Enlarging (and reducing) a 24" negative

calvinhobson · Joined: 19 Jun 2019 Posts: 3

Hi,

I have a huge negative, 14x24", that I have built an enlarger for to make several size prints, (omitting ratios; 5x7, 8x10, 11x17, and of course a 1:1 14x24)

The enlarger is just built enough to test 5x7 with two 4x5 taking lenses that I have on hand (190mm Ektar 5.6, and an Aero Ektar 2.5). The image was very crisp but the edges were out of limits of the lenses I chose.

My question is: What lens should I be seeking out?

I'm way ahead of myself on this project so I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks for your time!

-Calvin

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I'm far from an expert on this, but I'll pass along comments I recall that were made by a friend who was a large format nut. He especially liked Goerz lenses -- his favorites were Dagors, but he liked the Artars as well. As I dimly recall, the Dagors are wide angles and the Artars tend to be telephotos. What he especially liked about the old Dagors was their very large image circle, which allowed him quite a bit of movements with his cameras. They also gave him sufficient coverage for large format panoramic cameras he also shot with, which had very large negatives.

Now, I don't know if this will be useful for you at all, but I thought I'd just toss it out there. Something to check out, at any rate. There's a lot of Dagors on eBay right now.

dan_ · Expire: 2016-12-19

My suggestions :
For an 1/1 print just make a contact print - no enlarger/lens is necessary.
For smaller formats you need a lens.
The Aero Ektar was an aerial lens and therefore it was intended for infinity focus. I don't think it will do a good job at small distances as an enlarger lens, but you should try it reversed mounted for a 5x7 reduction.
Your other lens, the 190mm f/5.6 Ektar could probably do the job for a 5x7 reduction if reversed mounted (film side facing the photographic paper). For a 11x17" reduction you'll probably need a ~500 mm normal lens from a 11x14" camera, reversed mounted as well.

Large format lenses were intended to be used with camera movements and therefore their covering circles could be significantly larger than normally expected. It means that other lenses with smaller FLs could do the job, too, if reversed mounted. But you'll need to test them yourself.

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

Enlarger lens? Process lens?