moots
Hello and good day!
I’ve just noticed there’s a great new forum here.
I’m sure I’ll be able to annoy a few old hands with my beginner’s questions
here.
I bought a Durst M 35 from a friend at a bargain price
over the weekend.
What should I make of this lens: “Durst Neotaron 2.8/50 made by
Rodenstock”? I shoot with a Nikon FE 2 and mainly use the
1.8/50 Nikkor and all the E-series lenses; I mainly want to enlarge portraits and landscape shots up to 20 x 30 mm.
As I’m still missing a few bits and pieces and need to sort out my junk room
first, it’ll be another 2–3 weeks before I can post the first
and might even be able to get hold of a better lens.
But I reckon even if the Durst is only a 3-lens unit, it’ll do the job.
Many thanks for your comments.
Jürgen !
P.S. I’m not a complete beginner, it’s just that I haven’t been
in a darkroom for over 15 years.
Gast
Hello!
For "enlargements up to 20 x 30 mm", your only problem will probably be the ultra-short exposure time; contact printing would seem easier to me in that case... ;-)
Seriously though, a three-element lens should just about do the job up to 20x30, but for anything larger I’d go for at least a four-element, or better still a six-element lens; EL-Nikkors (which I use myself), Minolta Rokkors, Durst Neonone (manufactured by Pentax) or older Schneider/Rodenstock models (such as the 4/50 Componon, which I also own in the Durst-licensed version) are often available on eBay for as little as €20–30 and, for B&W and ‘standard’ image formats, are likely to be every bit as good as the current Rodagons and Componons!
Roman
Urnes
Hello,
I also think you should just give the lens a go and see if you get on with it or if there’s anything you’d like to improve. I’ve been working with an old 4.5 Leitz Focotar myself for the last few years and was quite happy with it, as most of my prints were 13 x 18 and 18 x 24. A while ago, I managed to get hold of a Schneider Coponon-S very cheaply and saw what it was really capable of. But as I said, I’ve seen that, and I wasn’t really unhappy with the quality all those years. :-))
Regards, Sven.
