Did you mean to revive a 12 year old thread? Im not complaining, and maybe it's even a record of some kind.I have a 55mm 1.9 Computar that I'll be testing against a 50mm APO Rodagon, but I don't see how the Rodagon can possibly be sharper. The Computar is already sharper than my Focotar 2.
Yes, I had the separation fixed: it is an older APO Rodagon.
Waiting to test out my Rodagon-G though... need some very big paper!
It'll blow your mind. Razor sharp grain at 25x. You do need a serious enlarger - floor standing DeVere or Durst or a rail mounted mural machine. A wall mount might work if you have long arms & can solidly mount the enlarger at a sensible set-off from the wall.
99.9% of people really don't need one - it's a solution to a very specific problem.
I have a specific problem though! (Well, many if you ask my wife...) Very large images on emulsion-coated canvas. I need to do some serious darkroom tearin' up though, brace the hell out of a wall, wall-mount the MXT, brace the top, and I've thought out a sliding mount that can come a few extra inches from the wall, and a table surface that drops down out of the way. I really want to go to something like 5-6'.
I will likely experiment with using flash to expose; I did that successfully in the 90s, duping slides onto Velvia sheet film with a condenser enlarger, I did it for the daylight temp but it worked quite well. I'm thinking adapting a lamp housing to hold a strobe and a diffuser, with a full-CTO gel for color temp, and ND, aperture, and flash controls to get exposure right (I'll be printing from 4x5 negs of Bromoil prints, so I shouldn't need any manipulations as far as dodging and burning). So hopefully I can get vibration out of the picture, and come up with a way to focus. I use a Versalign and alignable lens boards, I can get corner-to-corner sharpness from 35mm negs to 24", wide open (for lith printing, wide-open is a godsend). I lay awake nights planning this sh*t... and I have a big selection of fan-cooled speedo heads to try.
I don't want to try to teach you to suck eggs, but I fear you may be about to waste a lot of effort stabilising & fiddling with your enlarger that could be better spent on finding a machine that is naturally much more vibration-free with a 500-1200w dichroic head (more than enough power in the real world). There are very few enlarging lenses I'd trust wide-open, and especially not on mural scale work.
Do you have a market / potential sales/ collectors for these prints?
I'm not too worried, though I offer an un-sarcastic thanks for your concerns. The expense and luck involved in finding a commercial-grade machine - it's just off my radar. At least proof-of-concept wise, I've dialed in strobe exposure and it's worked very well. If it scales up, I'll have something like a 1/800th exposure, so I think vibration shouldn't be an issue with a decently engineered setup. I'll find out via testing though. And in my tests so far (canvas at 30" or so, then tinted with oil glazes and varnished) there's a lot of room to tweak contrast and do retouch and so on. I'm really excited for how its progressed so far.
With a properly aligned MXT, I'm getting really superb (lith print) results at f 2.8 from a 35mm neg at 16x20 with an EL Nikkor (and man, am I picky) - that's with the head height pretty well maxed out and no ceiling brace (and I have exactly one 35mm neg I want prints from - everything else is 6x7 or 4x5). Total exposure time for that print has been something like 2 minutes (thus the 2.8), and includes swapping negs from a DIY pin registration setup and a glass carrier - I've been really serious about print quality and process and repeatability. And, I shouldn't need to print wide open at mural sizes if my ideas pan out (not lith prints so reasonable exposures); and if I go 60" from 4x5, I may not even need the G lens - it does put things in a range for comparative tests though.
As far as the market, I've been a free lance marketer for 2 decades plus, and the biggest thing I've learned is that if the product itself is a game changer, desirable, if it doesn't require empty claims vs. the truth, marketing is very easy. The last 6 years or so I've done more and more marketing for fine artists - I've got a guy moving $9k paintings in three markets (but I just helped, his stuff is solid - if I had a 10' wall I'd do a trade out). Certainly no guarantees, but above all, I want the work to exist - I want it out of my head and into the world. If it all works out, it'll should be pretty arresting stuff (but hey, it's easy to arrest people, will it connect with people is the question). But regardless, it's a natural progression from what I'm doing now and also a real leap in theme and technique, and there's a ton of work to be done in designing the shots, models, props, settings, and image merging with no computer. But I'm kind of in that "I have no choice" but to move forward mental state, regardless of market and so on. (and I know, we see kids who haven't unpacked their Craig's List enlarger yet and are asking about doing reversal printing on 72" paper, I'm aware I may sound like that, but I started as a commercial shooter and the last 6 years or so have focused on printing - no guarantees, just a steady progression, and my brain works in strange ways!)
all six-element name-brand enlarging lenses are very good. I'm very satis find with the EL series from Nikon;for 6x9 ,check into 105mm focal length.I have been looking at the amazingly low prices that quality used enlarger lenses seem to be going for these days and think it might be time to buy the sort of best of the best lenses I could never afford before. At present I use a 50mm for 35mm and a 90mm for 6 x 7, but I am planning to start doing some 6 x 9 work. What do people think are the best ever lenses in these sizes?
David.
Meopta lenses are very good indeed.http://leodium.net/35mm/Objectifs agrandisseur.pdf details some French tests on a load of 35mm-6x6 cm lenses then available in France from Angenieux, Leitz, El Nikkor, Rodenstock, Schneider and Meopta. Rather surprisingly the discontinued Meopta Meogon 50mm f5.6 came out as the best of the bunch with its replacement f2.8 equaling the best of the rest. All of the testing was carried out at f8. No doubt other tests would show different results.
'APO' is short for 'apochromatic' which simply means that the lens has a higher level of colour correction than normal (non-apochromatic) lenses. The common definition of an apo lens is one where three colours focus simultaneously at the plane of focus, what happens in front or behind this plane is not defined so longitudinal colour aberrations are still common. Typically an apo lens is better corrected overall and usually sharper too.. . . what doe "APO" signify in this discussion?
I have been looking at the amazingly low prices that quality used enlarger lenses seem to be going for these days and think it might be time to buy the sort of best of the best lenses I could never afford before. At present I use a 50mm for 35mm and a 90mm for 6 x 7, but I am planning to start doing some 6 x 9 work. What do people think are the best ever lenses in these sizes?
David.
'APO' is short for 'apochromatic' which simply means that the lens has a higher level of colour correction than normal (non-apochromatic) lenses. The common definition of an apo lens is one where three colours focus simultaneously at the plane of focus, what happens in front or behind this plane is not defined so longitudinal colour aberrations are still common. Typically an apo lens is better corrected overall and usually sharper too.
He he he Ralph....."Meopta" ?Meopta lenses are very good indeed.
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