Focomat 1c questions.

Hello Everyone,
i havent posted a lot lately. Im setting up a new darkroom at my home. I currently have the besseler 45v-xl with the vc controller. I plan to keep that setup for 120. I came across a focomat 1c locally I am picking up for dedicated 35mm And teaching my 9 yr old son With. I’ve never used one but I know it’s very well liked. It has a slightly hazed focotar. I have a few questions maybe some people can help with.
- it says it is "autofocus". Will this be intuitively obvious when I pick it up and set it up? I’m trying to visualize how this autofocuses. If I use autofocus does it remove need for grain magnification?
- I generally split grade on the 45vxl but it’s built into the controller. I ordered the ilford 0-5 filter set. What’s the best tray to adapt for it?
- is there a timer people seem to like with this enlarger?
- if the focotar Is too hazed, will my 50mm rodagon or componon work ok? I figure they will but I don’t know about it with the autofocus
- anything else anyone can tell me?

thanks a lot for the help. Looking forward to get back into printing soon

Chris Coppola said:

- it says it is "autofocus". Will this be intuitively obvious when I pick it up and set it up? I’m trying to visualize how this autofocuses. If I use autofocus does it remove need for grain magnification?

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Not sure what you're expecting, but at the risk of pointing out the obvious: "Autofocus" does not mean the same as with cameras. The enlarger does not automatically focus on the projected image. Autofocus means that as you change the enlargement, the focus remains the same as the movements of the head and the lens stage are associated.

Chris Coppola said:

- I generally split grade on the 45vxl but it’s built into the controller. I ordered the ilford 0-5 filter set. What’s the best tray to adapt for it?

Click to expand...

Using under-the-lens filter is usually the easiest, even on enlargers with a filter tray.

Chris Coppola said:

- is there a timer people seem to like with this enlarger?

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Can't comment, but since the timer is effectively disjunct from the enlarger, any timer would do. We all have our preferences, ranging from simple timers with one or two dials, to complex devices with baseboard metering etc.

Chris Coppola said:

- if the focotar Is too hazed, will my 50mm rodagon or componon work ok? I figure they will but I don’t know about it with the autofocus

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Should work but yes, there's a chance you lose the autofocus ability.

Have fun with the enlarger; enlargers fortunately are relatively simple things and this one as you say is well-liked, in part because of its sturdy build. There's not a whole lot that can go wrong here.

I owned a Focomat 1c in the 1990s. It is a very well made enlargerer. The only low side is the missing filtre tray.

The autofocus functions by a curved metal plate that moves the focusing when changing the enlargement. It can be readjusted by moving the plate, but I am unsure weather it will work with a foreign brand lens.

The Leitz Focotar is a very good lens. If there is too much haze, I would try to deassemble and clean it.

I use a Leitz easel, which is 1" thick. When the enlarger is focused on that, you can adjust it to any magnification without adjusting focus. It is set to work with that lens. Changing lenses - you may have trouble attaining focus at all, depending on the lens.

There is a red swing-out under-the-lens filter. That is where you screw in the filter holder for your set.

Examine all the wiring closely. I completely rewired mine. All the insulation was dried out, cracked, and flaking off - including the wires that go up the inside of the metal mast.

If you notice anti-newton rings in your enlargements, cut a thin piece of plastic or cardboard to serve as a top mask for the negative holder. There is an anti-newton ring condenser (it will look frosted) and there is also an anti-newton-ring cap that can go on the condenser. Hopefully, you have one of those.

Chris Coppola said:

Hello Everyone,
i havent posted a lot lately. Im setting up a new darkroom at my home. I currently have the besseler 45v-xl with the vc controller. I plan to keep that setup for 120. I came across a focomat 1c locally I am picking up for dedicated 35mm And teaching my 9 yr old son With. I’ve never used one but I know it’s very well liked. It has a slightly hazed focotar. I have a few questions maybe some people can help with.
- it says it is "autofocus". Will this be intuitively obvious when I pick it up and set it up? I’m trying to visualize how this autofocuses. If I use autofocus does it remove need for grain magnification?

