Schneider or Rodenstock Enlarging Lens?

[DREW WILEY]

I really prefer something longer than "normal" per format. You'll get better field illumination and probably better
definition near the corners, esp at relatively wide apertures. Something like 105 would be better than 75 in this respect. But forty inches is huge for medium format. A mural lens like Rodagon G might be appropriate, though it
would be an inferior performer at ordinary scales of magnification (it's a specialty enlarging lens, not a general
purpose one). Just depends how fussy you are and what you can spend. Think I'd rather have a 105 Apo Rodagon N instead of a G, just for the greater versatility. But even ordinary El Nikkors or Rodagons will do a pretty decent job, if you can't locate one of the Apo ones.

[DREW WILEY]

PS - washing large prints is easy if you find or make an oversize tray and locate one of those old
fashioned Kodak tray siphon attachments. They work very well for one print at a time. But there are
analogous ways to do it inexpensively.

[PKM-25]

Thanks again Drew, I will take a look around for that lens. They might even have it at the rental darkroom.

[NB23]

PS - washing large prints is easy if you find or make an oversize tray and locate one of those old
fashioned Kodak tray siphon attachments. They work very well for one print at a time. But there are
analogous ways to do it inexpensively.

I have access to a Zone VI 20x24 washer that makes washing FB and RC prints practically a joke. But at that size, one can manage very little FB prints. It's time and space consuming.
Washing anything larger then 20x24 in RC is easy: A hose and some space.
But FB is another story: washing huge FB prints one by one (one hour each), add toning for archival standards (another half-hour), then careful handling to avoid creases (half an hour overall), then dry them flat, well, it quickly becomes a millionaire's game.

To me, 16x20 FB is the maximum "easily" manageable size, or 20x24 if we're talking RC just because it dries quickly and washes in 10 minutes.

All in all, good luck in your endeavors. Try not to go mad

[clayne]

Bathtub soaking? Seems like semi frequent agitation and loose overlapping in a bathtub might get 80% of the way there.

[PKM-25]

For my own mural darkroom in the future, I'm sure I will come up with something slick for washing, I always do well at figuring it all out. For now, the rental darkroom has what it takes to deal with these monsters.

I love problems because I love solving them.

Drew, where the heck does one locate a 105mm Rodagon G? Is it just the non-Apo version of the lens and is it F/4, 5.6....?

[darkroom_rookie]

(...) where the heck does one locate a 105mm Rodagon G? Is it just the non-Apo version of the lens and is it F/4, 5.6....?

F5.6 and isn't particularly sharp below 10x magnification, but absolutely essential for 20x-30x blowups from medium format. You can get it from Munich. Used, of course.

[PKM-25]

F5.6 and isn't particularly sharp below 10x magnification, but absolutely essential for 20x-30x blowups from medium format. You can get it from Munich. Used, of course.

Munich, no idea where or what that is other than a city, any links?

[PKM-25]

This is incredibly troubling...a site that has many thousands of threads of all kinds of things but when it comes down to how one can professionally print a mural from 120 film in terms of a lens that will hold up and that I can *actually* buy and there is just no answer.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Bob Salomon can probably tell you where to find a Rodagon G. You can contact him at HP Marketing, which is the US distributor for Rodenstock.