Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/31

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Enlarging lens
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 15:13:40 -0800

Marc wrote:

>At 01:15 AM 1999-01-28 -0800, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>>Can anyone straighten me out on how long ago they stopped making them, which
>>one to get, what they would cost (I'll go look through a shutterbug but
>>I don't recall seeing them) did they make one as long as an 80 (that's
>>what I'm used to for 35mm but I could learn to live with it I know they
>>made a medium format enlarger) and How they might compare to a Nikkor
>>which is what I'm used to.
>
>
>Well, Leitz made 9cm and 9.5cm lenses from 1927 until 1960, and the superb
>V-Elmar 4.5/100 from 1960 until 1977, and the 5.6/100 Focotar-2 from 1977
>until 1983.
>
>Any of these lenses will make your Nikkor pale by comparison, to be polite.
> I'll restrain my remarks, but even the older Leica lenses are on par with
>the JSK and Rodenstock lenses and are quite a bit nicer than the Nikkor
>enlarging lenses.

Basically, I agree with Marc, but there is one exception I know of. Nikon
made an Apo-Nikkor enlarging lens of 105mm (not medium format; only
intended to cover 35mm) that outperformed pretty much everything else. The
price, unfortunately, reflected this - about $1200 in the early 70's, when
I bought my last new M4 for around $400Cdn. I've seen about 3 for sale over
the years, generally staying around $1000 to $1500 used.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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