Enlarger lens questions

[DREW WILEY]

Odd Rodenstock spec sheet. It has most of the darkroom related lenses, but zero actual process lenses like the title implies. Some might be adaptable. But what tells it all is the label of Photo Division. They apparently have an industrial division as well, which photographers are not familiar with. That is typical of a number of these big lens companies, including Nikon and Fuji as well. All kinds of specialized industrial optics are being made which don't fit into our niche of either ordinary camera lenses or darkroom lenses.

 

[DREW WILEY]

jtk - I doubt you ever sold Apo Nikkors at Gassers. What you probably mean are El Nikkors. For example, you mention a 63mm Nikkor. But the shortest focal length Apo Nikkor was 180mm, and back then would have cost far more than an El Nikkor equivalent. I don't remember how long they made them, but own up to 760mm myself (came with the whole free pile; I don't have any use for that particular lens). That's not camera store stuff, although Samy's down in LA would special order them for certain Hollywood applications. Those were mainly distributed through print industry channels.

I know that once in awhile John Gasser would try to wheel and deal in certain used graphic equipment down in his basement, but he wasn't very good at that particular game, and held out so long for top price that some of that stuff was probably still there at the time of liquidation. But the salesmen on the pro counter were great with their inventory.

Nikon did produce a cheaper line of process lenses for "stat cameras" and so forth based on a tessar formula, and the shortest focal length of those was 150mm. I've never even seen one of their cheaper series.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

This is about Schneider:

 

[Fangzhou]

I have nikon el, which is great!

 

[16:9]

I don't see where any enlargements were made. Am I missing something?

DELTA is the largest catalogue of enlarger (and projector/industrial/repro) lenses. The tests are all digital: deploying them as taking lenses. However, one of the benchmarks indicates how they perform natively, as enlarger lenses.