What happens when you mount an enlarging lens on a camera?

ddimaria

ddimaria

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I came across a LTM 75/3.5 enlarging lens. My LTM to M adapter fits, can I actually take pictures with this thing?

Thanks
David
 
Yes, you can take pictures, but my guess is that you won't be able to change focus :)

Denis
 
Your pictures get larger, of course! (Get it? "Enlarger lens"..... larger pictures. Awwwww..... forget it!) :D

Walker - Tryin' to be funny - Smith
 
It's a 75, so they probably will. I'll just push some tri-x to 12400 and stop it down to f22 so I don't have to worry too much about the focus.
 
Here's what you do: screw the lens (set at widest aperture) onto the camera with no film loaded. Open the camera back, set the shutter to B, place a ground glass or substitute on the film gate and point the camera at a brightly lit object, and move the camera farther and closer to see where the focus is.
 
Well I just tried it with a Bessa R and a 50mm f2.8 Nikkor enlarging lens. With the lens screwed onto the body, the camera could not focus anything. When I held the ground glass back from the film gate a bit (1 or 2 cm, an image was formed on the ground glass. So, in order to work, the lens has to be held out farther away from the film plane than it is when screwed directly onto the body. Some kind of spacer is needed. This would be practical on an SLR camera but not a rangefinder camera because there is no focus/rangefinder cam on the back of the lens. With an SLR camera, you would be able to see on the focussing screen, when the lens is focussed on an object. A 75mm enlarger lens would require a greater distance between itself and the film plane. A macro bellows attachment on an SLR camera woudl be able to use an enlarging lens if the mating interfaces can be sorted out.
 
Thanks Frank, but I couldn't come up with a distance/ focused image that way.. What's even stranger is that using a black matte paper as my film plane , and pointing the lens at a lamp I get a 5 inch distance between lens and film plane to give me an in focus image. If I walk closer to the lamp it stays in focus but gets larger and vice versa. All the while the lens is the same distance from the 'film plane'. I am wondering if I add a five inch tube between the lens and the camera (very rough math) will I have a lens that keeps focus, at least from 2ft to 15ft?
 
It is best to use enlarger lenses with a Bellows on an SLR or on a Visoflex . They are good for macro work. I have some mounted on lens boards for the speed graphic. Hey! It is a Single lens Reflex -or at least TTL Viewing- with a Rangefinder! I have a 150mm F5.6 multicoated Nikkor with a mount and a Schneider 150 F5.6 in LTM.
 
I have a Vivitar 135mm enlarging lens mounted on a 3.25X4.25 Speed Graphic. I can't enlarge negatives that big, but I have scanned them and then enlarged. Quite acceptable photos.

-Paul
 
I'm currently using a Nikkor 50mm f2.8 enlarger lens in M39 on a macro bellows and macro rings on an old Zenit S. It works pretty good. But the better is to reverse the postion of the enlarger lens, for better results...
 
If I may step in the discussion...Besides the how-to-focus points discussed above:
Lenses for cameras are optimized at approx. 1:10 magnification ratio. Macro lenses are optimized for up to 1:1. Optimized meaning, they produce the best image at that magnification. You can put a lens on a bellows and produce high mag ration but the image degradation will make it worse.
OTOH, enlarging lenses are made to enlarge small negs 5x or 10x or even more, therefore they work best at 10:1 ratio. You CAN focus at infinity with them, if you can position the film plane freely, but the image will probably suck.
Worth experimenting, i guess, but don't expect a Nikkor enlarging lens to give the image quality of a photographic Nikkor...
 
By the way, the rule with focusing is simple: the closer you focus the further the film plane has to be.This is valid nop matter what kind of positive lens assembly you have.
 
Pherdi: Most lenses are optimized for much smaller ratios: closer to infinity. 1:10 means the object that you are photographing is 10"x15", with a 24mmx36mm negative. The Micro-Nikkor 55mm F3.5 was optimized for 1:10. The Micro-Nikkor 55mm F2.8 used a floating element to change the optimal point as you got closer in.

BTW: I mounted the Canon 50mm F1.2 RF lens onto my F2AS using the Leica-to Nikon F adapter. I could get all of about 6" away from the subject, some small toys. This was just to test the effects of the (slightly) discolored Canada Balsam between the rear lens group. The pictures were fairly decent; especially considering that its minimum focus is 3.5'. must scan more...
 
Last edited:
you are right, of course, Brian. I should have said "photographic lenses are optimized to work at mag ratios up to 1:10" ...Sorry for being misleading. :bang:
 
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