it is an expensive focuser

pentaxuser
 
Peaks works great. They have a bigger mirror than Paterson focusers. I do understand getting prints sharp edge to edge. I'm sounding like a broken record, but if your enlarger is properly aligned, if the center is sharp, the corners will be too. If it's not aligned, you will use your Peak focuser to make the choice of which part of the print to focus. An expensive grain focuser won't solve the problem of edge to edge sharpness.
 
I'd second the advice on aligning the enlarger. Way more important than anything else. Get a laser alignment tool. Versalab sells them for about $220 last time I checked. Best money you will ever spend in the darkroom.

If you choose to ignore this advice, then a Peak or older Micromega will allow to to make prints with one sharp corner, but not the whole print......
 
a grain focuser like a peak I is a great tool to align an enlarger too. a laser tool is not necessary to align an enlarger. a scratched negative and a good scope is enough to ensure lens to easel parallellity. negative to lens can be done with a precise caliper gauge.
and one afternoon of testing. i have perfectly aligned my durst m800 without spending money at all.
 
but i might still buy one, because of the simple and timesaving procedure!
 
The Peak(sound familiar?) has an oversize mirror AND it's adjustable. I think it's the only one out there like that.
They're expensive but you get what you pay for. Once in a while they pop up on ebay
 
I have a cheap plastic version of the Peak labeled Omega. Works very well, not all the way to the corners but close enough. eBay is your friend here. I also picked up a Versalab laser. Yes, there are other ways to check alignment, but the Versalab is so easy to use that I never hesitate to double check as it only takes a few minutes.
 
it is expensive but very good; unfortunately, the one that goes all the way into the corners has only a 10x magnification and with that, not very good at detecting grain. I use a much cheaper 25x MICROSIGHT FOR THAT for much less money.
 
thanks everybody for the good advice. finally bought a magna sight focuser. as i am doing big prints 8x magnification should be ok, with the possibility of adding a loupe to it.
 
thanks everybody for the good advice. finally bought a magna sight focuser. as i am doing big prints 8x magnification should be ok, with the possibility of adding a loupe to it.
 
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