What to do with that old enlarger

<p>I actually did this years ago, but my son recently wanted to revive it so I got it out and tried it again. This is the remains of an old Omega enlarger from which half the condenser lens was missing. So, I wondered, what would happen if I mounted a T mount on the lens board and ran it backwards? The result, as it happens, is a huge but functional lens, a macro singlet of a couple of hundred millimeters, and an aperture wide open of about F2.2. Needless to say, contrast is poor and chromatic aberration wild, but home made waterhouse stops inserted into the filter space tame it somewhat. I took a bunch of rather interesting shots many years ago with a Nikon F and color print film, and just for tonight mounted my digital Nikon to it. Reds, especially, explode out of their boundaries. </p>

<p>Anyway, these days enlargers seem to be turning up all over the place free or nearly so, so it occurred to me to revive the idea, since most such things include substantial bellows and alterable lens boards, making them a good platform for experiments even if you decide not to use the condenser as a lens.</p><div></div>

<p>I was thinking of putting this on the Nikon Wednesday forum as my step from the sublime to the ridicuous, as my latest other Nikon toy is the fantastic, exotic, razor-sharp 85/2.8 PC Micro.</p>

<p>But anyway, here is the step from one end of the spectrum to the other, a nascent cactus bloom on a windowsill. A bit of contrast tweaking, as this lens does not flourish in artificial light.</p><div></div>

<p>This rig is not at its best indoors at night, but comes into its own outdoors, especially when its crazy red aberration can rear its head. I rummaged in some old pix and came up with some scans from my first outing with it in about 2005, in this case with a Nikon F and forgotten print film.</p><div></div>

<p>Got red?</p><div></div>

<p>One more, just to get the feel of it. Aside from its impressive looks, this is one strange lens to use.</p>

<p>By the way, that butterfly above was not a crop. </p><div></div>

<p>Very Interesting.</p>

<p>Or if condenser and housing are removed an a complete enlarging lens (available cheap now) you would have a rig capable of extreme close-up with the enlarging lens giving a nice flat field.</p>

<p>Indeed, an enlarging lens works great as a macro, but mounting it is easier and handier on a bellows, where all you need is a bayonet to LTM adapter (or some tape, glue, cardboard and stuff). You'd have to make either a camera mounting plate or a second lens board to work it on an enlarger body. </p>

<p>Reminds me of the Zeiss Super-Q-Gigantar, 40mm f.33 (yes that is point three three), a joke by a couple of Zeiss PR guys in the late 60's who mounted an old condenser lens in a mount for a Contarex with a made up focal length and aperture. This to have a little fun with the lens speed craze back then. I guess at the time some folks thought it was a real lens.</p>

<p>One thing to do with an old enlarger is to convert it to a copy stand. I converted my old (manufactured on October 7, 1946 the I.D. plate says) DeJure Versatile Professional 4x5 enlarger to a copy stand for "scanning" 4x5 negatives with a DSLR by removing the lens, bellows, light source (an Aristo cold light head, which replaced the original condenser head) and negative carrier and clamping mechanism, but retained the lens holder and focusing mechanism. I use the cold light head as a light source for the negative to be "scanned". I described the set-up on page 4 of, http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00b7Fk?start=30 , and results at http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00bH3q. It works quite well. (Scanning in quotes, since you aren't really scanning the negative but capturing an image, or images of portions of the negative, in single exposures).</p>

<p>Some enlargers ( I think many Dursts and my old "Lucky" among them) had their heads attached to the column elevation mechanism by a 1/4 inch stud, specifically so that a camera could be mounted for copy work.</p>

<p>The setup described is interesting, definitely worth studying if one has larger format negs that need printing.</p>