Old Enlarger lenses

[Rob Archer]

I've recently been given a box of 'camera junk' by a work colleague. In it were no less than 9 enlarger lenses. Most of them are obviously cheap 2/3 element types and in very poor condition. 3 of them, though, seem a lot better. Does anybody out there have any info on the following (i.e. when / where they were made and are they any good?

They are marked as follows

1) Wray (London) 31/4 in. 'SUPAR' SER III serial no. 285040 (this is the only one I've had a chance to use yet and it seems quite good. Very sharp in the centre but noticacle tailing off at the edges, even at mid-apertures)

2) E-OCEAN 1:3.5 F=50mm No.612670

3) Minolta E.ROKKOR 1:4.5 f=75mm No.1413397

Rob

 

[Earl Dunbar]

Rob: I have not used the Rokkor, but I was sorely tempted to buy it many years ago when I was buying a kit of enlarging lenses. (I ended up with all Fujinons, 50, 75, 105 & 150.) It got very high marks in every article I read. I wonder if the "E." designation means it is a 5-element design, a la the way Olympus designated Zuiko lenses.

Hmmm ... I wonder if a Zuiko 50 macro could be adapted to enlarger use....

Earl

 

[Surly]

I have several old Minolta Rokkor camera lenses and if they are any indication you can bet the enlarging lens is super sharp. Just a guess, however.

 

[titrisol]

I've heard great things of the rokkors.
Give it a shot and tell us what you think

 

[r-brian]

I had the 50mm E Rokkor on a Minolta enlarger ten years ago. A fantastic lens. Also had the 75mm and the little I used it, it performed very well. Sold it a year or so ago to move up to a 80mm E Nikkor. Don't know about the others.

 

[Rob Archer]

I used the E-Rokkor yesterday morning - it really is superb. Sharp grain corner-corner at f8. It's considerable better than my Durst Neonon (which is not at all bad) I also had a try with the Ocean and it's OK but not good enough to change permanently. It seems 'softer' rather than unsharp so it might come in handy for portraits. It really like to know a bit about this lens as it's obviously a 'quality' lens. I've never heard of Ocean

Rob

 

[Dave Parker]

Minolta is one of the unsung heros of optics, over the years both their enlarging lenses as well as their camera lenses have been top notch glass, I have used Minolta camera gear and lenses for my whole photographic career and have never been disapointed, and I used to use their enlarger lenses when I had my old darkroom and will again be using one of them.

Dave