Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1992/07/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've heard for some time that some camera lenses can also be used as enlarger lenses. Recently I got a leica 3 and a 50mm f3.5 leitz Elmar lens and found that the lens screws perfectly into my enlarger (Durst M601). I set the lens to infinity, stopped down to f5.6 and made a print with the same exposure time I would use with my regular lens, and the print came out fine - it was quite sharp, even though the old Elmar lens is slightly foggy. I was wondering if anybody else has used leica screwmount lenses as enlarger lenses and know what the exact story is. If I get a 50mm summacron lens, would the superb quality of this lens be preserved when I use it for enlarging? And dare I use the f2 aperture? I don't see any enlarger lenses available today with aperture larger than f2.8.