What did you do with your high end enlarging lenses?

[Vickko]

What did you do with your high end enlarging lenses? Oh, after you moved away from wet enlarging.

I bet you had a bunch of them.

Did you mount them for bellows or closeup usage?

Did you mount them with shutters for large format usage?

What else (other than sell them)?

regards
Vick

 

[Wahoo]

I bet you had a bunch of them.

Definitely more than a dozen still, Ysaron's, Rodagon's, Schneider Componon's and my all time favorite the" El-Nikkor f3.5 63mm" and all are, as new.

 

[MartinP]

I put them on lens carriers and use them every week in my enlarger.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Enlarge pictures...

Cheers,

R.

 

[Steinberg2010]

Eh? I put mine on my enlarger and like...enlarge things?!

~S

P.S. Sorry just being silly – I know what you mean...

 

[Vics]

I put them on lens carriers and use them every week in my enlarger.

Ditto. EL Nikkor 50mm and 75mm.

 

[sykotec]

I'm actually LOOKING for a good (or better) 150mm - 135mm works for 4x5, but not ideal.

That said, other than a second-choice spare for each format I use, anything else goes onto old small and medium format enlargers that tend to come my way, then sold dirt cheap locally once they're in good working order. Even if it's not something I'll be using, I do NOT like seeing this stuff get trashed as it has been.

 

[sykotec]

Sorry, didn't answer the spirit of the question too well.... honestly, I've never found it more than a novelty to do anything but maybe macro (which I just don't really do) with enlarging lenses on a camera. Too much nice glass that works better for normal photography when I've got the time.

 

[Dwig]

What did you do with your high end enlarging lenses? Oh, after you moved away from wet enlarging...

I sold them with the rest of my darkroom gear. That was about a decade ago.

I had used them, my 50 f/2.8 EL-Nikkor on 35mm and my 150 f/5.6 Vivitar-VHE on 4x5, as macro/closeup lenses in the past, but didn't hold on to any for later use on digital. I did keep the 35mm Olympus true macro for the purpose. Its in RMS tread mount (microscope objective style) and I've adapted it to LTM for further adaptation to Nikon F and m43.

 

[taylan]

I haven't moved away wet printing yet, but unfortunately I don't have a legendary 🙁

 

[loquax ludens]

I just bought a 150mm EL-Nikkor. I have three other EL-Nikkors, a Schneider Componon-S, and a Kodak Projection Ektar, all regularly used. Plus a Beseler 25mm. The 63mm f/2.8 EL-Nikkor is what I was using this morning.

 

[Chris101]

I still use my 75mm f/4 EL Nikkor, and 50mm f/3.5 Beslar in my C23II. But I no longer shoot 4x5, so I put the 135mm f/5.6 Componon-S to work else-how:

 

[nikon_sam]

My first enlarging lens was/is an EL-Nikkor 50mm f4...I still have it but it's been put away in it's original bubble and box...
I have a Rokkor-X 50mm 2.8 that came with a Beseler 23C II...it's been mounted for another enlarger I have...
I have two Rodenstock Rodagons...a 105mm and a 135mm that I bought years ago...I've had the 105 mounted for the Beseler but now I'm using an 80mm Rodagon I got from an RFF member...
I've never used the Rodagon 135mm 5.6...I've thought of selling it but just haven't gotten around to doing it...

 

[sepiareverb]

I use 'em too. Recently gotten some even better ones as well.

 

[Dan95]

In the past few months I bought a 50, 80, 105, 2x135 EL Nikkors. All to be used as... You guessed it, enlarging lenses.

 

[Ronald M]

They make good macro lenses. Probably terrible ++ at infinity

 

[Ronald_H]

I only have a few, and they are not exotic in any way. They were just mounted on the dumped enlargers that ended up at my place. And I use them only for their intended purpose.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

I didn't have many. Then when the prices went to the floor, I bought a couple of really good ones for macro work on a bellows.

 

[davidphillip]

Mmmm, I've left them on the turret of my Durst Laborator and use them for their intended purpose.

 

[Vickko]

As a followup, I now have a working darkroom. The "better" lenses are being used as enlarger lenses. I found crud haze and junk in some of the lenses, and they are now loupes. A 135mm lens is a wonderful loupe, because of its long focal distance.