Apo-El-Nikkor 210mm

[H. G. Hart]

Do you guys think these will ever come down to the $2000 range now that so many labs have gone digital? It doesn't seem so. Though I'd love to have one for enlarging my 5x7s.

[Allen in Montreal]

Do you guys think these will ever come down to the $2000 range now that so many labs have gone digital? It doesn't seem so. Though I'd love to have one for enlarging my 5x7s.

If it will help hold you over, I have NOS plain Jane EL-210 you can have until the Apo version comes your way! :) :)

[Drew Wiley]

The 210 was made for 4x5 and not recommended for 5x7. Labs rarely used these.
Digital photography has actually increased their demand, because they provide excellent performance on digital backs used to precisely photograph flat copy, like paintings. They are overkill for ordinary enlargement. The far more common and affordable Apo Nikkor series will give equal performance in enlargement, just one stop slower. But if you absolutely covet one, I have seen an Apo EL around a thousand, but somewhat beat up. Good ones typically fetch 2500 or so. There was
more than one series of these, the older ones being very heavy and able to deflect a
weak lens mounting. The last 210 I handled was a tank. There's apparently a lot of mythology about these lenses. Nikon still makes analogous lenses for machine optics and so forth, but with fixed apertures engineered for the specific industrial application.

[neil poulsen]

Just a few months ago, Chris Burkett had one up for auction starting at $2300. No one was bidding, so it was removed a day or so before the auction ended.

Recently I saw some literature on Apo El Nikkors, and there was about a 165mm listed that had greater coverage for 4x5 than the 210mm. I thought that was interesting. (Assuming I'm remembering this correctly.)

[Leonard Alecu]

The last model cover 5x7 at f11.

[Drew Wiley]

It's not a matter of coverage. If you want the performace you paid for in an Apo-EL,
you need a considerably longer than "normal" focal length, stopped down two stops
from max aperture. Otherwise, you're wasting your money. At f/11 a far cheaper Apo
Nikkor will give comparable performance. Therefore if you use a 210 Apo-El for 5x7,
there might be little benefit over a conventional 210 enlarging lens costing 1/10th as
much. These lenses were designed with a sweet spot in performance, which is neither
one stop down nor at "normal" focal lengths. In other words, they don't automatically
comprise the best enlarging lenses for everyday applications. They fall into something
of an unrealistic cult lens status at times. I find that I either need more speed than
they are worth, or less, depending on the application. And at a certain MTF, you start
picking up the grain of AN glass and so forth with no real improvement in image detail
per se. I have all the specs on all of these on file somewhere. Yeah, if I could pick one up for a couple hundred bucks, I'd add it to my collection of enlarging lenses, but that's not going to happen!

[Leonard Alecu]

I use this lens for enlarging 5x7. Is the Best. If you can buy one keep it forever. Don't forget the Zeiss Topogon 180mm.

[Kevin Crisp]

The regular El Nikkor 210 covers 5X7 with room to spare. Great lens for b&w. You can enlarge an 8X10 negative with it on a Bessler 8X10 set up.

[TLF]

The Apo-EL-Nikkor 210mm covers 153mm at f/5.6 and 210mm at f/8.

[Leonard Alecu]

More info here:

[Leonard Alecu]

And here: