Beseler HD lenses really APO-Rodagons?

chip j · Feb 25, 2013

I saw a 50mm 2.8 Besler HD lens described on E-Bay as an APO-Rodagon. Does anyone Know anything about this? I have 50 & 80 Rodagons and HDs; the HDs cost considerably more. I made a handful of prints (8x10) with the 50 HD a long time ago, and I did notice that it was unusally sharp.

Arvee · Feb 26, 2013

I have both a Beseler HD and Rodenstock Rodagon. The Beseler is physically identical to the standard Rodagon, just re-badged. AFAIK, it is not an APO Rodagon.

craigclu · Feb 26, 2013

Fred's depiction is also how I remember this to be. They were the 6 element Rodagons which are good, solid optics, generally. I have both the Rodagon and the APO and the APO shows a slight advantage at more extreme enlargements. Because they perform best close to wide open, they require a well-aligned enlarger to perform best with little forgiveness covered up by smaller ƒ stops..

chip j · Feb 26, 2013

Thanks, guys. But I still keep wonering why a rebadged lens cost more than the oringinal?

Patrick Robert James · Feb 27, 2013

The best Beseler lenses were some of the Color Pros, rebadged Computar DL lenses. Not all of the Color Pros were Computar lenses though. The ones that were had a blue coating.

EASmithV · Feb 27, 2013

Not to be confused with a beslar POS enlarging lens...

Neil Poulsen · Mar 22, 2013

Were the Beseler HD's Apo Rodagons or Apo Gerogons? I heard that the Beseler 8x10 lenses were Apo Gerogons. In fact, I believe that Bob Soloman told me that a few years ago.

The Apo Rodagons are Rodenstock's flagship enlarging lenses. In the same way that they don't repackage the Apo-Sironar-S lenses as 3rd party, I doubt that they would repackage the Apo Rodagons as 3rd party.

chip j · Mar 23, 2013

Thanks. Ithink Rodenstock did rebadge some high-quality optics under the Calumet name.

Beseler HD lenses really APO-Rodagons?

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