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Thread: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

  1. #21

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    Re: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Ron View Post
    Leica thread mount

    Just be sure you get the condensers.
    And the lens is for the size film you want to print and for the range of magnifications that you want to print.
    Most modern enlarging lenses from 35mm to 135mm are LTM.

  2. #22

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    Re: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    What lens?
    It's a Soviet Industar 135mm... I forget the exact name of the lens but it was the most common enlarger lens in Russia and Ukraine back in the day... or so I've been told. It's in mint condition and unlike most of the Russian glass I've seen, it doesn't have bad gas bubbles.

  3. #23
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    Re: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

    A 135mm should work for 4x5 (I prefer a 150mm but you can't print as large due to the longer throw). I have no opinion or experience with Russian enlarger optics but these days you can get any standard enlarger lens on eBay for cheap.

    I have a whole complement of EL-Nikkors from 50 to 150mm and am perfectly happy with them. I no more than $100 for each of them, with many of them simply gifted, including a new-in-box 105mm EL Nikkor for free.

    The "LTM" lenses are M39, fairly standard but they don't work on Leica threadmount cameras so not really LTM . The lens boards I have for my Beselers are all just like 4x5 cameras - a simple hole drilled that accepts enlarger lenses with a jam nut or flange.
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  4. #24

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    Re: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

    Post script to this thread:

    I went back and it was a 23C II (not XL), which is not a true large format enlarger, so I won't discuss it at any length here. I did manage to secure a discount, despite past experience telling me that this man does not haggle, and took it home quite satisfied. I do enough 35mm to justify it.

    I see in the manual that a 50mm lens is standard for most small prints with 35mm, and I'm looking into actually using the Industar 26m 55/2.8 off my FED-2 as a starter lens--I've read that back when good glass was a luxury, they first made enlarger lensboards with the m39 mount so that you could use your bank-breaking Leitz Elmar or whatever as both taking lens and enlarging lens. But that's a subject for a different forum.

  5. #25

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    Re: Is it worth it to buy this Beseler enlarger?

    Quote Originally Posted by RLangham View Post
    Post script to this thread:

    I went back and it was a 23C II (not XL), which is not a true large format enlarger, so I won't discuss it at any length here. I did manage to secure a discount, despite past experience telling me that this man does not haggle, and took it home quite satisfied. I do enough 35mm to justify it.

    I see in the manual that a 50mm lens is standard for most small prints with 35mm, and I'm looking into actually using the Industar 26m 55/2.8 off my FED-2 as a starter lens--I've read that back when good glass was a luxury, they first made enlarger lensboards with the m39 mount so that you could use your bank-breaking Leitz Elmar or whatever as both taking lens and enlarging lens. But that's a subject for a different forum.
    Your taking lens is optimized for a certain reproduction range that reduces the size of the subject to reproduce on the film. Usually at a ratio of 1:20 or 1:10.

    An enlarging lens is optimized to magnify that piece of film to a larger size. Exactly the opposite of what that taking lens was designed to do.

    To properly use your taking lens to perform optimally as an enlarging lens it should be reversed mounted on the lens board of the enlarger. This may be difficult or impossible to do.

    Good enlarging lenses today are very affordable used.

    But to get the best performance from any enlarger you need a glass negative carrier and the enlarger must be properly, and critically, aligned.

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