Nikkor 50/2.8 or Beseler Color Pro 50/2.8 ?

[Brad Bireley]

Which is the better lens, Nikkor 50/2.8 or Beseler Color Pro 50/2.8 ?

Thanks,
Brad

[Jan Pedersen]

Don't have a Beseler lens but have the 50/2.8 Nikon and i highly doubt that the Beseler will equal the Nikons performance. Believe the Nikon is one of the best performers in the 50mm group

[Donald Qualls]

Will one of these cover 4x5, even enlarging to a 4x5 print?

[Mark Sampson]

The EL-Nikkor, at least, will only cover 35mm- I agree that it's a very good lens. Few, if any, enlarging lenses shorter than 135mm will cover a 4x5 neg. A question to ask would be, "who actually manufactured the Beseler lens?". It's likely that Beseler marketed someone else's lens under their own name; or specified a lens design made elsewhere; not unlike Vivitar, etc.

[Jim Jones]

I've used several Nikkor 50/2.8 lenses over the past 40 years, and consider all of them excellent. Long ago one was in the four sharpest out of about 35 camera and enlarging lenses in a quick, but critical, test. The others were the Nikkor GN 45/2.8, Elmar 50/2.8, and Micro Nikkor 55/3.5. Even a couple of Summicron 50/2 lenses lagged slightly behind.

[ic-racer]

I have used a Nikkor 50mm 2.8 for about 20 years. The only times I cannot use it are when doing 16x20 full frame enlargements of 35mm. The lens was not designed for this high of magnification, and the sharp field of focus becomes very curved. At this magnification one can either focus on the corners or the center. Per my tests and factory specs, the Nikkor has an optimum flat field at magnifications of 8x10 and smaller. When I got my APO Componon-S High Magnificaiton Schnieider, I did not chuck the Nikkor; I kept it around because it works great at those smaller magnifications.

[Shen45]

The Beseler Color Pro 50/2.8 will easily be the equal of the Nikon. I've had the 5x4 version and it easily equalled the performance of any lens I put against it.

If you have both then you are very lucky - they will have different characteristics other than sharpness. One will possibly suit particular subjects better than the other.

[dominikus bw]

Both are better lens.
I have Nikkor 50/2.8 and Componon-s 50/2.8, both are exellent lens for 35mm.
I've test those lens in black & white negatives, and the result is equal except the componon-s 50/2.8 is sharper in the corner at wide aperture f 2.8, stop down to f 5.6-11 I can't see any difference.