Omegar

I understand most of you will advice me to get an el nikkor or rodagon, but lets put that aside.

I have 2 Omegars here,
one is Rodenstock-Omegar 50mm 1:4.5 Made in Germany (came with B22) Older
other is EL-Omegar 1:3.5 50mm L455-110 Made in Japan (came with B66) Newer

Pretty much same difference in 75mm.

Which one of these lens you think its "better". The first (Rodenstock-Omegar) seems to have larger diameter glass, and more aperture blades. But i imagine they have the same amount of elements. So far I am leaning towards the older lens just by the look of it. I figure I will ask you guys before i waste a bunch of paper just to figure out the difference, and if its little to none, paper ain't cheap for me!

Thank you in advance,
Derek.

You don't need paper to compare. Take a picture of a newspaper, full frame, middle aperture(where
most lenses do best). Raise the enlarger to the biggest print you wish to make. Enlarging lens set to
5.6(the largest aperture common to both lenses), and examine center, edges,corners,etc. with a
grain focuser(keep turning it to face the image center. Then compare at a smaller aperture.
Use what you like, if it's the 4.5, keep the 3.5 for hard to focus dense negs.

Good luck

boswald said:

You don't need paper to compare. Take a picture of a newspaper, full frame, middle aperture(where
most lenses do best). Raise the enlarger to the biggest print you wish to make. Enlarging lens set to
5.6(the largest aperture common to both lenses), and examine center, edges,corners,etc. with a
grain focuser(keep turning it to face the image center. Then compare at a smaller aperture.
Use what you like, if it's the 4.5, keep the 3.5 for hard to focus dense negs.

Good luck

Click to expand...

Good call, i might prepare such a neg with my next roll for future references.

I think they are all 3 element. Its probably a toss up. Keep all 4, as postage will probably cost more than what you can get for them.

ic-racer said:

I think they are all 3 element. Its probably a toss up. Keep all 4, as postage will probably cost more than what you can get for them.

Click to expand...

Looks like 3 elements for both of them.

If you can get your hand on an old piece of Microfiche its even better more negative detail and thicker base if you are not using a glass or semi-glass carrier