enlarging 120 film with 50mm lens?

Poohblah · Aug 30, 2008

at my school we use Omega enlargers that have 50mm f/3.5 enlarging lenses. there are some 6 x 6 negative carriers for these heads but i'm unsure of enlarging 6 x 6 film with this lens... what are the limitations to using this short of a lens with medium format film? will there be too much falloff or something?

Konical · Aug 30, 2008

Good Afternoon, Poohblah,

50mm enlarging lenses are not ordinarily designed to cover a 6 x 6 negative. You need a 75 or 80mm lens.

Konical

dsullivan · Aug 30, 2008

it'll look like a holga in reverse. you'll get white vignetting instead of black on the print. I have a good example of you want.

Poohblah · Aug 30, 2008

that's what i thought. thanks.

srs5694 · Aug 31, 2008

FWIW, I once fit a 50mm lens on my enlarger and took a look at the image on the baseboard. I didn't see any obvious falloff of light, but of course such things aren't always as obvious on a projected negative image as they are on a print. It will, of course, also vary with the lens in question. (I don't recall which of my 50mm lenses I used.) Also, many enlargers have different diffusion boxes or condensers for 35mm vs. MF negatives, and if you use the wrong diffusion box or condenser, the chances of serious problems go up.

Anscojohn · Aug 31, 2008

Poohblah said:
at my school we use Omega enlargers that have 50mm f/3.5 enlarging lenses. there are some 6 x 6 negative carriers for these heads but i'm unsure of enlarging 6 x 6 film with this lens... what are the limitations to using this short of a lens with medium format film? will there be too much falloff or something?

*****
Poohblah,
Give it a try. I have enlarged 6x6 with a 50. It can work. What can you lose?

Kevin Kehler · Aug 31, 2008

I have done it and gotten the white ring on my prints. Where it does work is when you are enlarging to print a cropped section (i.e., printing an 8x10 from a 16x20 height) but a larger lens is easier overall.

Poohblah · Aug 31, 2008

Anscojohn said:
*****
Poohblah,
Give it a try. I have enlarged 6x6 with a 50. It can work. What can you lose?

i thought about that and while i have to agree, i don't have any 120 film at my disposal at the moment and likely won't for a little while.

nworth · Sep 1, 2008

As noted above, the problem is coverage. Most 50mm lenses are just not designed to cover the area of a 6X6 negative. You are likely to see some vignetting, a falloff of light around the edges. Even it that is not too bad, sharpness is likely to be poor near the edges.

milkplus-mesto · Sep 1, 2008

Why not use an aperture of f/8 or so - in cameras this basically eliminates vignetting, and it should be the same in the enlarger lens.

ic-racer · Sep 1, 2008

milkplus-mesto said:
Why not use an aperture of f/8 or so - in cameras this basically eliminates vignetting, and it should be the same in the enlarger lens.

??

Poohblah · Sep 1, 2008

milkplus-mesto said:
Why not use an aperture of f/8 or so - in cameras this basically eliminates vignetting, and it should be the same in the enlarger lens.

because the vignetting is mechanical (correct?).

Akki14 · Sep 1, 2008

Certain lenses will only cause a certain circle of light(image) to fall on a given surface. It will not matter what aperture it is set at. That's the whole point of having different focal lengths. Vignetting in poorly made camera lenses is down to other factors...

enlarging 120 film with 50mm lens?

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