some background info: I have a home made 6x17 camera, using a 90mm f6.8 angulon compour. I would like to use the camera as an enlarger, however the 17cm width is in actuallity outside the capability of my angulon. As the angulon is really not designed for this width i have a small light dropoff on the edges of my exposures, and the focus drops off at the edges a little. All my exposures are taken at F32 to maximise focus across the frame. Although these limitations are tolerable for making the initial exposure on film, they would be multipled when i use the lens during enlargement.

My question is, would i be able to use a super angulon for both taking the photo and enlarging? Would this be an improvement over an angulon? Has anyone used a super angulon for enlarging 6x17cm or 5x7?

-- Phil Brammer (filsta@goconnect.net), June 11, 2001

Answers

What?
There's absolutely no need to use a wide-angle lens for enlarging at all, unless you need very big enlargements from a short enlarger height. It's the circle of coverage that counts, and you don't need a wide-angle lens to get a large circle. The diagonal of your film is only 18 cm, so a 180 mm enlarging lens would be suitable.
Using wide angle lenses on an enlarger isn't a good idea, due to the excessive light falloff in the corners.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 11, 2001.

I have no experience with doing that with a 90 mm, but it should work well, as long as you enlarge negatives! The fallof in the negative corners will be, at least partly, corrected when enlarging. I think I remember, a great photographer (St Ansel?) said using the lens that was used for taking for enlarging is a good choice. Enlarging chromes however with a wide-angle may get you into dark corners problems, as the process is cummulative. If you don't want to invest in an enlarger lens, use your shooting lenses! My Apo-Symmar 150 was my first "good quality" enlarger lens. Way better than the old Componon that came with the enlarger. But enlarging ratio should be at least 1:3-5 to produce a "flat" image. The super-Angulons have coverage for 5x7 at infinity, so no problem. Just check that your enlarger has the short draw to focus that lens, in your case if you used a 90 Angulon, it will be fine.

-- Paul Schilliger (pschilliger@smile.ch), June 11, 2001.

I've been lead to believe in the past, and it makes sense, that taking lenses aren't keen on the kind of heat that could come out of your englarger...damage to coatings and balsam etc. Your 90 will be relatively close to your light source which presumably will be fairly powerful to cover 6x17. You may have thought of this but watch out it would be a shame to damage your lens.

-- Matt Sampson (mattsampson@btinternet.com), June 11, 2001.

Gotta go with Matt on this one! No way would I put a taking lens anywhere near my enlarger! In todays all digital climate enlarger lenses are available at bargain prices and often at give away prices here in the UK especially. Shop around is my advice! Best of luck Paul

-- paul owen (paulowen_2000@yahoo.com), June 11, 2001.

If your purchase hinges on this, I would check with Schneider. I've been told by their LF technician that S.A.'s distort when used for near subject matter. For example, I was using a 90mm S.A. as a normal lens for 6x9. They indicated that this should work fine, so long as I didn't try to use the S.A. for close-up photography.

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@att.net), June 12, 2001.