Best lenses for Omega B-22

[Mike Kennedy]

A great yard sale find for $20.00. Came with 2 Rodenstock Omegar lenses,50mm & 75mm. Are there better quality lenses around that would fit the B-22?

Thanks

[craigclu]

Had one of the B-22's many years back and liked it very much. Pause after touching the head as it will vibe for awhile. A 6 element El-Nikkor, Rodagon or Schneider would be a good match-up for your machine and nice examples are quite affordable now. Your Omegars are likely 4 element Rodenstock-sourced and are quite sufficient for smaller prints but I would promote getting a notch up in glass to make enlargements more gratifying to produce.

[Nick Zentena]

Almost anything you'd want to use should fit. 39mm LTM mounts. I'm assuming the two you've currently got are on 39mm lensboards. Yes?

[pnance]

I tested the 75mm Rodenstock against a 75mm Nikkor and a old Kodak Ektar 75mm. Surprisingly, to me, the Rodenstock was the winner, sharper at f/4.5 and f/16 than the others. It also had the best accuracy of f/stop. (Test procedure was a 4x5 print made from the corner at max height of enlarger)

[raucousimages]

To make a long story short I started with Rogonar (same as Omegar) and was never happy with the results. I switched to Rodenstock Rodagon and was very happy.

[k_jupiter]

With the price of enlarging lens what they are today, the minimum you should be using is a Componon-S or a Nikon 50/2.8. I have a Nikon 50/4.0 that isn't worth the cost of shipping. And it's at least as good as your Omega/Rodenstock.
With that enlarger, did you receive the supplementary condensor for printing 35mm? It evens out the light with those small negatives.

tim in san jose

[Mike Kennedy]

Yes I did get the supplementary condenser.
The enlarger was actually packaged in it's origional box with all the paper work.

[Neanderman]

What format do you shoot most (or are likely to adopt in the future?) If you shoot mostly 35mm and some 2 1/4 x 2 1/4, get a good, 6 element 80 mm and use it for both. It will somewhat limit the size of enlargement for 35mm, but you'll also be using the sharper, center portion of the lens.

If you shoot a lot of 2 1/4 x 2 1/4, get a good, 6 element 105mm. Again, the longer than 'normal' focal length lens will limit your size of enlargement a bit, but you'll be using the center of the lens.

I favor Rodagons, but a Componon-S or El-Nikkor will be comparable.

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

What format do you shoot most (or are likely to adopt in the future?) If you shoot mostly 35mm and some 2 1/4 x 2 1/4, get a good, 6 element 80 mm and use it for both. It will somewhat limit the size of enlargement for 35mm, but you'll also be using the sharper, center portion of the lens.

... And negating any theoretical sharpness enhancement by bigger vibrations in the enlarger column due to the need to set the head higher.

[Mike Kennedy]

About 80% of my worh is 35mm.