I posted this over at photo.net and got no response so I thought I would ask here. I recently pulled an Apo-Gerogon 210mm f/9 off of a process camera and was wondering about its performance as an enlarging lens. I've come across the information that it has a 78 degree angle of view which gives an image circle of 340mm at infinity focus, which excedes the diagonal of an 8x10 (325mm) so it should cover it, but I was wondering about the performance of this lens at the periphery of its image circle. How does it perform in terms of light fall off, flatness of field, etc. Is it useful for enlarging 8x10 or should it be restricted to smaller formats. Has anyone out there used this lens for enlarging? Impressions? Thanks in advance.

-- Fritz M. Brown (brownf@idhw.state.id.us), February 14, 2000

Answers

Terrible.

It was designed to perform at 1:1 at f22.

If you are printing at f22 at near 1:1 it will work and make a print but that print will not be close to the quality of a 180 or 210 Rodagon lens that is designed for enlarging.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), February 14, 2000.

Bob--I presume a 270 Apo Geragon is equally problematic?

What are some good lenses for an 8x10 enlarger where you have about 7.5-8 ft of ceiling height?

-- Ron Dietel (ron@ucla.edu), March 08, 2000.

A 240mm Rodagon. All Apo Georgons are process lenses.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), March 09, 2000.