I had 25 sheets under the grain focuser.What inquiring minds would really like to know is if Bill had a piece of paper under the grain focuser when he did his experiments.
@Bill Burk
Should the focus point be in the middle of the stack or is there more depth of field behind the plane of sharp focus than in front? I.e., is your expectation that the focus should be in the center of the stack backed up by the math?
@Andrew O'Neill
Focusing after you've moved the enlarger head to a position you want will change the size of the image somewhat. If you're really picky about the print size or exact degree of enlargement, you need to reposition the head (i.e., negative-to-paper distance) and refocus a time or two to get what you want. If you can stand a bit of leeway when it comes the final image size, it's not such an issue.
Best,
Doremus
That’s a good plan. How do you know the position of the lens? By feel or by scale?I set the enlarger height at for the print size that I want. I put a sheet of paper under the grain focus, that is what I choose to do, then I very the focus control up and down to find the limits of the focus range. I check the range several times before I select the focus location. I hope this helps.
That’s a good plan. How do you know the position of the lens? By feel or by scale?
I mean as you focus up and down then to the middle how are you gauging the middle?When I have to change format, the lens, paper size, I have to find the height by trial and error - setting the height and focus by eye until it get the height. Then I use the grain focuser.
Thanks, it’s plus/minus 10 mm which would add up to it. I felt like I misconstrued the plus/minus concept a couple times.
Considering all the video production problems I am surprised I made any sense at all. Originally tried making split screen but could not get Zoom to show more than one camera on the recording. Then all the phones would keep turning off whenever it took me more than a minute to do the intro.
A grain focuser does allow you to make focus adjustments more accurately than can be seen in the finished results. In that respect it exceeds expectations. It’s an excellent tool and does its job well.
I just bought this and will touch it to the lens board after initial focus. Then instead of moving the height I will try focusing up and down then to the middle.
And I never thought the change in focus as you move the easel up and down would be linear.
I don't see using a dial indicator to position focus is going to make a perceptible improvement.
I make 16x20 prints from 4x5 negatives and I need an 8x loupe to see the fine detail in the print. Nobody is ever going to look that closely at a print in a normal viewing situation. In other words, I've got more sharpness than I need already; why should I strive for more?
I mean as you focus up and down then to the middle how are you gauging the middle?
I just bought this and will touch it to the lens board after initial focus. Then instead of moving the height I will try focusing up and down then to the middle.
As an interesting thought. Each 0.001 inch mark on this dial at the lens probably represents about the thickness of a sheet of paper at the easel.
View attachment 281766
FWIW, adjusting the focus always changes the magnification/image size too.
When the adjustment is small, the corresponding change is too.
And I never thought the change in focus as you move the easel up and down would be linear. I just couldn't figure whether it would be logarithmic.
Perhaps it tracks the change in image size.
I will be checking, but think the final enlarger height will not be much different than the initial focus. I guess the typical height I arrive at will be about about a sixteenth inch difference from initial focus.
It should be linear, depending on how you judge "focus," I guess.
Here's a simple way to look at the situation, geometrically. Say that you have a "point" on the negative that you want to project onto the paper. Now imagine a "cone of light" originating from the entire lens aperture, and coming to a point, ideally at the paper surface. Of course we can't get to a perfect point, but this is a good approximation. So if the paper is at the wrong distance then it will intersect the cone at some point, and the diameter of the cone at that point represents the smallest detail that can be on the print. So it seems clear that the size of this "blur circle" is gonna linear with the distance error at the paper.
Here's a concrete example. Say that Bill is making 11x14" prints from a 35mm film negative, using a 50 mm fl enlarging lens set to f/4. I'm from the US, so I like to work in inch units (to convert, there are exactly 25.4 mm per inch.) OK, the diameter of the aperture is about 50mm/4 =~ 12.5 mm, or very close to 1/2 inch diameter. This is the base of the light cone.
For the height of the cone, one can just measure the approximate distance from lens to paper. This should be about 16.5 inches (I just calculated it).
So now we have a cone-of-light, from lens aperture to a point near center of the image. The cone has a base diameter of 0.5 inches, and a height of 16.5 inches. One can look at this a "rise over run" case where the diameter of the the cone increases by 0.5 inches for every 16.5 inches of "run." Or 0.5/16.5 = 0.030 inch diameter increase per inch of "run."
