Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark - FWIW, I have an 80/5.6 El Nikkor of about 1970 vintage. It too got cloudy over the years, but Sherry Krauter just cleaned it up last year and it looks like new. Only took her a couple of weeks and cost $73, total. I picked up an 80/4.0 Rodagon (not APO) from "the auction site" and like it for its illuminated aperture window, but on paper I don't see any difference between it and the decades old Nikon. In addition, unlike the Nikon the Rodagon has a projecting rear element that interferes with the sliding red filter (which I actually use on rare occasion) on my Beseler 45 enlarger. For 35mm I have used a 50 Focotar since about 1970, which like the El Nikkor had gotten cloudy over the years (can't say it was any less or more than the Nikkor.) Sherry cleaned that last year too. Just to keep current I also picked up an APO Rodagon 50/2.8, to see if I was missing anything. The Rodenstock lens won't fit in a Beseler recessed lensboard with its preset lever in place, but Rodenstock provided (free!! - terrific customer service) a replacement mount without the lever (just unscrew the front and rear lens units and screw them into the new mount, which has the aperture blades). However, in a recessed board, you can't really see the aperture window, so you have to count clicks from full open. As for performance, I don't see any difference between the Focotar and APO Rodagon on B&W prints up to about 16x enlargement. Except that the Focotar is about a third to half stop brighter (darker print) at the same indicated aperture. Perhaps the APO would make a visible difference in color work, but I don't do color. So if your old 50 gave good results when new, then unless you're committed to a new lens, you might consider letting Sherry clean up your old 50. Cheers, Kip Mark Rabiner wrote, in part: > > My standard lens for my 35mm work had/has become the 63mm 2.8 el Nikkor. > Before I used the 80 5.6. > I'd use the 50 for making large prints but it has gotten pretty cloudy. > Seems like only yesterday i got that lens but it's been decades. > A fellow I know from Saigon just tole me that Nikkor lenses get cloudy faster > than German brands. > So i want to be printing with a 50. But am not going to go Nikkor on that again. > > Schneider is at the top of my list but they are incompatible with my Zig-Align system. > > So, like Marc I'm going to to with the 50mm Apo Rodagon. IN the near future. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html