Kodak Enlarging Ektars

[iangreenhalgh1]

A couple of these beautiful 1950s Enlarging Ektars found their way to me, a 4.5/75 and a 4.5/105. These things ooze quality, they are incredibly heavy for their size, solid chromed brass, both are coated with L in circle symbol and nice clean glass.

I tried the 75mm first, I stuck it on a set of bellows on my NEX-3. It wouldn't focus to infinity but I tried a few close-ups, all wide open. The lens renders beautifully, sharp and well corrected for CA and with a terriffic smoothness. It's a 5 element Heliar/Dynar type, as is the 100mm. No PP on these shots, just resize for web.

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[skullsroad]

Oh my. I like the OOF area. Pics of the lenses?

[ForenSeil]

Not bad They work better as taking lenses than I expected.
Reminds me a lot to Rodenstock Trinar 75/4.5, which is a triplett though

[Nesster]

Great result! Mine are much larger ones, unfortunately. But there's nothing to sneeze at with these. *Maybe* they are optimized for closer focus than their regular counterparts. I would think so. But they are so satisfying to use, and your pics show it.

[danfromm]

Ian wrote:

[iangreenhalgh1]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I do enjoy using odd lenses on bellows. This 75mm one has a small screw thread and is a pretty tiny item so I mounted it onto the M39 bellows using a generous amount of blu-tak.

I'll snap some pics of the lenses tomorrow.

Thanks for the data Dan. Looking at the lens as a whole, it looks like a dialyte to me, 8 reflections in total, four in the front, four in the back. They are all pretty much the same brightness, which is how my Schneider C-Claron 4.5/135 Dialyte looks too. I knew the 4.5/75 was a Heliar, I just assumed the 4.5/100 was too. Oh well, so much for assumptions...

The thread on the 100mm happens to be 40mm in diameter, but it's an imperial thread pitch. The front of the Polaroid MP-4 #1 shutter I have is 40x0.75mm (if memory serves me correctly) so I tried to screw the Ektar into the shutter. It actually screws in a little, just far enough to hold very firmly so to my delight, without any need of ersatz solutions to front mounting such as blu-tak, I can shoot this lens on my Century Graphic.

[kds315*]

I have a whole box of these I got from a friend long time ago, many different focal lengths, but would assume
they are dialytes/heliar type estimated from reflections, came from a PRO printer that closed doors a while ago.
Unfortunately the threads are non-metric and you know how lost we poor Europeans are about that... har.

Nice shots, shows indeed how great that was what KODAK has developed back then.

P.S.: Even better are the Printing Ektars, I also have. Heavy and fantastic glass and excellent results!
Here some examples (link as I don't want to hijack this thread):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kds315/sets/72157627960653158/

[RAART]

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kodak_lenses

[Nesster]

Gentlemen, I refer you to Kodak themselves:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nesster/sets/72157626888768850/

[Minolfan]

What a nice documantation Jussi!

[iangreenhalgh1]

Many thanks Jussi. This is the page with the info:



The 3 inch and 4 inch Ektars are what I have, just mine are Kodak UK so they are marked 75 and 100mm. They look identical to the pictures in the brochure though. Handily Kodak show the prescriptions and the 4 inch is indeed a dialyte.

[danfromm]

Not to denigrage Nesster's efforts, but Brian Wallen did the same and more years ago. I've always found navigating on his site difficult, but it is well worth exploring. See http://www.bnphoto.org/

[luisalegria]

Thanks for posting that; I see my 7 1/2" in there. I have used it as a taking lens for 6x9.

[Ray Parkhurst]

I have a 108mm f/4.5 Color Printing Ektar that imparts that same "smooth look". I got it from Surplus Shed, I think for about $10 but now I see they are $19. They are a very basic-looking lens, threaded M39.5 on outside barrel. Here is the link:

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/l3697.html

[iangreenhalgh1]

Great discussion, thanks for all the input guys.

Luis, can you check your 7.5 Ektanon and see whether the reflections say Tessar or Dialyte. A local shop has one for 10ukp and I've ummed and ahhed about it, would need to hang it in front of a shutter I think as I doubt the cells go in a shutter easily. I know the Kodak manual says Tessar but I've read reports that swear it is a dialyte and a mightily sharp one at that. Do you have any 6x9 image samples you could post?

Ray, many thanks for that link, all the times I've searched the shed for goodies and I've never found that Ektar.

They have a UK agent now so I think I will buy one of those Ektars. I can hang it in front of my apertureless #1 Copal.

[luisalegria]

Hi Ian,

There may have been more than one version.
Mine is certainly a Tessar, I have had it apart.

Middle series on this thread has some with the Ektanon.

http://forum.mflenses.com/rb-graflex-slr-with-elgeet-10-t35438,highlight,%2Bgraflex.html

I have had various problems with registration and film flatness on the Graflex, so the lens may not be all that relevant to what I managed to get.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Ektar 100mm on the Century Graphic. It screws far enough into the front of the #1 to be secure which is a stroke of good luck.

[iangreenhalgh1]

[philslizzy]

Someone outbid me the other day on ebay for one of these, a 75mm if I remember correctly. Bugger

[iangreenhalgh1]

They are pretty common so keep looking, pretty cheap too.

[iangreenhalgh1]

After several days of endless rain I managed to try the Ektar 100mm very briefly today on my Century Graphic.

This was at f16, looks like it shoots pretty well to me, compares very well in sharpness to my Xenar 3.5/105.



Now I've proved it works on 6x9 I'll make some more meaningful shots with it.

[iangreenhalgh1]

A couple of more meaningful shots. First is wide open, second is f16. Lens is impressively sharp, deserves to be shot with some better film than this Kodak x-ray stuff.

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[alex ph]

I re-read this thread with a great interest. Such a pitty that many images are gone. I own a UK 50mm Enlarging Ektar without aperture blades. Very small, I'd say tiny, barely a small metal cylinder with a copper circle inside making the aperture fixed to f4.5. Need to try an adaptation before testing it. And wonder if I may remove the inside circle to experiment with open aperture, I guess, it is around f2.8.

There are moments when you find virtually no good deal with Ektars on ebay, as they are rated at around 70-100 $/eur. But now is a favourable moment. I see now a 50mm Ektar at 16$, though a postage from US annihilates it to me. There anoter Ektar 53mm, twice as more, still affordable, and looking more exotic. Back again transatlantic postage. And aside Heliar-type, another nice looking 125mm one at 22$ gives envy. I'd say it's a moment for US dwellers to catch a good opportunity.

[itsfozzy]

As is so often the case after seeing something written about an uncommon lens, I've just picked up an Ektar 75/4.5. Looks like it will be worth cleaning up and giving it a go before I sell it

[itsfozzy]

I still haven't tried this lens, so I thought I'd take a closer look at it today. It has a 30mm thread, but I do not know how to identify the thread pitch. Would anyone know the thread pitch for this lens or could help me to work out what it is?