Originally posted by cyberjunkie
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Why don't you consider better enlarger lenses with Plasmat design (six elements) that in some instances are exactly the same lenses used by professional large format photographers for decades, to shoot products, and also for general photography?
Apart Apo Componons and Apo Rodagons, which command an higher price, the older models can be had for quite cheap nowadays.
A Componon or Rodagon from the sixties/seventies can be found for cheaper than a Janpol Color, for example.
They are sharper, the bokeh is better, and with the right adapter ring you can use them reversed (especially the shorter focals) for extreme macro. All you need is a super cheap adapter from LTM (M39) to M42, to mount the lens on the bellows you already have.
Symmar-S and Componon-S are the same beasts, not just the glasses, also the threads and build of the front and rear groups. They were just adapted for the specific use with metal shims.
Once we opened two 135mm, one in No.0 barrel for enlargement, and the other on Compur No.0 for view camera. The elements were interchangeable and the coating looked the same.
If you buy a not_so_old Componon or a Componon-S you are actually using the same lens that was used for an incredible number of major ads by the best studio photographers, when 4x5" sheet film was an overkill. If I remember correctly the 80mm covers 6x7 film with ample movements and at close diaphragms covers 6x9. Enough for a full page magazine ad.
Long time ago I did plenty of still life work, for the most part high end fishing gears
using the in-shutter versions of the Componon and Componon-S.
When it was fine to go for the cheaper roll film, I used them on 6x7 or 6x9 backs, using a Linhof camera (either an old Technika III or a Bi-System monorail).
Everything but the odd modeling and some portraits were done with those lenses, with full satisfaction. The more manageable alternative was the Pentax 6x7, that could have made good use of my enlarger lenses (no need for shutter) if I only managed to complete the conversion of a Pentacon Six bellows... but this is another story
Second hand prices of Rodagon and Componon objectives are so good, if you are patient, that lower class alternatives like Componar and Comparon aren't worth the shipment charge, IMHO.
Same with Rogonar...
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Cheers
Paolo
Paolo and others,
I decided to go with a Schneider-Kreuznach Componon f5.6 80mm to fill that gap in my m42 prime stable. The lens actually has an M25 thread mount, so I ordered an m42 adapter. As near as I can figure, the extension it will need to reach infinity is smaller than I'd be likely to find at the short end of any m42 bellows's range, so I also ordered a focusing helicoid. While the price was very good on the lens, with the extras, I'm exceeding the best price I found for a Janpol Color 80mm, but not by a very great deal.
Since the helicoid may be wending its way across the Pacific Ocean until nearly the end of the month, my first tests of the lens are with extension tubes. Here it is with about 34mm of extension, including about 1mm that comes from the m25-to-m42 mount adapter and the rest from two extension tube sections. This gave me a fixed focus distance of about 8 feet. Had it been closer to 12 to 15 feet think I might have been able to bring infinity into focus by stopping down to f22, but I couldn't do that focused on 8ft.
The following tests show some bokeh potential, but I expect this lens's best bokeh is more likely to appear when focusing on much closer objects using more extension than with this set-up, but I wanted to get some impression of the lens's ability to take landscape pictures, even if the focused-on subject matter is in the foreground. These examples, using my K10D, are all shot with the lens wide open at f5.6:
My next posts from the lens will include higher magnification and attempts at more impressive bokeh.