Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Friends, So we have heard a lot about the famous Leitz Focotar-2* 50/4.5 enlarging lens (originally designed for the Focomat IC enlarger, if I am not mistaken), reputedly (to many users) one of the best enlarging lens on planet earth, if not the very best. I successfully bidded for one (which cost me almost an arm and a leg ;), maybe not that bad) on Ebay recently and on the same day upon receiving this venerable lens, put it to the test against my workhorse, the Rodenstock APO-Rodagon 50/2.8. Tested against itself, I printed two shots of the same negative of a pic taken on a tripod and which I am sure is sharp. Except for a tad of roundness, the pic printed at f4.5 was practically as sharp as one printed at f8 with the Focotar-2. My conclusion: it is perfectly acceptable to use the EL wide open if necessary and I will still like the results. Tested at f8. On eyeballing, I could not tell the difference between the pic (6x9 inch enlargenment to get the full frame on a 35mm neg) printed with the Focotar compared with my Apo-Rodagon. Use a 4x loupe and see. Aha! At the centre of the frame, no difference. At the edge, the Apo-Rodagon binded the grain together better than the Focotar-2. My conclusion - Apo is Apo and for critical work, it is still the preferred lens to use. One interesting observation. While the pictures on eyeballing appear equal in sharpness, there is an endearing quality produced with the Focotar-2. To put in another way, if I shuffled and mixed the two batches up and then decide which are the pictures which appealed more to me (from a purely human point of view), I'd pick the ones done with the Focotar-2 most of the time. I think there is something "extra" there....which can be overlooked if one delved too seriously at measurable entities and then missed the forest for the trees. Leica mystique? You bet! Dan K. * Not counting the current Focotar 40/2,8 for the V35, there are (please correct me if I am wrong) three generations of Focotars produced by leitz. The first has markings visible from the front. The second has the words "Focotar" engraved at the side of the barrel. The last has "Focotar-2" engraved on the side. All have a max. aperture of f4.5. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html