Click to expand...

You need to calibrate the autofocus. Once calibrated (= setting the focus like with any enlarger, then locking the lens with a screw) it will always be in focus

- I generally split grade on the 45vxl but it’s built into the controller. I ordered the ilford 0-5 filter set. What’s the best tray to adapt for it?

Ilford filters in a holder under the lens work perfectly fine

Chris Coppola said:

- is there a timer people seem to like with this enlarger?

Click to expand...

Any timer will do fine

Chris Coppola said:

- if the focotar Is too hazed, will my 50mm rodagon or componon work ok? I figure they will but I don’t know about it with the autofocus

Click to expand...

Yes, they will, I have Focotar-2 lenses but when I need more light (very large prints, lith prints) I use a Rodagon 50 2.8 lens

Chris Coppola said:

- anything else anyone can tell me?

Click to expand...

After using many different enlargers, including the Leitz Focomat V35 and many different Durst models, I went back to my good old Focomat 1c, I think it's the best 35mm enlarger ever built.
Note: you need to calibrate the focus with an easel. Best is to use a Leitz easel, the autofocus needs to correspond with the thickness of the easel.
Many models have a very nice mechanism in the base board. When using a Leitz easel, this mechanism allows you to lock/unlock the easel to avoid accidentally moving the easel.

Chris Coppola said:

thanks a lot for the help. Looking forward to get back into printing soon

Click to expand...

Thanks for all replies. I’ll be picking it up tomorrow or Wednesday. The autofocus makes sense after taking a look at photos of it more closely but was recently rewired as well and I believe comes with the original easel. Cant wait to get it.

Chris Coppola said:

was recently rewired as well

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Replacing the cord that goes to the outlet is not rewiring. All the wires are suspect at this point. Check the wiring underneath, behind the cover plate. My experience is here.

Or here's what happened upon simply moving the "insulated" wires:

Not every 50mm lens will work with the autofocus and be accurate since they are all not exactly 50mm focal length. I think Leica standard is 50.7mm or something like that. Not sure if that is the same for the Focotars, but I do know that not all of my 50s work with my 1c. I have a 50mm Componon-S on mine right now and that works fine for what it is worth. I was never that impressed with the Focotars. I still have one Focotar-2 but I never use it. The LFE Focotar was supposedly made by Schneider and I've seen people swear by it but I have never had my hands on that one. No reason to use anything other than your Componon. If you change lenses you will have to transfer over the lens tube to the new lens. It is called DOOFUS or something like that. Lol. I never get the Leica names for things. Some lenses do need a shorter tube. I have a 10mm one around for that. Probably not something to worry about. If I take out the tube and put my 30mm Minolta lens straight in I can use the Focomat to enlarge Minox negs.

Replace the wiring if it needs it. Just wire it directly to the lamphead. No real reason to replace all the wires under the baseboard. I just bought a heavy duty extension cord and used that. Easy to do.

I use below the lens Ilford filters on the Focomat. I rigged up a holder that attaches to the post for the red filter. Works fine. Just keep the filters clean. The Focomat Color had a filter drawer if you are getting one of those. Leica did make a below the lens filter holder but they are hard to find and probably cost Leica prices if you can even find it. I've seen people rig up an Omega I think under the lens holder too if you can find one of those. If you don't have frames for the filters just go on ebay and try to find some. You can even use Kodak frames without an issue. I think they are the same size as Ilfords. Might even have some around here.

The original easel works great with the lock but is rather fiddly to get the paper in straight. I still mess up here and there which is an ouch with the cost of paper these days. If you have a Saunders Master easel that is 1" thick then that works perfectly with the autofocus. It is the right height without having to move the head on the column, but any easel will work if you move the head to the correct height.

