What happens if I....

[dehk]

What happens if I use a regular lens for enlarging. E.g. A Nikkor 50mm f1.4 for 135 negatives. Ignore how inconvenient it may be, but what would you think about the image quality?

 

[MattKing]

It would probably be mediocre at best.

A "Micro" (using Nikon nomenclature) lens would work better, because they are designed with "flat field at close focus" issues in mind.

 

[dehk]

Thanks for the input Matt. The reason why I had that idea is because, well, I have quite a few Omegars and people say they are no good. I wonder if I rig up something like that would be any improvement. I did a quick test just holding the lens (50 1.8) up to the enlarger, there is one big advantages over my f3.5 or 4.5 Omegars, I stuck a heavily over exposed negative in there, it gave me a much much brighter image to focus on using like f1.8, especially for large enlargements, which i can do the math and stop it back down later.

So you think a Macro lens is better, well, I do have a Vivitar Series 1 90-180 f4.5 Flat Field Macro Zoom, But I don't think that lens will fit under my enlarger, haha.

 

[MattKing]

Derek:

The Omegars will be better because enlarging lenses are designed in a way that emphasizes flat-field performance at close focussing distances. For general purpose taking lenses, that is not so important.

I understand the desire to use "faster" lenses (having just invested in a good 50mm f/2.8 to replace a good 50mm f/5.6 lens), but I would be very surprised to learn that a 50mm f/1.4 taking lens would perform well in these sort of circumstances - it just isn't designed for it.

 

[dehk]

Thanks, I'll stick with those Omegars till i got money to get some EL Nikkors then