Meopta 6 negative carrier masks.

[hoganlia]

Hi folks. I hope I am in the right forum for this.

I bought a set of negative carrier masks (6x6, 6x4.5 and 35mm, there is an upper and lower mask for each) for my Meopta Opemus 6 enlarger from France a few months back and haven't got around to using them so far. I now plan to do so and get into printing some of my 645 negatives at last..
The seller advised removing both the upper and lower glass inserts, or should I wish to keep one in, then the lower glass is enough. I'm just wondering if any members have used negative carrier masks themselves and what experiences anyone has had. I understand that remving both glass inserts reduces dust but are there things I should watch out for?

Any comments or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[koraks]

I understand that remving both glass inserts reduces dust but are there things I should watch out for?

Film flatness mostly. Whether this is a problem depends on many factors. Just try it out and if it's a concern, do some critical sharpness testing to verify you get what you want.
I personally prefer glassless negative carriers insofar as this is feasible (which generally stops at around 4x5" or sometimes a little earlier) because of issues with dust, scratches etc. Others will (violently) disagree and argue that critical sharpness can only be obtained with the rigidity of glass. It all depends!

 

[hoganlia]

Film flatness mostly. Whether this is a problem depends on many factors. Just try it out and if it's a concern, do some critical sharpness testing to verify you get what you want.
I personally prefer glassless negative carriers insofar as this is feasible (which generally stops at around 4x5" or sometimes a little earlier) because of issues with dust, scratches etc. Others will (violently) disagree and argue that critical sharpness can only be obtained with the rigidity of glass. It all depends!

Thanks for replying and for the useful info..

The flatness I am aware of but I need to see the difference myself. I bought two packets of 5x7 (25) and the same for the 8x10. I don't know if the lower contrast is going to be what I want or not, but I will find out.

The lower glass I will remove for sure, the anti-Newton glass... it will also depend on the sharpness for the border I think.

 

[NBW]

I'm just sharing my little experience of the Czech Meopta technology...

One element in favor of AN glass is that it dissipates a little heat before the light reaches the negative. Maybe this is special to Meopta that have so nice condensers?

I observed it on an opemus 6, my first enlarger, (with the 100W lamp before definitively going to 75W) but also with its current successor a Magnifax 4 (same main switch to 100W instead of native 150W)..

In both cases I used the calorie-resistant glass (native at Meopta) but not the frosted fresnel glass that goes in the filter drawer and the universal condensers (6x6 to 24x36 on opemus 6, 4x4 to 6x9 on Magnifax 4 that is also used even it is bad...for 24x36)

Before reducing the power of each of these enlargers my HP5 120 tended to curl if I didn't put the AN glass. Therefore it plays a role (but no scientific study...i could only says no more curl with AN glass with a strong power lamp...)

After reducing the light output I can use permanently the upper and lower glass-less negative carriers without any problems.

Note (a little off-topic) the power reduction also allows you to extend the exposure times for more comfortable dodging and burning.

 

[hoganlia]

I'm just sharing my little experience of the Czech Meopta technology...

One element in favor of AN glass is that it dissipates a little heat before the light reaches the negative. Maybe this is special to Meopta that have so nice condensers?

I observed it on an opemus 6, my first enlarger, (with the 100W lamp before definitively going to 75W) but also with its current successor a Magnifax 4 (same main switch to 100W instead of native 150W)..

In both cases I used the calorie-resistant glass (native at Meopta) but not the frosted fresnel glass that goes in the filter drawer and the universal condensers (6x6 to 24x36 on opemus 6, 4x4 to 6x9 on Magnifax 4 that is also used even it is bad...for 24x36)

Before reducing the power of each of these enlargers my HP5 120 tended to curl if I didn't put the AN glass. Therefore it plays a role (but no scientific study...i could only says no more curl with AN glass with a strong power lamp...)

After reducing the light output I can use permanently the upper and lower glass-less negative carriers without any problems.

Note (a little off-topic) the power reduction also allows you to extend the exposure times for more comfortable dodging and burning.

Merci beaucoup.

I very much appreciate the information you have given me here. Yes, the Meopta 6 is a little fast for dodging and burning in some instances. I am using the 75x bulb but the density of some negatives is not only controlled by in camera exposure.... The ND filter sound fabulous... there are times when an exra 20 seconds would be a gift from God.

I just looked at the Magnifax 4... what an interesting enlarger that seems to be.

Apart from printing 6x45 I'd also like the option of printing on larger paper (I have another post here about my easel in regards to larger pints.)

Many thanks for you input

 

[NBW]

With the Opemus 6 , i was never able to go beyond 30x40 cm on the baseboard (mainly because of the cropping of the negative and the space that the easel occupies on the baseboard). And from the 24x30 paper you have to put back a more powerful lamp...

The point that blocked me most was the quality of the lens I was using: a 80 mm Anaret with the funny thread smaller than the M39mm. Up to 18x24cm no worries but beyond that the problems started (darker corners than the center, lines not straight, focus...). When I was able to change my lens to a Rodagon 80mm I was finally able to print up to 30x40.

