Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]A 4 element enlarger lens is a poor choice to compare with camera lenses. Most decent modern enlarger lenses (Nikor, Rodogon, Componon) are 6 element, and I suspect would perform much better compared with standard 50mm camera lenses. Dan C. At 07:41 AM 29-10-98 -0600, you wrote: > >Tim, > >In all the early Leica manuals it was assumed that anyone buying a Leitz >enlarger would use his Leica camera lens in it. > >More recently, W.D.G. Cox looked at the performance of some camera lenses >(including an Elmar 2.8/50) when used in an enlarger: "At f4 showed the >camera lenses showed good central sharpness. The enlarging lens (a four >element type) at its full aperture of f4.5 showed poor performance overall, >just adequate for focusing centrally, and with severe vignetting, which was >completely absent from all the camera lenses by f4. By f8 all the lenses >were giving good image quality across the frame, the Elmar being the best, >with the enlarging lens slightly softer in the corners." > >The best enlarging lenses such as Leitz Focotar, of course, perform better >than any of these. > >Cheers, >Kirk Turk > > > >