Wrey Copy Lens - f 10, 12" for Enlarging 8x10

[neil poulsen]

Is anyone familiar with this lens? The lens is coated. Is it possible to use t his lens for enlarging 8x10 negatives?

[neil poulsen]

It may be spelled "Wray".

[Struan Gray]

I have an 18" Wray APO process Lustrar which I was told by the seller was sucessfully used for enlarging 10x8. When I was researching the purchase I found this from Michael Gudzinowicz on usenet:

From: bg174@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Gudzinowicz) Newsgroups: rec.photo.equipment.large-format Subject: Re: Wray Copy Lens Date: 14 Mar 2000 15:16:46 GMT Jess4203 <jess4203@aol.com> wrote: :-I saw a Wray 12" Copy Lens today very reasonable. Looked like :-it might cover close to 90 degrees. Does anyone know if such a :-lens would be useable on 8x10,and/or as an enlarging lens for :-8x10? For enlargements, I plan to do 11x14 to 16x20 prints :-from 8x10. Wray made a 6/2 wide angle copy lens (f/6.8) which was labeled both as a "Copy" and "W. A. Copy" lens. The specs indicate 70 degree coverage, but older specs for another f/6.8 Wray 6/2 design, indicate 90 degrees. That would be more or less consistent with a Dagor clone. They also made a f/6.3 "Copy" lens which was a 4/4 design covering 60 degrees. Any of those lenses in a 12" (305 mm) focal length should cover 8x10 (60 degrees = 354 mm IC) and you could use them as enlarging lenses. However, 12" is a bit long, and you might want to check your enlarger's dimensions to see if it would work. The carrier to easel distance required would be: focal_length * (2 + 1/M + M) where M is the negative to print magnification. For an 11x14, you'd require 49.4"; for a 16x20, 54". The bellows extension is focal_length * (1 + 1/M), or 20.6" for the 11x14 and 18" for the 16x20.

Michael is one of those posters on usenet who gets his facts right, so I don't think you'd have any problems using this lens.

For what it's worth, Wray was a premium U.K. lens maker, and their longer process lenses are often bargains because people don't recognise the name.

[Wayne]

I think there are probably a lot of unknown gems out there in the process lens category. I was researching another unknown, Brown Manufacturing Process lenses, and learned that they were also Goerz clones, probably Artars. They may even have been made by Goerz, which would make them not even a clone, although that is not certain. Anyway the Wray's seems like a reputable product. http://www.spie.org/web/oer/january/jan00/wynne.html