35mm Large ish Prints on a 5x4 Enlarger

teejay

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Hi - just a quick question please - which enlarger lens focal length will I need to print 35mm negs on my 5x4 enlarger at 16"x20" if thats possible?
 

MattKing

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I use a 60mm lens on my extended column Omega D6. The slightly longer focal length works better with the bellows on my unit, although I can work with a 50mm lens.
 

Huub

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On the Omega D2V my 50mm does that job without much issues.
 

wiltw

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The Beseler web site describes the "45 MXT motorized chassis provides a sturdy foundation for this enlarging system. The enlarger chassis has a triangular reinforced truss with twin girder frame which permits the enlarger to produce prints greater than 16″x20″ on the baseboard from 35mm film."
(In contrast, my Beseler 45V-XL permits 25X enlargements with its extra long column.)
 
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teejay

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Thanks for replies - much appreciated.

I had a direct message from Ian C who (amongst other useful info) mentioned a recessed lens board.
So I searched t'interweb and saw that KHB sold them for my LPL enlarger - just needed to check which size mounting thread I needed - I went into garage to check and saw that I had a lens board that was kinda recessed, only a cm or so, but I had the recess "pointing downward" - so I reversed it and that made a big difference - easily printed a 35mm neg at 12x16 using the 50mm lens.

I'lll have another go using 16x20 next weekend - if necessary I'll buy the more recessed lens board from KEH, and whilst I ordering that I might as well purchase the extended LPL focussing cable which I have been thinking about for ages !

Once again thanks for all replies - have been super helpful.
 

wiltw

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Specs for LPL 4550XLG (LPL 7452L)
"Max. Magnification on baseboard - 35mm negative with 50mm lens: 21X"

Spcs for LPL 4550XL (LPL 7452)
"Max. Magnification on baseboard - 35mm negative with 50mm lens: 17.5X"
 

Rob Skeoch

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Although most people use a 50mm lens with the 35mm format, if you pick up a used Leica 40mm, you'll be able to make larger prints with the same enlarger height. Most likely not worth purchasing an additional lens for most people.
 

ic-racer

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With most common 6-element lenses (like Nikkor 50/2.8 and Componon-S 50/2.8) printing a 16x20 will require meticulous care to get the grain in the corners sharp. The negative will have to be in a glass carrier and perfectly centered over the lens and the lens perfectly perpendicular to the glass. At high magnification, the curvature of field of the lens is opposite the normal curvature of 35mm film.

Using a 80mm lens, however, can be a much cheaper alternative to a High Magnification 50mm lens. So, i'd recommend an 80mm Nikkor or Componon-S. In fact i do almost all my 35mm enlarging with an 80mm Componon-S or 80mm Nikkor. Although I also have the 45mm APO-Componon-S High Magnification lens.
 

koraks

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ic-racer said:
In fact i do almost all my 35mm enlarging with an 80mm Componon-S or 80mm Nikkor.
Click to expand...
Same here with a 75mm Nikkor on my Durst 138. This also helps with focusing as the recessed Latub lens board is not required with a 75mm. Some enlargers, like my 138, require a fairly deeply recessed lens board to properly focus shorter lenses. The drawback is that the distance between the lens stage and the paper plane needs to be quite large for big enlargements such as 16x20 from 35mm (although I have done it with the 138 as well up to this size and the 75 Nikkor!)
 

Ian C

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If you size the projection of the 24 mm width of a 35 mm negative at 16.5” (419.1 mm) to fully cover the 16” dimension of a sheet of 16” x 20” enlarging paper, the magnification is 419.1 mm/24 mm = 17.5X. According to the EL Nikkor data sheet, the 50 mm f/2.8N EL Nikkor is suitable for magnifications from 2X to 20X, so this lens should give a well-defined projection for making 16” x 20” prints. Other high-grade 50 mm enlarging lenses will behave similarly.

At 17.5X the flange mount surface (at the rear) of the 50 mm f.28N EL Nikkor needs to be about 46 mm from the negative to attain focus. This will give you an idea about the lens-mounting setup required for your enlarger.

The specifications of the 50 mm f/2.8N, and other EL Nikkors is given in the data sheet in the following link:

http://www.galerie-photo.com/manuels/el-nikkor-enlarging-lenses.pdf

I too recommend a glass negative carrier to keep the negative flat and restrained within the shallow depth of field about the negative. This will allow you to get the best possible image quality with uniform focus. Failing to use a glass carrier can lead to poorly-focused areas, or a completely unfocused projection in some cases. For example, see the following discussion:

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/faulty-lens-on-agfa-enlarger.170968/

I've obtained good results with a 50mm f/2.8N EL Nikkor and a glass negative carrier when used for 35 mm enlarging to make prints up to 16” x 20”.
 
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