Article on Noritsu lenses

I've finally been able to publish a first version of a pretty extensive article on lenses labeled Noritsu, mainly used in their minilabs. I use a couple of those regularly adapted onto my bellows system and have grown quite fond of some of them. Unfortunately it's quite challenging finding information (it was great reading about the experiences of some people here in the thread about former minilab operators on this forum, but even most of those seem to lack any detailed knowledge on the lenses themselves...), so I'm well aware that the article still features a lot of speculation. If you happen to know anything about who the possible manufacturers (I currently know that both Tamron, as well as Nikon provided at least one lens for Noritsu minilabs) could have been, or find anything else in there which might need some corrections/additional information, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know.

If you're interested in such a (niche) topic, you can find the article here:

https://deltalenses.com/the-makers-noritsu/

Here are some shots taken with Noritsu lenses:

Pinch watching by simple.joy, on Flickr

You're a light collector as well? by simple.joy, on Flickr

Sing our names in unison by simple.joy, on Flickr

Newlywets by simple.joy, on Flickr

Grass-ping life by simple.joy, on Flickr

Ante up! by simple.joy, on Flickr

Protection no longer in production by simple.joy, on Flickr

Wow, very nice!!!

What will we do without minilabs? The future?? Dip and dunk and rotary for films? RA-4 increasingly concentrated to large firms??

These lenses are amazing, when did Noritsu stop using projection?

mshchem said:

These lenses are amazing, when did Noritsu stop using projection?

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Probably around 20 years ago, at least seriously. May have tapered off to about 15 years ago. The transition to digital exposure was super fast by any standard. A year or two and it was basically done.

@simplejoy congrats on the publication; it's admirable how much effort you put into researching the topic, the article is very nice to read and the example photos are useful as well as a joy to watch!

koraks said:

Probably around 20 years ago, at least seriously. May have tapered off to about 15 years ago. The transition to digital exposure was super fast by any standard. A year or two and it was basically done.

@simplejoy congrats on the publication; it's admirable how much effort you put into researching the topic, the article is very nice to read and the example photos are useful as well as a joy to watch!

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One our local labs (Photopro) converted to a LED printer probably 30 years ago, he used this until he went laser at least 15 years ago. Photopro was a Noritsu shop, University Camera in Iowa City Fuji Frontier. Amazing technology.
I wish someone would invent a 12 inch laser exposure unit for digital files. I would process the paper somehow.

mshchem said:

I wish someone would invent a 12 inch laser exposure unit for digital files.

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There's a thread here on the forum about using a translucent LCD in an enlarger. Combine that with an RGB LEad light source and you've got something that accomplishes the same. And yes, it's been done in color, already, so we know it works.

I think it was in the mid to late 1990s, that Agfa introduced a digital lcd carrier for their optical minilab printers to convert to printing digital files, without having to invest in a whole new machine.

IIRC the lcd was standard 35mm full frame (36x24mm) but the quality of the print wasn't very good even in 6x4 inch/10x15cm size.

The idea was good, shining a light through a digital negative, optically printed onto the photo paper, just a pity the lcd couldn't have been bigger/better.

koraks said:

Probably around 20 years ago, at least seriously. May have tapered off to about 15 years ago. The transition to digital exposure was super fast by any standard. A year or two and it was basically done.

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Yes, the quick transition probably was one of the reasons, why these lenses were forgotten almost immediately, and many discarded, despite the high value.

koraks said:

@simplejoy congrats on the publication; it's admirable how much effort you put into researching the topic, the article is very nice to read and the example photos are useful as well as a joy to watch!

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Thank you very much - I'm glad you like it!

foc said:

I think it was in the mid to late 1990s, that Agfa introduced a digital lcd carrier for their optical minilab printers to convert to printing digital files, without having to invest in a whole new machine.

IIRC the lcd was standard 35mm full frame (36x24mm) but the quality of the print wasn't very good even in 6x4 inch/10x15cm size.

The idea was good, shining a light through a digital negative, optically printed onto the photo paper, just a pity the lcd couldn't have been bigger/better.

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Many thanks for the additional information. Has this upgrade been part of their d.labs or even before (MSC 1 + 2)? Whatever the reason was for the low quality, it usually wasn't the lens in Agfa's case... their own minilab lenses were pretty spectacular, particularly in the d.labs. I've written an article on Agfa's industrial (also featuring minilab) lenses here:
https://deltalenses.com/agfa-gevaert-industrial/

Here are a couple of shots made with a D-Lab Zoom lens:

A snack for when you have the blues by simple.joy, on Flickr

Bean around the block by simple.joy, on Flickr

Love at first sight! by simple.joy, on Flickr

mshchem said:

Wow, very nice!!!

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Thanks a lot - I'm happy to hear you think so!