[Leica] Enlarger Lenses

["Anderson, Ferrel" <AndersonF@ria.army.mil>]

I use the V35 with the color module and 40mm Focotar, the Focomat 1C Color
with the 50mm Focotar-2, and the Focomat IIC with the 100mm V-Elmar and 60mm
Focotar.  I do B&W exclusively, but will attempt color, negatives and
positives, in the immediate future.  Color work has been made possible by
the recent acquisition of the V35.

I am surprised at the number of LUG respondents that use enlargers and
lenses other than Leica!  Haven't you heard of legendary Leica lens
performance and autofocus?  It would appear that there is a market for Leica
enlargers and lenses within the LUG community!

I am currently assessing my enlarger situation with a view toward
liquidating one or two of them, and converting my profit toward more Leica
camera lenses.

Two years ago I considered upgrading my lens for the Focomat !C Color.  I
owned a 50mm Focotar of the five element, four component , triplet design,
which was very good.  I had no complaints, but I was aware that Leitz had
issued two optical recomputations of the 50mm Focotar, and expected that
they would offer improved performance.  These designs were a Focotar five
element, Gauss design (that I later learned was a Schneider design), and a
Focotar-2 six element Gauss design.   Both of these lenses, unlike that of
the  earlier Focotars which had the lens designation on the front ring of
the aperture ring,  had the lens designation on the side of the lens barrel.
Just after I purchased a used 50mm Focotar-2 with the option of returning to
the seller, I decided to compare the two Focotars I owned, a used 50mm f2.8
EL Nikor I also owned, and new 50mm f2.8 EL Nikor and Componon-S lenses that
I borrowed from the local camera shop.  I tested them on my Focomat 1C Color
by projecting a resolution positive I purchased from Four Seasons at various
magnifications and examining the virtual image with a Micro Omega grain
focuser.  Unfortunately, I did not have the time to make prints, which I
consider to be the ultimate test. The maximum resolution that the charts
were guaranteed for is 160 lines/mm, but resolution of up to 320 lines/mm
could be discerned by examining the edges of the finer resolution target
lines.

The Focotar-2 lens won the test on all criteria.  

The most noticeable difference in the tested lenses was in contrast.  Both
of the Focotars were exceptional in terms of the lack of color fringing and
the truly black rendition of the test target black square (part of the Air
Force resolution test target that is used in the Four Seasons positive), and
were closely followed by the older EL Nikor.  The New EL Nikor is obviously
a different optical computation from the older EL Nikor as evidenced by a
very much larger rear element and different coating.  Both the new EL Nikor
and the Componon-S lenses showed color fringing and a lack of true black at
all apertures!  My feeling is that this performance would degrade the
contrast and brilliance in B&W prints.  Both of the Focotars displayed
slight color fringing at f4.5 but it was not evident at f5.6.  The Old EL
Nikor showed prominent color fringing at f2.8, much less color fringing at
f4, and almost none at f5.6.  At f8 it was free of color fringing.  In terms
of resolution, the Focotar-2 won again, but just barely better than the new
EL Nikor and the Componon-S, which equaled each other.  The older Focotar
and the Older EL Nikor were equal, and were just slightly behind the new El
Nikor and the Componon-S lenses.  The Focotar-2 bested the other lenses at
every magnification, and this was especially apparent in the 16X range.  I
also want to add that I have tested three Focotar-2 lenses, and found that
they showed virtually the same superb performance.

I would love to test the Focotar-2 against the APO Rodagon, especially in
view of the advertising claims of Rodenstock that this lens does not display
the color fringing that their earlier designs and ALL competing designs have
displayed up to now!  All lenses but the Focotars, Rodenstock!

Unfortunately, the 50mm Focotar-2 lens in no longer available new.  Leica
announced its unavailability last year.

About Leica marketing an APO Focotar-3 lens:  Never!  I would like to be
proven wrong, but the discontinuance of the Focotar-2 lens says a lot about
their intentions.  I think that they see a decreasing market in conventional
reproduction, and an increasing market in digital reproduction.  My gripe is
that they are no longer supporting the significant number of Leica enlargers
in the world that need lens replacement and upgrades.  This is especially
true of the Focomat 1Cs and the Focomat IICs.  I also believe that if they
aggressively marketed a new enlarger lens, it would probably sell.

A word on the V35 enlarger and the 40mm Focotar lens.  Ctein tested many
enlarger lenses, and knocked the wide angle lenses for having significant
light fall-off.  This is not true of the 40mm Focotar lens on the V35
because the light fall-off of the Focotar, which is inevitable in any wide
angle lens of conventional design, is compensated for by the enlarger
illumination system.  Light intensity uniformity on the baseboard with this
lens and enlarger is superb.  I suspect that corner definition is not as
good as with the 50mm Focotar-2 lens, but I have not seen any difference so
far in my dark room work.

Finally, the Focomat enlargers and lenses are superb, and I think that their
advantages have not been appreciated by the vast number of dark room workers
because of their relative scarcity, and their higher cost.  The high cost is
a tribute to the unbelievable quality of these remarkable machines. 

Ferrel Anderson