Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/02/15

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Subject: [Leica] The final gasp of MF film?
From: benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:16:19 +1030
References: <CAF8hL-GYA-TnC=rVhuSgU7gAwuFZ_A8RxTofGnVgC2wZDM1MzA@mail.gmail.com> <80F9701439F20347874CE5E4E03C22E9412EEC84@WhizzMAIL01.whizz.org> <CABmfTOXcBOcW6+8ZgGhN7AaEfe=+5NS=kg=7yQu86or9ThE-KQ@mail.gmail.com> <80F9701439F20347874CE5E4E03C22E9412F23EB@WhizzMAIL01.whizz.org>

Interesting.  The Apo El-Nikkors were available from at least the
1970s, maybe earlier.  The two biggest factors I found in improving
silver prints from MF and LF negatives was a really good lens and
oil/wet mounting the negs - even if you're not using a physical
unsharp mask.  Oil mounting is a total pain, but if you need to get
all the detail that's on the neg onto the print, it's the only way to
go.  But the light source needs to be matched to the negs - with a
diffusion source it's not really worth bothering.  I have only heard
of/read about the Kamm enlargers, I've never used one - but do know
that they came with lots of different light sources).

I don't print like that anymore, but for my own prints I prefer
tonality to resolution and detail, and more than anything my time is
limited.

Marty


On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> 
wrote:
> 20"x24" with El-Nikkor (I don't think APO lenses were out when I last 
> printed in 1997) on Oriental Seagull with a 13" Kamm (well adjusted).
>
> john
> ________________________________________
>
>
> My guess is that you never noticed much difference when wet printing
> either because you didn't enlarge enough, or your enlarging system had
> enough factors to degrade the image quality (lens, alignment,
> stability) to a point where they were about equivalent.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


Replies: Reply from john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster) ([Leica] The final gasp of MF film?)
In reply to: Message from richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man) ([Leica] The final gasp of MF film?)
Message from john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster) ([Leica] The final gasp of MF film?)
Message from benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney) ([Leica] The final gasp of MF film?)
Message from john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster) ([Leica] The final gasp of MF film?)