Focus finder

Mahoneyd187

Mahoneyd187

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Danny
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Hi all

Ed was nice enough to send me a focus finder to use with my new darkroom gear...

How the hell do I use it without burning my retina?! I gave it a go, I couldn't seem to figure it out....

Doh, I know the answers gonna be simple
 
You put the base on the baseboard (or easel) of your enlarger, and look through it. There'll probably be a solid black line running through the middle, and you focus the enlarger head up or down until the grain is perfectly focused on the mirror (I think the line is there to make it easier to see)

They're also called grain focusers, as that's what your doing, focusing on the grain pattern which you know can be brought into focus, instead of trying to focus a potentially out of focus image

They take a few minutes to figure out, and then all of a sudden it'll jump into focus and it's obvious :D As always, there's no such thing as a stupid question etc.
 
I usually have to move mine around a bit to get anything, some areas seem to show up completely blank.

Also, you need to get it pretty close to start with, a little tweak at the head can throw the grain right out of focus and you're wondering where the hell you are again, so I try and get it pretty much there by eye then use the focus finder to fine tune it.

You should really place the finder on a bit of the paper you are using rather than just the baseboard to get absolute critical focus - the thickness of the paper can put your focus out - but I never bother.
 
I've blinded myself for 5 minutes or so with one of them. Horrible!

It's much safer (and more accurate, maybe) to use it at the aperture you'll be printing at. You should still be able to see well enough but without damaging yourself!
 
As Chris & Brain said but I've always set lens to maximum aperture & focused roughly by eye first and then used the focus finder to get it spot on. From that point you only have to slightly nudge the focus knob to get there. With the Paterson Micro type it helps to keep it near the centre of imaging circle.

Don't forget to turn aperture back down to correct setting ;)

Some of the better lenses have an additional stepless aperture ring to quickly flick between max aperture & your setting.
 
Thank you all for the responses! I've got just a few more questions if that's ok.

Do I place the finder bang in the centre of the baseboard directly under the negative I assume?

Best to have the safelight lens on the enlarger in place or not?

So lens wide,focus by eye,stop down 2stops (or so) to the aperture I'm using, then use the finder. I'm just worried about damaging my eye, it wasn't comfortable when I tried it yesterday
 
raathistle said:
There'll probably be a solid black line running through the middle, and you focus the enlarger head up or down until the grain is perfectly focused on the mirror (I think the line is there to make it easier to see)

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Click to expand...

on the paterson finder ,there will be a small screw by the eyepiece ,loosen it off ,look through the finder and get the black line as sharp as you can then re tighten ,that sets it up for your eye sight and Danny ,you will have to move the finder about a bit to actually get it in the right place where the light is .
i've always used mine with the lens wide open and havn't burnt my retinas out yet ,,,,now why's it so dark in here ?
i don't have the safe (red ) lens in front of the lens either
 
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Brilliant stuff :) getting used to exposing and developing the prints now so need to sharpen things up and we should be flying!

Move into a new house next week, I wonder what's going in the shed ;)
 
she wont be happy :D
 
Happier than splashing chemicals around in her new bathroom I think, I suppose I could ask and see which she prefers cos I'm nice like that lol
 
The safe filter will likely make it too dark, just don't try to focus on a piece of photo paper! Once you've put the finder down, while looking through it, move it around a bit 'til you see something with a decent range of details - should make it easier to find your focus range. I don't think it'll make a big difference what aperture you're at actually, just make sure it isn't too bright. That can be affected by things like the head being close to the baseboard (for small prints), underexposed negatives (which you shouldn't have in the first place :D), etc etc.
 
Thanks Joe, very useful and knowledgeable as always! I'll give it a go tonight and see if I can figure it out
 
I keep a spare piece of paper to focus on, I have plenty of waste so it's no problem, max aperture, no safe filter but I leave the contrast filtration in place as I've find moving the lever can knock the focus afterwards sometimes.

Where you will place the focus finder depends on the negative but you want it to be in a highlight area where there will be lots of grain not a shadow area where there will be little grain.
 
Sorted :) thanks all. One of them things,when you've done it once it's obvious. I had the safelight lens over before which was why I couldn't see anything I think
 
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