Wollensak Enlarger 105/4.5 on bellows

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

Its not an innovation to use an enlarger lens as a camera lens on bellows. These tend to be excellent lenses, even if a bit slow and optimized for close-up work. I would say though that some at least are quite good as all-around lenses also.

I have a little gem of an enlarger lens, a Wollensak 101/4.5, easily available for trivial expense. I mounted this on an M42 body cap for easy attachment to my bellows. Here is the little thing next to my Ilex Paragon -

Some of its work -

Fotal · Expire: 2013-08-21

excellent photos!
Do you have a pic of the lens mounted too?

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

nice shots Luis!
what are those Kodak adapter
how do you mount the lens on a m42 body cap, did you glue it
do you still hope to find something better than Schneider, Meopta, El-Nikkor and Rodenstock ?

Helios · Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 537 Location: East of France

Amazing pictures .... I started this "lens hacking" 35 years ago with a Zeiss Novar anastigmat 6,3/105 which was surprisingly excellent ! Followed by Tessar 4,5/135 (Plate camera), enlarging lenses from Schneider, Rodenstock , El-Nikkor, Industar-23 4,5/110 . The main problem is to find a decent sunshade , these lenses are generally prone to huge flare... One of my best "adaptation" is a Lacour-Berthiot f/6 100mm 6 elements symmetrical from an old stereo camera (coverage circle about 100mm). Found on flea market for $1 . Totally dismounted and cleaned up , it is a pleasure for itself !
Old "dead" foldings can start a second life . Bests results : Rodagon 5,6/80 on helical mount . Equivalent to the smc_takumar 4/100.

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

Amazing results!!!

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Very nice results, never tried these enlarging or graphic Raptars (I have a set), since I did not expect much from them - you proved the opposite! So I have to bring them in service I guess....Thanks!

Cheers,

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

The lens is mounted on a body cap. It came, luckily, with a flange ring, normally used to mount it on a lens board - many enlargers used lens boards, like large format cameras. Because the lens is so small the drilled body cap is just like a tiny lens board.

On other lenses like this Bausch&Lomb from an old Rochester plate camera I just screw the thread at the back of the lens into the right size hole in the body cap -

The adapter, filter holder and hood are standard Series VI items made by Kodak. The "Series XX" system is an obsolete standard for filters and lens accessories, which was almost universal in the US several decades ago, before the metric threads from Germany and Japan took over. The sizes increased with the series number - Series VII was bigger than series VI, etc. Filters were not threaded - they went into a filter holder, and were held in place by the next ring in the series.

The slip-on type of adapter (in different sizes) was very common for all kinds of cameras before the 1950's. They came in English units (1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8", 1 3/4", etc.). The tabs on the adapter are a little flexible and can be bent to adjust for small variations on the outside dimension of the lens.

Wollensak was probably the most common brand of enlarger lens in the US market, as it was a US company.

Fotal · Expire: 2013-08-21

great description, thanks

shad309 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 453 Location: Illinois, USA

Awesome! Now I know how to mount some lenses to my bellows. I was going to try and make lens boards to fit. Not anymore!!! I am heading down to my workshop to do surgery now Twisted Evil

Laurence · Expire: 2016-06-19

Wonderful! Did you apply threads to the opening in the body cap, or did you simply push the lens into the opening?

Just GREAT!