Janpol Color 80/5.6 - anyone tried it?

Hello friends,

recently I got an almost new color print processor, Thermaphot ACP200... so now I can start to do some colour in my darkroom! Unfortunately, I didn't get a colour head enlarger, that's why I recalled an old Janpol Color in my shelf. The lens looks used, but the glass and filters are in perfect state. I have never had any experience with it before, but I plan to hook it to my Magnifax II. Maybe you can tell me someone about the picture quality this lens can give? Anyway, it's easier than filters. I don't plan to print colour more than 18*24 cm, because Thermaphot won't let in anything bigger

Cheers from Russia,
Zhenya

The Janpol was made by the company PZO in Warsaw, Poland, and designed to be an enlarging lens with integral filtration for colour printing. The 80mm is required to cover the 35mm format because the light path has to be narrowed inside the lens to accommodate the filters.

Make sure that the lens is used on full aperture or the filter values will change; this is one of the major probems with the Janpol because printing exposure would have to be controled only by exposure time. PZO used the M42X1 screw mount standard for its enlarger lenses rather than the international standard which is the Leica screw thread. For your intended print size the Janpol should be quite satisfactory; good luck!

Actually, I regularly (now) see Janpol 80 mm lenses on eBay with M39 threads that should screw directly into many/most modern enlarger lens boards/tubs. And while I don't speak from experience (I have a 105 mm Vega, an apparent Russian copy of the Janpol, but the magenta filter is badly deteriorated), based on the glass size relative to common lenses the same speed, it looks to me as if the optics are compensated for the filters (which ought to mean normal coverage for the lens size, i.e. 80 mm covering 6x6), and with the filters well away from the plane of the aperture there should be little change in filter effect at reasonable apertures (say, for the f/5.6 lens, through f/11). Seele, have you actually found the problems you indicate from printing with the lens, or just heard about them (and if the latter, from what source)?

Eumenius, coverage limitations should be immediately obvious, if present. I'd suggest there's a cheap way to check the filter issue -- use the yellow and magenta filters to print on multi-contrast B&W paper, and watch for contrast changes with changes in aperture (with, of course, compensating change in exposure time). If in fact the filter effect changes as the lens is stopped down, you should see a reversion toward "no filter" grade (2 or 2 1/2 for most papers under tungsten light) at smaller apertures with small amounts of filtration, but a trend toward more extreme effect at large filter settings. And of course it's much cheaper to test this with B&W than with color paper and chemicals...

Make a B&W print with your prent lens and the Janpol. If optical quality is a problem it should be noticeable. Having three filters, if the lens is good, should make it just as useful for VC printing as for color.

Donald Qualls said:

Seele, have you actually found the problems you indicate from printing with the lens, or just heard about them (and if the latter, from what source)?

Click to expand...

Donald, I used a Janpol with a Krokus enlarger. and also read the instructions too; I do stand by my observations, even knowing that one example does not necessarily covers every eventuality.

Even on 18*24 you'll find the janpol soft. Try better lens and filters instead.

best regards
Rami

I used on for mono work

The janpol that i used was recomended by a former commercial photographer
the results were not to my expectations,although I was printing 11x14 and 8x10 the smaller size you could get away with it but too soft at 11x14.
were is it now i let it go with a enlarger sale i have not tried it with colour work.