Types of Enlarger Negative carriers

There are two main types of negative carrier, with and without glass. There are arguments for and against each type. Lets be honest there are three types, the adjustable.

Glass-less carriers avoid the Newton rings effect (a post for a later date) but also have the disadvantage of allowing the negative to buckle when they warm up, this is more pronounced with 6x6 negatives. To minimize this you should be very careful when focusing and use a smaller aperture to increase the sharpness across the negative.

Another disadvantage of a glass carrier is dust; to be honest it is not the big deal that everyone makes it out to be. It is just a case of being methodical in your approach. The main advantage of glass carriers is that they keep the negative flat. Another plus is that you can experiment with unusual effects by using various materials such as flower petals, salt crystals and soap suds etc in the carrier.

There are adjustable carriers also, which are very handy as they allow you to mask out badly illuminated edges without having to increase the magnification, or you can adjust them to include the rebate of the negative.

Enlarging Lenses

Enlarging lens mounted in lens saver.

When choosing your enlarging lens you should choose one that reflects the quality of the lenses you use on your camera. If you do not, that quality will not transfer to the final print. Of course there are other factors in play when making these decisions namely your own financial position; it maybe better to wait a little longer and purchase what you need instead of what fits your pocket at the time.

I cannot repeat this often enough that high quality camera lenses need high quality enlarging lenses, likewise reasonable quality camera lenses need reasonable quality enlarging lens. In other words like for like.