[Leica] Enlarging lens - User survey

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

I have been printing almost as long as I have been shooting with M's - getting
to be in excess of 40 years now. 
 At the moment my darkroom holds a couple of Focomat 2C's. One is an older,
black one with upgraded lenses, a 60mm Focotar and a 100mm Focotar-2. The
second Focomat 2C is a point source, custom made for the US Navy, in the 70's.
It was designed to print ultra-high-resolution prints from Tech Pan. It
contains all kind of goodies, aspherical condensors, electronic shutter,
small, high power enlarging bulb, etc. It only covers 24x36 mm (and barely
that). I use it with a Focotar-2 50/4,5 (bought new in 1975). Outside of the
darkroom sits a Focomat 1C Color with a regular Focotar 50/4,5 lens on it. I
bought it as it came with an Ilford 500S variable contrast head. Next private
project will be to fashion an adapter for the 2C to use this light source on
that enlarger.
 I tried most enlarging lenses over the years, used to shoot everything from ½
frame to 8x10 and had lenses to match the negsize. The Focotar-2 50/4,5 is my
favourite for 35mm negs. It is marginally better than the old Focotar 50/4,5,
particularly when it comes to resolving details in highlights. The all time
champ is the 100mm Focotar-2. This is an outstanding lens. I did compare it to
Apo-Componons and Apo-Rodagons and it was a clear winner. It is very difficult
to find though.
 Some years ago a Swedish Photo magazine tested several enlarging lenses,
including, Focotar-2 50, Apo Componons, Apo Rodagons, EL-Nikkors,etc. I cannot
find the back copy of the magazine but I remember that one of the highest
scorer of them all was the venerable 63mm EL-Nikkor. It did outperform the
Apo-lenses and was even better than the Focotar in some categories.  
 One of the statements from the magazine that stayed with me was "Several of
the high priced APO designated lenses suffered from manufacturing flaws,
mainly in the form of de-centered elements and very sticky aperture rings". 
 There is one great Leica made item for the darkroom; the Leica Meter. It is a
combined electronic timer and exposure meter. Works very well, you set it up
for a specific batch of paper, program it and after that you only do a high
and a low metering pass with the probe and it indicates filter-pack and
exposure time. Great for doing proofs and the "quick and dirty" stuff. For
fine printing with fiber base paper, nothing beats test-prints.
 My favourite objects in the darkroom (apart from the CD player) include the
old Gralab 300 timers. This is one American made product that rivals the pick
up truck (in its 60's incarnation) as a basic, honest and reliable design.
There is something faintly hypnotic about watching the hand on it winding its
way around the dial and the buzzer certainly gets your attention. Also they
tend to last forever.
 I tried the Focomat V35, but I never got used to it. It looked too much like
a kitchen utensil too me- a photographic Mix-Master! I think it is a very good
enlarger and it certainly is compact enough. I went into one of the stores
here in Vancouver today and they have a brand new V35 in the box, with the
color head for sale, the price was Cdn$ 2,000 which is about US$ 1,400.
Probably not a bad deal at all, shipping would probably add something to the
price, but I think it comes with full warranty too
 Well, now I better go up and start processing film -  at last count there
were over 30 rolls stacked in the 
"to be done" box. This probably corresponds more to a RAD than a PAD project
(roll a day versus a picture a day).
Tom A