Enlarger Lens Advise Needed

[AuditorOne]

Well, the 8x10 enlarger arrived from Tonopah the other day and my wife has not disowned me. (She is not speaking but I am still sleeping in the bed ).
I am getting it cleaned up and doing the things needed to get it set up but I need a lens. Now I know enough to know that along with alignment a really good lens is the way to get the best quality out of any enlarger.

This particular enlarger is no youngster, but obviously was built for the millenium. It uses a wooden lens board (and wooden negative holders) so I suspect I should be able fit about any lens that works. I am looking for any and all recommendations for a very good enlarger lens that will make me absolutely ashamed that I though my negatives were even worth enlarging in the first place.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Dan

BTW, I want to thank Jim Galli for not only parting with this wonderful piece of equipment but also finding a ride for it from Tonopah to Elko.

[Leigh]

Oops... I'm thinking 4x5. Sorry

- Leigh

[ic-racer]

Just like a small-format enlarging lens, go for a six-element lens and you should be fine. I also have experience with using process lenses. They seem to be available for very little money and ideally suited to the low magnification ratios one might use in a home darkroom. Realize that a 16x20 print is only 2x and 11x14 is only 1.4x.
I occasionally see Rodagon-G 300mm lenses for sale. Realize that lens is optimized for 20x enlargement. That would be a print 200" wide.

My most used lens is a Rodagon 300mm, optimized for 2x to 4x. I use a 300mm Eskofot process lens for 1x up to 2x and have available a Schneider Componon-S 240mm, a Fujinar 250mm process lens if I need a bigger on-baseboard image when the enlarger head tops out at the ceiling.

[ic-racer]

Also, there was some 8x10 enlarging lens "show and tell" in this thread, starting around post #214: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...-to-know/page5

[smithdoor]

How must do you pay for your 8 x 10 enlarger
I did look at a few on the web $16,000 down to $415.00 on ebay

Dave

http://www.omegabrandess.com/product...omega-F-Series
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chromega-F-8...#ht_291wt_1134

[AuditorOne]

I can get a 240/5.6 Rodagon at a pretty decent price but I wasn't sure that would work. As for enlargements I doubt I will be exceeding 16x20 for a bit but I may change my mind and want to go larger later on. I would prefer paying once for something that will work for me going forward.

I also find some 300mm lenses with an f9 maximum aperture. That seems pretty dim to me but I really don't know much about this, as you can obviously tell.

Finally, thank you very much for the link to other references here on the forum. My search skills are pretty limited.

[AuditorOne]

Oh...for what it is worth, I paid $100 for my enlarger but it was very kindly transported to me by the seller, so the $100 was really more token than anything. It is not new, but neither am I. And both of us are still in darn good condition

[John Kasaian]

I use a $30 Ilex 229mm Copy Paragon on my 8x10 Elwood. No complaints.

[Tin Can]

I just set up an 8x10 Elwood with a Kodak Enlarging Ektanon f4.5 10 inch (250 mm) lens. I have spent several hours fooling with height, focus and white paper to get some perspective. To experiment and not waste the rare Elwood bulbs, I put in a big 500 watt CFL, so right now it's a slide projector. I have not actually exposed any paper as my sinks are not yet ready.

So far, so good and all very cheap.

And fun!

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] I also find some 300mm lenses with an f9 maximum aperture. That seems pretty dim to me but I really don't know much about this, as you can obviously tell

Those are likely process camera lenses. For enlarging I would avoid them and go for the brighter f/5.6 300 lenses.