Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Alan Bearden wrote: > > At 06:55 AM 3/13/97 -0400, you wrote: > >What, if any, practical effect does the aperture setting of a enlarging > >lens have? If you print a negative at f/16, will you have a greater > >"depth of field" in the sense that if the negative is not perfectly flat > >in the carrier, that area of the negative will print sharper than if you > >printed the same, not-perfectly-flat negative at f/2.8? > > > >Thanks for your thoughts. > > > >-----Yes! again, i'm no lens guru, but having taken the advise of many greats over the years and plain old trials, most lenses are at their sharpest 2 -3 stops from OPEN. yes, logically the depth of field would seem a benefit, but enlarging lenses are very nice in that they don't want you to have 3+ minute exposure times, thereby losing any benefit you might have had. my schneiders are definatly sharpest at 2 from open, and even 1 from open is damn sharp, right to the edge on 16 x 20's. please make sure you've got everything calibrated (level). everything!