Originally Posted by
Brian K
I worked as a commercial photographer in NYC for 25 years, and for a few years prior I assisted maybe two dozen NYC commercial photographers , I know dozens of other commercial photographers and had dozens more rent studio space from me and do their photography in my studio. The ONLY time I ever saw enlarging lenses used as a camera lens was for macro work, not even table top, but macro. Now maybe my experience encompasses an elite group of photographers who can afford to use only the best equipment and equipment optimized for their specific functions but that is my experience.
As an example I own the 180mm Sironar-S, 180mm Sironar-N and the 180mm Macro sironar. I have tested all 3 side by side at distant focus and in comparison the macro sucks. Also note that an enlarging lens is optimized for even greater magnification ratio than a macro.
As for process lenses, those are often used in both macro and distance photography and perfrom quite well, I use 240, 300, 360 and 480 Ronars, 200 Nikkor M, 240 Fuji A for landscape work all are process lenses. However they are optimized for 1:1, not 4:1 or 5:1 or 6:1 or 7:1 (etc) like enlarging lenses. Given the vast number of high quality used view camera lenses available on the market, one has little excuse to use an enlarging lens, which one still has to get a shutter for as a camera lens.
Some people who have not tested equipment or may have never seen the optical differences between lenses may be quite happy with using an enlarging lens on their view camera. If the film is large and they are contact printing or making only small enlargements they may not notice the difference, however if they decide to enlarge the image they will.
Btw even among lenses optimized for a specific usage and then used in that optimized usage there can be significant qualitative differences.
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