Messing around - Comparon 150 / 5.6 in shutter

[Farside]

The humble S-K Comparon, cheaper alternative to the Componon, which graced many a home darkroom over the past forty years or so, comes in a nice little barrel. I'd bought one a couple of years ago to mount in barrel in the front of the Ihagee focal-plane Zweiverschluss 9x12, but it lay forgotten for a while.
Until tonight, when I was struck by a notion, inspired by reading that many of the 50s-onwards enlarger lenses from S-K were designed to fit one shutter or another, because some of them were supplied that way to the graphics trade.
A bit of fiddling around, and it turns out it does - it fits a Copal #0, or the Prontor-S, the latter was found lurking on the front of an Agfa Record II which had been a shelf queen for ages because of bellows leaks.
The cells fitted nicely into the shutter and aperture settings are about a stop out - but no big deal as long as I remember that when using it.
I don't expect too much from it, because it was optimised for 4x to 8x enlargement from what I read and infinity will likely be so-so, but it was interesting nonetheless. I get a full ground glass coverage from it, but in the absence of full daylight I can't really see what coverage there really is, to allow for movements. Probably not a lot.
At the moment, it's filling the hole in the front of the MPP, as the lensboard that came with that is pierced by a hole that's exactly the right size.
Handily enough, the front cell of the Comparon takes a filter thread of 34x0.5mm and a rummage around my box of hoods yielded a natty little grey Heliopan hood that complements it nicely.

[iangreenhalgh1]

It's a Tessar type so the image circle will probably be around 165mm diameter. It should shoot just fine at infinity, I've not tried a Comparon at infinity myself, but I have shot several other Tessar type enlarging lenses at infinity and they worked perfectly fine.

You're lucky to have had a 6x9 folder with a #0 shutter as a lot of them are smaller. I happen to have a Componon-S 5.6/100 mounted in a Prontor-S that I use on my 6x9, the Prontor came from a Balda folder.

[Farside]

Took it out for its first try-out today, in the somewhat vain hope of capturing some decent autumn colours before the wind/rain dash everything to the ground.
The optical performance seems ok for now, at least on the ground glass, and the image circle is adequate for full-frame 4x5, but it remains to be seen once processing happens.
I fired off a few 6x9 in the same session, and they should be fine.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Look foward to seeing them. If it's not so hot, I think you can probably adjust it so it will be as I am pretty sure the difference between a normal Tessar and one optimised for enlarging/close-up is merely the spacing of the front elements.

[Farside]

Some samples. Negs were a bit thin, leading to muddy mid-tones and were possibly a bit under-developed too. Main thing is the medium distance sharpness, as shown on the gate shot; longer distance detail is compromised by the awful processing, so it's not an accurate assessment yet.
Ignore the emulsion flaws on this GP3; it's not perfect but it's cheap enough for messing around with.
All shot supposedly around f:16 or f:22. In actuality, they were likely shot at f:22 and f:32 respectively.

1. Focus was on the square box like thing in the medium distance.


2. Focus was on the middle of the gate.


3. Focus was on the sunlit wall.


It's not too bad for a cheapy, but I will have to attend to more accurate setting of the aperture scale and simply watch my positioning with regards to flare, etc. These were all taken with a decent small hood and even so, flare was a problem that was starting to show itself in couple of others.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Looks promising, that gate shot looks good to me, nice and sharp, plenty of detail.

[RSalles]

[iangreenhalgh1]

That would be a good idea Renato.

Tessar types are very useful, even old uncoated ones.

The problem comes with finding shutters, while the lenses are very cheap, shutters aren't.

For this reason, Schneider lenses are more sought after because they come in cells threaded to fit standard Compur/Copal/Prontor sizes, whereas the equally good Rodenstock and Staeble/Agfa lenses don't.

To give you an example, I have both the Schneider G-Claron 9/150 and Rodenstock APO-Gerogon 9/150 lenses, both cover 5x7 and shoot acceptably well at distance stopped down, despite being process lenses. The G-Claron cells are a direct fit into a #0 shutter, whereas the Gerogon cells need adapters machining to fit a larger #1 shutter. A #0 shutter is easy to find as a lot of 6x6 and 6x9 folders had them, therefore the G-Claron 9/150 is very popular for 4x5 and 5x7 shooters as they can cheaply put it in a shutter.

I just bought this Kodak Vollenda 620 for the shutter. I feel a bit bad about removing it as the camera is a nice German made art deco model with an Anastigmat lens that is probably a Tessar type, but I need the shutter for my G-Claron 9/150.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kodak-Vollenda-620-Medium-Format-Film-Camera-/181243695772?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=sihbC4DNdiNso5%252FGOkob7gRERc8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

[RSalles]

Ian,

Great find yours, a 0 Compur shutter for £5.50 is a steal...

I'll drop an word to Attila to ask him if is there a meaning to open the forum session, we have already a Lens Sticky and a Cine lens sub-forums, a MF & LF lens area would be great.

Cheers,

Renato

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Renato, I just hope it's actually got standard #0 threads. I have a Compur from a 1930s Kodak 616 folder that has standard #0 thread in front but slightly smaller in the back, and another 1930s Compur that holds a Bausch & Lomb Tessar and that appears to be the same - standard #0 in front but slightly smaller in the back. So I have two perfectly good Compurs that I can't use, other than with their original lenses. The Kodak tessar type Anastigmat 124mm is really crappy though, soft at all apertures. Not tried the B&L 114mm yet, the shutter speeds are slow.

[RSalles]

Ian,

Word sent to Attila already,

Can't the Compurs you own have the back opened/rethreaded to fit?
These are the moments which I think about to purchase a Sinar Compur manual shutter, the behind the lens type, or at least a leaf shutter to try out some lenses. I'm thinking about a barrel lens with aperture ring but without shutter,


For a novice in LF like me, is there a way to know in advance if a lens will fit a given shutter, or it's more complex than that?

[]s,

Renato

[iangreenhalgh1]

A Sinar shutter would be a great idea, only thing stopping me getting one is my 5x7 camera is an 1897 Lancaster Instantograph and I don't want to modify it to fit the Sinar shutter to it.

I'm not sure if the Compurs could be rethreaded, possibly.

It's difficult to know what will fit a shutter and what won't, it's usually best to assume they won't fit. As far as I know only Schneider and Berthiot tended to make lenses that fitted, although some lenses from some other makers will, but most won't.