Once the autofocus is set up you don't need to use a grain focuser, but I still check it. Only takes a second. There are little locks that keep the lens from rotating. Hopefully yours will have those. I might have some spares if it doesn't. They keep the lens in the right spot.

If you laser align your enlargers it is worth checking it. The wood of the baseboard can deform over time from the weight of the column. Not that big of a deal but if you are conscious of those things it might bother you.

The only other thing I can think of is the bulb size. They used to have a shorter neck than the ones available today so you might need to adjust the height of the bulb. Some people say you do, but I never noticed a difference from what I can recall measuring it with a meter. I just pull my bulb all the way up and call it a day.

Hopefully your enlarger will come with the original instruction manual. It will explain how the autofocus functions and how to calibrate it properly. It only takes a few minutes once you understand the principle of how to make adjustments. You can use a variety of lens with the enlarger but will need to recalibrate the autofocus when you change lenses. Note, you can focus manually and use the enlarger with almost any lens until you figure out how to calibrate it. My 1C does not have a filter drawer. I use the hard plastic style filters under the lens with a makeshift holder attached in place of the red filter supplied with the unit. I have owned mine for about 10 years and very happy with it.

Patrick Robert James said:

The original easel works great with the lock but is rather fiddly to get the paper in straight.

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That is an annoying feature of that easel - it's virtually impossible to get paper in straight when the edge of the paper has curled.

It's worth noting there is a smaller Leitz easel that doesn't go as big as 8x10, which really limits its usefulness.

Lol I thought something was wrong with me, that I couldn't get the paper straight half the time...there is a finesse to it. Mine needs rewiring but I wrapped the decaying cord rubber with electrical tape to keep it together. I've heard of the insulation in the tube decaying and causing shorts.

I'm baffled by the design of that easel, actually. I have no idea why they made it that way.

I don't have Leitz easel that lock to the locking pin nevermind any other easel will work.


It's very simple enlarger but very nicely built unfortunately I don't have tray for the filter. I use under the lens tray to use filter.

Focotar is very good but you need an adapter ring to fit any other lens.

You may nee to strip that old wire and renew the plug, I have bypassed the built in switch etc.,

All in all a very good enlarger and make sure you have a negative holder either with or without red glass strips.

*Valoy is another champ, a much simpler than focomat.

Happy printing.

Don_ih said:

I'm baffled by the design of that easel, actually. I have no idea why they made it that way.

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Just a guess here - perhaps it was designed with double weight fibre based paper at hand.
Or perhaps with really thin single weight paper at hand.
I wonder: in modern times, does it work better with Ilford 300 paper - being a sort of physical approximation of double weight portrait papers of olden times?

MattKing said:

Just a guess here - perhaps it was designed with double weight fibre based paper at hand.
Or perhaps with really thin single weight paper at hand.
I wonder: in modern times, does it work better with Ilford 300 paper - being a sort of physical approximation of double weight portrait papers of olden times?

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It really only works with totally flat paper and, even then, it's a pain to get it aligned correctly. It has two adjustable metal slides that don't seem to do anything. It has a white rectangle that doesn't line up with the edge of the paper if the paper is aligned correctly. It's just bizarre.

I have a late model Ic - the grey finished version with white baseboard and is the color model which means it does have a filter drawer. It came with an EL Nikkor 50mm f/2.8 - the AF gave a rough focus that needed to be touched up with the focusing wheel (around the lens mount). The person I bought it from told me that it came with a Focotar II so was on the look out for one so I did not alter the AF tuning. The AF does work rather well with the Focotar Ii except at the maximum magnification in AF mode - checked with the long version of the Dr. K (do not recall the name at the moment) focusing magnifier. By AF mode I mean that the sliding part of the enlarger must be resting on a pin placed in the column while using a 1" thick easel such as the Leitz models already mentioned. One could elevate a non-conforming easel by placing a sheet of material between the easel and baseboard that would place the easel in the correct elevation. Alternatively one could lower the sliding portion just enough to do the same thing (proper distance beween the sliding part and easel).

