I have a Durst M370 enlarger and I am quite happy with it. However, I can't get the allignment exactly spot on; there always is more sharpness in one part of the picture than in another.

Does any one kwow a good method for exact allignment?

I seem to remember reading a method which employs using to small mirrors, but that's all I remember.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Simon Schaap

-- simon schaap (fotodingen@hotmail.com), February 02, 2001

Answers

There is a neat tool, essentially it is a two way bubble level on a ruler, that is sold as an enlarger alignment tool. I do seem to recall someone recently on one of these boards stating the mirror way of doing things... maybe within these past 2 weeks.

-- Scott Walton (f64sw@hotmail.com), February 02, 2001.

The mirror method is described by Howard Bond in an issue of Photo Techniques last year. You need one silvered mirror with a hole throught it and another plain one. If you want to align your baseboard/easel and negative stage, place the plain mirror on the baseboard and the one with the hole on the negative stage. Look through the holee at the mirror on the baseboard. You should see a series of concentric circles. If they are absolutely concentric, the alignment is perfect. If they veer off to one side, the alignment needs adjustment.

There are also other ways. Versalab seels something called the parallel, which seems to be laser based. Its not exactly cheap though.

Cheers, DJ.

-- N Dhananjay (ndhanu@umich.edu), February 02, 2001.

Simon,

I have versalab's laser parallel. As stated above its not cheap but it really works and its really easy. I don't have a permanent darkroom so when I set up everything needs to be realigned. I can get my old 5x7 Omega enlarger fully aligned in under a half hour. If you think you're going to need to frequently true up your equipment its a pretty handy piece of equipment to have.

-- Kevin (kkemner@tatesnyderkimsey.com), February 02, 2001.