Hi All,
Just sharing a bit of wisdom I recently discovered. I *finally* got
the Omega D5XL enlarger going
(was standing for a year waiting for a power supply), and having a
ball printing 6x7cm negatives.
I've up to now only been doing 35mm darkroom work, and there is simply
no comparison to the bigger
negatives.
Anyway, the topic of my post: I did some 35mm again today, and up to
now I have been using one of two
lenses, the 50mm f/4.5 Color Magnolar fitted to the Agfa Varioscop 60
enlarger (lovely little thing)
and EL-Nikkor 50mm f/4. Both of these quite pristine, and I have been
happy with the results.
With the Omega enlerger, amongst the many lenses I got with was a
Rodenstock Rodagon 80mm f/4 which was *really*
beat-up. I though i'd give it a try for 35mm (the enlarger is so huge,
80mm gives a bit more reasonable
working space). I disassembled it, cleaned it up, but after all the
work the lens
still had a tiny bit of fungus inside, as well as a severely scratched
front element. I don't know
what one earth people do to lenses sometimes, but I am thinking
somebody sharpened their kitchen knives
on this one. This was bad.
Pleasant my surprise to see the end-results (some negatives shot with
the Zuiko 90/2.0 Macro) - this is by
far the best enlarger lens of the lot. It is seriously sharp and
contrasty, but somehow less "muddy" than
the other lenses, clearer highlights and shadows. It's hard to
explain, but the point is, the output is
visibly superior, and I will for the time being use nothing else for
35mm.
On eBay, this lens would never sell (element looks badly scratched)
and I suspect we have the same issue here
as with normal lenses, where people get paranoid about a scratch or
two, yet the results are unaffected.
Anyway, if the results *are* affected, it's still a bloody amazing
lens, better than the Nikor/Agfa!
So, UNLIKE advice on some online forums, do NOT stay away from
scratched enlarger lenses if a bargain is to
be had - you will not see any degradation of image quality! At best,
this will be a theoretical issue pertaining
to that lest 0.01% of image quality, and all your other factors
(sharpness/contrast of image on negative, enlarger
alignment, developing times/temperatures, etc) will never be perfect
enough for you to notice this.
O.T: Although I never talked to Walt, I will think of him also - he
sure seems to have
made a difference around here...
--
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