The AF range is convient for doing 8x10s either filling the whole 35mm frame within the paper size (so not uisng all of it) or by cropping the image a bit (i.e. rasing and lowering while the image stays in focus) to make full use of the paer size. Doing larger prints requires raising the enlarger sliding part above the pin thereby nullifying the AF so NO AF when doing larger prints.

Focomatter said:

One could elevate a non-conforming easel by placing a sheet of material between the easel and baseboard that would place the easel in the correct elevation.

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I did exactly that before getting the larger Leitz easel.

As for larger prints, the earliest Leitz enlargers seemed to be designed with the idea you shouldn't be making large prints at all (the earliest ones making 3.5"x2.5" or 5.5"x3.5" only). They probably thought most prints of varying sizes were likely to be less than 8x10.

Incidentally, I rewired the entire enlarger because I wanted to restore it to original functionality. And because I could do it - it took about an hour. The easiest thing to do is replace the cord to the light bulb with a cheap extension cord (cut the end off it). I just like that short cord from the head to the top of the post (I didn't need to replace that cord, it's made of different material). But the switch is pretty useless - no one will use the enlarger without a timer.

I also have a Valoy II and had to replace the cord on that.

Bravo!!! You guys have written the practical manual for the Focomat Ic, something that Leitz never bothered with. Great!!! Here a few remarks, that come from using the Leitz enlargers since the end of the seventies. Bear in mind I have no technical knowledge whatsoever. Just practical. In a later post, I may add some pictures. Now I have to run to work, where there's a Ic set up for a couple of 50x60cm prints and I can't wait to see the results.

Chris: If I use autofocus does it remove need for grain magnification?
That depends on the user. I was taught to always check and it became routine to do so. I never not check after installing a new negative.

Koraks: Using under-the-lens filter is usually the easiest, even on enlargers with a filter tray.
- Totally agree when it comes to the Ic. The Ic filter tray is great, but one has to be careful when opening / closing it. There's a catch in the rear of the head that (kind of) keeps the tray in the correct position. Sometimes this catch works a little too good and we need to apply force to pull out the tray, or push it back in. I don't like doing that, so I have removed that catch.

- I agree using an under-the-lens filter holder makes life easy, also with the Ic. I have the original Leitz holder, which is a beautiful piece with its black crackle paint. However, I find its flaps too high. I have used an Omega filter holder instead, for myself and have helped many others to modify it. The Omega holder is open at the front, which makes putting in, or removing filters totally easy.

Don_ih: If you notice anti-newton rings in your enlargements, cut a thin piece of plastic or cardboard to serve as a top mask for the negative holder.

- Yes, for cutting your own mask to prevent AN rings. These were even made at one point, for the Ic and Valoy II. Not by Leitz though.

- There is an anti-newton ring condenser (it will look frosted) and there is also an anti-newton-ring cap that can go on the condenser.
Don, the frosted condenser only exists for the Valoy II.

- Yes, for the Ic it is best to have the round AN glass fixed to the condenser and pressing down directly on the negative. For perfection, there exists a 3mm copper ring that should go on the round ridge inside the condenser house, causing the condenser to be lifted up to compensate the difference. Many Ic's do not have this 3mm ring and I don't think it is a problem. Instead, there will be a much thinner spacer there, or nothing.
My own additional remark: the system of lowering the condenser with the attached AN ring onto the negative is fantastic.

Patrick Robert James: - It is called DOOFUS or something like that. Lol. I never get the Leica names for things

- Patrick, this spacer is called DOORX which later on became 17675. This spacer is essential to use with the Ic and the Valoy II.

I use below the lens Ilford filters on the Focomat. I rigged up a holder that attaches to the post for the red filter. Works fine
- I agree, see my previous remark about the Omega holder

The original easel works great with the lock but is rather fiddly to get the paper in straight. I still mess up here and there which is an ouch with the cost of paper these days. If you have a Saunders Master easel that is 1" thick then that works perfectly with the autofocus. It is the right height without having to move the head on the column, but any easel will work if you move the head to the correct height.

