Wollensak Raptar

I've heard of people using snap rings. Maybe at an auto parts store? Or o-rings. Or use a piece of wood or plastic and try to thread the lens into it. Downside is it may damage the threads. Or just glue it on the board.

Nicholas Lindan said:

Any special reason for wanting a Raptar? And I take it you are looking for an "Enlarging Raptar". They also made a "Pro" series.

I think the standard focal lengths were 135mm and 162mm.

Not generally regarded as a very good lens - sample-to-sample variation is rather great with Raptars, so test or get return privileges.

Click to expand...

Nicholas,

Is there a difference in quality between the regular Enlarging Raptar and the "Pro" Enlarging Raptar? A 162mm Pro Enlarging Raptar found its way into my darkroom recently, but my go to lens for 4x5 is a 150mm Rodagon.

I really like the Rodagons, I have one for each format that I use. However, I've been using a NOS 1947 100mm Enlarging Ektar lately that I got real cheep. I am blown away by the quality of this lens, I may even sell my 105mm Rodagon as I like the Ektar so much. This is saying something as I generally prefer Rodagons over nearly any other enlarging lens.

In the 1950's and early 1960's I remember that the Enlarging Pro Raptar was considered one of the best enlarging lenses available.

graywolf said:

In the 1950's and early 1960's I remember that the Enlarging Pro Raptar was considered one of the best enlarging lenses available.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply graywolf. It looks like a very high quality lens. I guess I'll just have to try it and see. It is in beautiful condition. I don't even remember how I got it to begin with, it's on a Beseler board and my big enlargers are D series Omegas. I have an old push-pull D-II from the 1940's and a Chromega D-5XL that was given to me by a friend who told me to come get it or it was going into the garbage.