Enlarger lens for macro

It has been suggested that enlarger lens would make a fine macro lens for

magnifications above 1:1, and searching the forum I find suggestions to use a

lens at 35-50mm. Assuming an El Nikkor was my choice of lens at 50mm how would I

mount this to my lens board, and even a better mounting on a shutter. I have a

Cambo 4x5 view camera, and any suggestions would be appreciated.

For best results the lens should be reversed mounted. Rodenstock does make a reverse

lens adapter for enlarging lenses. Then you need to tape closed the port for the

illuminated aperture on the base of the enlarging lens. Then you need a shutter with an

M39 Leica thread. Linhof did make a Macro Shutter on a tube with a Leica Thread. You may

be able to find a used one. Just make sure it has the 39mm Leica thread and not the

39mm 0 shutter thread. The tube is used to push the shutter away from the board so you

are better able to light the subject.

 

Once you have it together it works beautifully!

many but not all enlarging lenses are likely symettrical tessar type lenses.

 

if what i read is true ,the enlarging lenses are designed for flat field.

 

with a focal plane shutter slr an enlarging lens should be capable of good results. don't worry about the lens being designed for a flat field or requiring a reversal ring.

 

high speed 50mm lenses faster than f/2.8 probably have some curvature of fiels.

 

you mention 50mm lenses. one of the big problems with a shorter lens

, except for extreme closeups, is the short lens to subject distance,

 

you have less space for lighting and some subjests like insects

will fly away when a big object approaches them.

 

a 100mm or better still 135mm short barrel lens on a bellows works extremely well. you can focus to infinity to very close but likely not 1:1 possibly 1/2 to 1/3 life size. you can add an extension tube.

 

Ignore the edge darkening you may see in the viewfinder. It will not show up on the film.

 

 

I took photos of sectioned coins with such a setup.

we heavily gold-plated quarters , cut them in half and used chemicals to dissolve the coin itself and photograhed the plated and poliched edges.

There are both Copal and Wista versions of the Copal "Press" shutters with an M39 enlarger thread for easy mounting. I have just recently posed a question about these at: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00LICx

 

I have frequently used a Rodagon 80mm, still screwed into the enlarger lens board, and simply taped to the front of an extension tube or bellows on the Hasselblad, or with rings on a Leitz Visoflex. The imaging qualities are excellent.

 

I suggest just trying the lens you have before buying anything else. And to get an idea of what's happening, improvise a lensboard with a piece of stiff card. If you make it neatly enough, ie. no light leaks and painted black on the inside, you can even make some exposure tests. Just using the "lens cap on/off" method, exposures of 1 or 2 seconds are manageable. Stopping down with long extensions will require at least those times anyway.

 

A total extension of merely 10cm with the 50mm lens is going to result in 1:1, and as Walter says, a very short lens to subject distance.

 

Cheers, Kevin.<div></div>

Both Nikon and Rodenstock make adapeters from 40.5 mm filters threads of their enlarging lenses to the 39 mm enlarging lens thread. You could start with just using one of these adapters to mount a 50 to 80 mm lens to a lensboard, without shutter. By the time that you allow for bellows extension and reciprocity correction (if using film), the exposures times are so long that you can get by without a shutter fairly easily.

 

If you want a shutter, look for one of shutters mentioned above, or, Schneider makes an adapter from the 39 mm Leica enlarging lens thread to the standard front thread of a #1 shutter. It was on the price list on the Schneider website the last time that I looked.

 

Or you could have a machine shop such as S. K. Grimes make a custom adapter.

 

Most modern high quality enlarging lenses are 6 element 4 group designs, definitely not tessars.

 

There are threads on these topics in the forum archives.

"Most modern high quality enlarging lenses are 6 element 4 group designs, definitely not tessars."

 

YOU ARE RIGHT BUT STILL , UNLESS YOU HAVE A 50MM F/2.8 NIKKOR OR EQUIVALENT it may be a simpler design . then maybe the reversing ring would help. since my stuff is "pre-historic"

I don't have any of those lenses.

 

It's good to see someone thinking and trying out macro or micro photography. the close-ups here mainly flowers are beautiful.

 

I wonder if I could still get on my feet if I got down to take close-ups like that.

The 5cm F2.8 El Nikkor came out about 1956.

Larry, your biggest challenge will be your distance from your subject. You probably want a 100mm lens, or longer. You may not even be able to focus a 50.

I have used 50 mm to 105 mm enlarging lenses, reversed, for true macro, i.e., larger than life size. Even with the 6 element designs, reversing the lens helps when making a larger than life size image -- the designs aren't symmetrical -- I experimented once and there was a distinct improvement in image quality reversed. I have used El-Nikkors and an Apo-Rodagon. Only the 50 mm f4 and 75 mm f4 El-Nikkors are tessar types.

 

I didn't find subject distance to be a problem. As the magnification increases beyond unity, the subject distances increases. Not much working room is required to light a small object. You can calculate the image and object distances from the equations on the Lens Tutorial available on photo.net

I have extra mounting rings for mounting the front and rear cells of the Computar enlarging lenses into No. 1 shutters. I think that I even have the ones to mount them in reversed for high magnification.

Let me know if you are interested. I would recommend a 80 or 90mm Computar, of which I also have extras. I use one as my prime lens and get very good results.