- I agree placing sheets of paper into the Leitz easels is a bit of a challenge. In particular, using the smaller easel. But for me, it has never been a problem, because I trim each print half a cm all around after pressing them flat with the drymounting press. I use fiber paper only and the trimming removes the tension each sheet has. In other words, I leave enough white around the image and the trimming solves small 'placement' mistakes.
For 50X60 (20X24) prints, I use an RRB easel and yes, their construction makes placing correctly easier.

- Once the autofocus is set up you don't need to use a grain focuser, but I still check it. Only takes a second.

Same here, it is an automatism

- my own solution to prevent Newton rings with the Ic and the Valoy II

- a copper AN thing for the Valoy II (I have my doubts about using this one)
- the Ic AN glass
- a clear Valoy II condenser and a later AN Valoy II condenser

Hilo said:

the frosted condenser only exists for the Valoy II

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Thanks for that correction. I still haven't put a spacer in my enlarger head after adding the AN ring and there doesn't seem to be any problem. Although, now that I think about it, when I push the enlarger down to completely clamp on the negative, it does tend to shift the negative slightly toward the back of the enlarger. Adding the spacer may prevent that. Or it may not...

Hilo said:

(Big Snip)...

- There is an anti-newton ring condenser (it will look frosted) and there is also an anti-newton-ring cap that can go on the condenser.
Don, the frosted condenser only exists for the Valoy II.

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I have a 1C that has an anti Newton condensor. It is not a ring, but the condenser itself, so maybe
it's just a very rare item. I also have a Valoy II that had a clear condenser when I got it, but I later got
a great deal on a Valoy II head unit that had the anti Newton condenser, negative carrier and a 63mm
ƒ2. El Nikkor lens along with a a few other goodies.

Saganich said:

I've heard of the insulation in the tube decaying and causing shorts

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It's rubber insulated or something that perishes like rubber. They are not difficult at all to rewire, and if any of the insulation is failing, strip all the old wire out and redo it before you get hurt by it. In fact, if any of the wire still looks 'original' at this point in time, just replace it. Don't risk your health for want of a couple of metres of new cable.

Use heatproof cable if you feel it necessary.

Zathras said:

I have a 1C that has an anti Newton condensor. It is not a ring, but the condenser itself, so maybe
it's just a very rare item. I also have a Valoy II that had a clear condenser when I got it, but I later got
a great deal on a Valoy II head unit that had the anti Newton condenser, negative carrier and a 63mm
ƒ2. El Nikkor lens along with a a few other goodies.

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Zathras, that's amazing! I had a friend who was a repairer of everything to do with Leitz. From his 18th he went to Wetzlar almost every year, to be trained and get to know new products. He had a darkroom with the Ic and the IIc and we spoke about the possibility to give an existing Ic condenser the AN surface like the one of the Valoy II. He told me yes, but felt the AN ring Leitz had made was the more practical solution.

Your story: it sounds like someone had the same idea. Is it possible to show this in a couple of pictures? Sorry, it would involve taking out the condenser. If you can do this, make sure you have something soft on a table, just in case.
Your story implies your Ic needs the thin spacer only. (the very flat ring the condenser rests on). You can check this.

Don_ih said:

Thanks for that correction. I still haven't put a spacer in my enlarger head after adding the AN ring and there doesn't seem to be any problem. Although, now that I think about it, when I push the enlarger down to completely clamp on the negative, it does tend to shift the negative slightly toward the back of the enlarger. Adding the spacer may prevent that. Or it may not...

Click to expand...

Don, it's something I would try out. The negative should not move while the condenser is lowered all the way. You too, make sure you have something soft as a surface of your table, or on your enlarger's board!

Here the AN eliminator, made by S&S. (anyone knows this company?)