Omega B66XL alignment

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Has anyone aout there ever aligned an Omega B66XL? I'm going to use the mirrors method. It looks to me like there is no adjustment on this particular enlarger for the lens mount. If I'm lucky, it won't need adjusting.

-- Greg Fight (gfight@gate.net), September 16, 2001

Answers

Remember, all things are relative. If everything is adjustable except the lens, you can either adjust the head-to-column or column-to-base, to get the lens correct to the base. Then do the neg stage to those two. (I'm not familiar with the B66 specifically, but this works for other units)

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), September 17, 2001.

I used Conrad Hoffman's mirror alignment method to align my Omega D2 recently. In my case, it helped to use a small flashlight to illuminate through the hole in the upper mirror. I thought it would be sensitive to the angle at which I held the flashlight, but it is not. It's a simple sensitive method, and cost me a total of about $8 (about $6 for the two mirrors and $2 to have the hole drilled). Also, it's trivial to check frequently for alignment, for example when you switch easels, because you just slip one mirror into your negative carrier and place the other on the baseboard or easel any time, no assembly/disassembly time. Thanks again, Conrad!

-- Tim Nelson (timothy.nelson@yale.edu), September 17, 2001.

did I miss something!

Conrad, can you point me in the direction of the discussion regarding your method of 2 mirror magic? Sounds like something I could use!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), September 17, 2001.


I certainly didn't invent this- the method has been discussed on various photo forums for several years. Actually, the method probably goes back to early optical physics pioneers, as it's the first step in aligning an interferometer. Anyway, there's a description buried deep in an article on darkroom measurements in my website at http://members.rpa.net/~choffman/index.htm along with a bunch of other weird stuff. BTW, the flashlight helps a lot.

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), September 17, 2001.

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