Well,
After a good long 6month period I have finally got my 8x10 enlarger going, and spent the afternoon getting it ready for printing, aligning the baseboard with an adjustable precision level, cleaning everything and generally settling in for an evening printing.
Was itching to print some negs from a pile of 6x17 negs I have been accumulating, I have not long had the Linhof - its a version 1 with the fixed lens, a SA 90mm f5.6
Well. I thought I had not focussed properly, or something major, and these were on prints with and without the centerfilter.
I double checked the focus points around the easel etc. This is enlarging only to 16" wide. The prints were nothing special that's for sure.
The mamiya 6x7 with 37mm fisheye, 65mm L/A and 127mm lens has produced some of my favourite and really really sharp images.
I have not started shooting with my homemade 8x10 yet, and am really not too fazed at the end of the day as I really enjoy getting each different camera out on the joys of using each camera anyway, but am genuinely blown away by how awesome the proII is.
I guess I was kind of expecting that the 6x17 negs would be sharper than 6x7, which I was really looking forward to, as I love the 3:1 aspect, but this is not the case by actually a long shot.
The 8x10 I 'made' out of a Plaubell 4x5 monorail is sporting a modern Sironar-N 240mm so will be interesting to see how that goes in the grand scheme of things. Cannot really compare totally as it is the most impractical thing to shoot. At least I do not have to make wet plates onsite I guess
So I guess this post is a round about way of saying that in my experiences with many cameras and formats, the mamiya proII 6x7 with the left hand grip (essential kit!) and especially the 37mm fisheye and 65mm L/A is a really special bit of kit.
A nikon 120mm SW shooting 4x10 and then printing to 1200mm wide, well. That's the next project..... One would hope that the bigger prints will really show benefits of larger negatives.
Over and out.
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