xpan questions...enlarging and diopter

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xcapekey

Guest
borrowing an xpan for a possible purchase but wanted to enlarge a few negs before i decide....

#1
what lens should i use to enlarge the negative? i have a omega d5 with color head...i will be using a glass 4x5 carrier to hold the neg....what lens should give enough coverage...

#2
the rangefinder patch seems so small....i was considering getting a diopter...which mag diopter would make the lines for the 45mm fill the finder...something similar to the 50 on an m3?

thanks in advance

xcapekey
 
Hi,

1)...150mm covers 5x4.....but how long are xpan negs ?

2) I'm a Brit, and I'm not sure what you mean by a 'diopter', - if you mean an eye-piece correction lens, then this is the wrong thing, - it'll just make it go blurred or out of focus and smaller.
 
i guess i'm looking for some sort of eye piece addition that would magnify the viewfinder so it is easier to focus...do they make that?
 
Well, eye-piece magnifiers do exist, but they are usually quite expensive, and they reduce the field of view considerably. You might not be able to see the frame edges, or brightlines, if you use one.

Do you have good eyesight normally, - are you a spectacle wearer, are you under 40......?
 
I've just checked the Hasselblad website which says the negs are 24x65mm, so you might get away with using an 80mm lens for enlarging, but it's borderline depending on the type of lens used. Otherwise go for a 90, 105, 135, or 150, it'll just mean you have to push the head further up the column for longer focal length lenses.
 
hektor...thanks for the info

i'll be trying my first enlargements tonight...hopefully...if i the carrier works out...

i wear contacts..was just hoping to find a magnifier that would make the xpan +45 look similar to an M3 + 50mm, with respect to how the brightlines fill the VF and make it easy to focus...

the patch just seems small to me and makes it difficult to focus quickly
 
OK, if you wear contacts you shouldn't have much problem with eye-relief, i.e. the distance from the eye-piece lens to your eye.

If you are a contact wearer, and over 40 you might have a problem with close focussing, i.e whether or not you can read a newspaper easily without holding it at arms length. If you have difficulty reading then use a +1 diopter additional eyepiece lens, otherwise not.

I have never used an Xpan so am working from theory, but I do have an M3 and I know what you mean. Because the Xpan is a very wide-angle camera I suspect theat the rangefinder patch is small compared to a Leica M3. Perhaps some other Xpan owners can comment on that.

Good luck with your printing.
 
I've been using a Rodenstock 80mm lens when I do my enlargements in a Beseler 45 enlarger. I will be using the lens with my new Omega D5 with Diochroic Head. :)
 
I cant to be honest see why you would want the patch to be bigger?.. Personally i think its perfect just the size it is.
Like Hektor has said above, the patch probably just looks small because of the much wider viewfinder/field of view. If the patch was any larger (say twice the size) i really feel it would interupt my composition etc. Remember panoramic photography is very different and you are shooting with fairly wide angle lenses. (the 45 is equiv to 25 if my memory is correct)

After all, remember that panoramic cameras such as these are primarily used/designed for landscapes, therefore focussing speed is not really an issue. If you really wanna shoot/focus on moving objects i doubt this is the camera for you!! Even still, i feel i can still focus quite quickly.

One thing that can be a little frustrating, is focusing on things with no sharp vertical lines (or none at all).. which is simply fixed by turning the camera on its side and focusing.
Sounds trivial by i just find it a pain in the bum when i mount on tripod, frame up, then goto focus and theres nothing to focus off of. Of course, the easy way around this is hyperfocal distance focusing which i use now nearly all the time!! one of the best tricks ive learnt!

Hope this helps!
 
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