Now for the result of an error in paper position. If the paper is 1 inch out of position, either too close or too far, the smallest possible point of detail is about 0.030 inch (or about 3/4 mm) diameter. As a long-time car guy, I see this as about equal to an old-time spark plug gap. Or the thickness of three business cards. Or, consider that the thickness of a human hair is about 2 to 3 thousandths of an inch - so this 0.030 inch "blur circle" is about ten times larger than the width of a human hair. One might ask, can I see this amount of detail? Well, personally I don't have any trouble seeing a human hair on a piece of white paper from 5 feet away. So to me, this would be a pretty unhappy print if held in my hand.
If, instead of a 1 inch paper placement error, it was only 1/2 inch error, the smallest possible point shrinks to half of that, or 0.015 inch diameter - still considerably more than the thickness of a business card. Or 5 times the width of a human hair.
So what does it take, hypothetically, to appear "sharp?" Well, sharpness is about more than just detail, but if you wanted to be able to show hair-sized details on the print you'd want to be able to lay down "blur circle" diameters of about 3 thousandths of an inch, or smaller. With our 0.030 inch diameter change per inch of paper distance error, this means about one tenth of an inch paper error. Fwiw a typical color paper print is about the same thickness as a business card, about one hundredth of an inch. So in this specific example the paper would have to be positioned within about ten paper thicknesses of ideal.
If we start looking at much finer detail being delivered to the paper then we probably have to consider the effect of diffraction. In this case (lens, aperture, and lens to paper distance), I'd guestimate the smallest possible spot (the diameter of the Airy disc) as roughly 0.001 inch, one-thousandth of an inch. (This is a rough guess, so anyone please feel free to supply the correct number). The reason for such a large Airy disc is the amount of enlargement, leading to a long lens-to-paper distance. So the lens, although set to f/4, acts as though it is f/32 with respect to diffraction from the point of view of the paper.
Anyway, this is my view of how the effect of paper position errors come into play. I'd guess that a very finicky person, either nearsighted or with a loupe, would be able to see the difference between a perfectly focused print and one that is about five paper thicknesses off. In THIS EXAMPLE, and assuming that the negative has not moved at all. With less enlargement, say to a 5x7", same lens, aperture, they'd likely be able to see a difference with perhaps a 2 or 3 paper thickness error.
Ps, thanks to Bill Burk for doing the physical tests.
It appears to be a very small linear distance, so that is why regardless of the endless discussion I insert a sheet if photographic paper. ==> to see a difference with perhaps a 2 or 3 paper thickness error.
I don't understand your reasoning. Have you closed your mind or did you come to a different conclusion?
The lens position is the critical dimension where 2 or 3 paper thickness error makes a difference.
I will put the caliper reading 0.001 on the lens board anchored to the negative stage.
At the easel for enlargements similar to 35mm making 11x14 prints, you are looking at 10x which means 20 or 30 sheets of paper to make a difference.
I suspect that direction bias can on some enlargers be a much bigger factor than anything else including paper thickness.
Ah, yes. That's the whole of my finding... if you already work to eliminate directional bias and find the center... then adding paper is the icing on the cake of refinementOften I find the focus range is a short distance and I choose to include the paper to eliminate one variable, even though the variable may be too small to matter. Just being careful to be consistent in minimizing any margin of error. That is why I repeatedly go over the focus range
IMNSHO* I suspect that direction bias can on some enlargers be a much bigger factor than anything else including paper thickness.
- to eliminate any direction bias in the focus system
- to estimate the middle of the focus range
* IMNSHO ==> In My Not So Humble Option
Yes, good work; keep posting your results.ic-racer,
I don't emphasize enough that the work I have been doing relates to approximately 10x enlargement required for enlarging 35mm to 11x14 with wide borders.
At 1:1 the geometry is different, both negative and easel have the same tolerance. Thanks for sharing your experience that once you get inside where you're supposed to be focusing by lens movement doesn't work anymore. I remember using process cameras where both lens and copyboard had scales you could read from inside the darkroom. And they were calibrated in enlargement ratios: There was a place on each scale for each enlargement you want to achieve.
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