And when I wanted to go as far as 50x60 on baseboard, only the Magnifax could do it, hence my change.But no change of lens indeed (for 6x6 a 60x60 cm is only 10x linear, near same for the M645J i usually use)

But in the end I realize that the 30x40 and the 40x50 remain my 2 biggest (and rare) large paper formats for an amateur like me...But this more simplest to do printing on baseboard than using floor or wall projection to have more than 30x40 print. Printing with Opemus 6 on floor or wall each time i wanted to have more than 30x40 was complex in terms of process : the dodging and burning, aligning the paper on the wall, focusing, and so forth,....

But be careful after 24x30, this is the world of precision, there is a nice thread on Photrio that talks about alignment, flatness of negative and other considerations that are imperative to have nice large prints (also small ones).

And the most important is again your negative and dust/scratches... With condenser it is very complex to avoid them : this is why we are using glass-less negatives to avoid less dust (and less retouching, remove the little white spots on the final print). it is more simplest with diffuse head (VC or color) as dust is less visible (i better say "attenuated" or more "blur" but present indeed).

I do not enter into the debate : what is better, condenser or diffuse?
I would say it depends on your view : hard or soft interpretation if i simplify ...and a lot of hidden darkroom techniques (from developing to enlarging until finishing) that would help to build your vision.

But be confident, there is no limit of format to a given enlarger : it is less or more easy to produce some (large) print formats and the most important as mentioned are quality factors (not exhaustive) : good lens, perfect flatness, perfect parallelism, uneven illumination, good negative and of course good reproductible process (learnt by doing errors and reading forums ). Therefore , I would put the "easy limit" of an Opemus 6 to 24x30 if cropping a lot, and 30x40 if reasonably cropping..with my own unique experience (could be different if other lens, cropping,...).

Note that i use since the begining a Meopta easel 30x40 (very similar i thnk to the cited thread photos) that is not very "compact" on a baseboard. Upper the 30x40 double tape adhesive is my friend...

 

[hoganlia]

With the Opemus 6 , i was never able to go beyond 30x40 cm on the baseboard (mainly because of the cropping of the negative and the space that the easel occupies on the baseboard). And from the 24x30 paper you have to put back a more powerful lamp...

The point that blocked me most was the quality of the lens I was using: a 80 mm Anaret with the funny thread smaller than the M39mm. Up to 18x24cm no worries but beyond that the problems started (darker corners than the center, lines not straight, focus...). When I was able to change my lens to a Rodagon 80mm I was finally able to print up to 30x40.

And when I wanted to go as far as 50x60 on baseboard, only the Magnifax could do it, hence my change.But no change of lens indeed (for 6x6 a 60x60 cm is only 10x linear, near same for the M645J i usually use)

But in the end I realize that the 30x40 and the 40x50 remain my 2 biggest (and rare) large paper formats for an amateur like me...But this more simplest to do printing on baseboard than using floor or wall projection to have more than 30x40 print. Printing with Opemus 6 on floor or wall each time i wanted to have more than 30x40 was complex in terms of process : the dodging and burning, aligning the paper on the wall, focusing, and so forth,....

But be careful after 24x30, this is the world of precision, there is a nice thread on Photrio that talks about alignment, flatness of negative and other considerations that are imperative to have nice large prints (also small ones).

And the most important is again your negative and dust/scratches... With condenser it is very complex to avoid them : this is why we are using glass-less negatives to avoid less dust (and less retouching, remove the little white spots on the final print). it is more simplest with diffuse head (VC or color) as dust is less visible (i better say "attenuated" or more "blur" but present indeed).

I do not enter into the debate : what is better, condenser or diffuse?
I would say it depends on your view : hard or soft interpretation if i simplify ...and a lot of hidden darkroom techniques (from developing to enlarging until finishing) that would help to build your vision.

But be confident, there is no limit of format to a given enlarger : it is less or more easy to produce some (large) print formats and the most important as mentioned are quality factors (not exhaustive) : good lens, perfect flatness, perfect parallelism, uneven illumination, good negative and of course good reproductible process (learnt by doing errors and reading forums ). Therefore , I would put the "easy limit" of an Opemus 6 to 24x30 if cropping a lot, and 30x40 if reasonably cropping..with my own unique experience (could be different if other lens, cropping,...).

Note that i use since the begining a Meopta easel 30x40 (very similar i thnk to the cited thread photos) that is not very "compact" on a baseboard. Upper the 30x40 double tape adhesive is my friend...

Amazing. Thanks for all the time and consideration put into this post. There is so much here to take in and learn from and I am truly grateful, especially for the fact that everything is so motivational and encouraging. I definitely will delve into many of those points and I am sure that what I discover is going to help me on my adventures in printing.

What I really would like now is for the temperature to drop so that I can return to the darkroom without fainting after twenty minutes.