Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] The FOCOTAR-2 - initial impressions
From: D Khong <dkhong@pacific.net.sg>
Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 06:15:39 +0800

Friends,

So we have heard a lot about the famous Leitz Focotar-2* 50/4.5 enlarging
lens (originally designed for the Focomat IC enlarger, if I am not
mistaken), reputedly (to many users) one of the best enlarging lens on
planet earth, if not the very best.

I successfully bidded for one (which cost me almost an arm and a leg ;),
maybe not that bad) on Ebay recently and on the same day upon receiving
this venerable lens, put it to the test against my workhorse, the
Rodenstock APO-Rodagon 50/2.8.

Tested against itself, I printed two shots of the same negative of a pic
taken on a tripod and which I am sure is sharp. Except for a tad of
roundness, the pic printed at f4.5 was practically as sharp as one printed
at f8 with the Focotar-2. My conclusion: it is perfectly acceptable to use
the EL wide open if necessary and I will still like the results.

Tested at f8. On eyeballing, I could not tell the difference between the
pic (6x9 inch enlargenment to get the full frame on a 35mm neg) printed
with the Focotar compared with my Apo-Rodagon. Use a 4x loupe and see. Aha!
At the centre of the frame, no difference. At the edge, the Apo-Rodagon
binded the grain together better than the Focotar-2. My conclusion - Apo is
Apo and for critical work, it is still the preferred lens to use.

One interesting observation. While the pictures on eyeballing appear equal
in sharpness, there is an endearing quality produced with the Focotar-2. To
put in another way, if I shuffled and mixed the two batches up and then
decide which are the pictures which appealed more to me (from a purely
human point of view), I'd pick the ones done with the Focotar-2 most of the
time.  I think there is something "extra" there....which can be overlooked
if one delved too seriously at measurable entities and then missed the
forest for the trees.

Leica mystique? You bet!

Dan K. 

* Not counting the current Focotar 40/2,8 for the V35, there are (please
correct me if I am wrong) three generations of Focotars produced by leitz.
The first has markings visible from the front. The second has the words
"Focotar" engraved at the side of the barrel. The last has "Focotar-2"
engraved on the side. All have a max. aperture of f4.5.







  
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