llhmontana Loc: staten island, new york

Does anyone know how to use enlarger lenses for macro photography on a bellows.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

You need the appropriate lens board for the bellows and lens thread. Keep in mind that good enlarging lenses are optimized for flat field projection (flat negative onto flat paper), and so are often thought to be ideal for photography of flat subjects, but perhaps not as good for subjects with depth. Still, if you have the lens and bellows, the cost of the appropriate lens board may be low enough to get one and see how it does.

BebuLamar

Depending what kind of bellow you have. I have a Nikon PB-6 bellow and of course it takes Nikon F mount. Most enlarging lenses have 39mm thread mount. Ideally I would want a 39mm to F mount but I couldn't find one so I get a 39mm to 42mm adapter and then an M42 to Nikon F mount adapter. I removed the lens element in the M42 to F mount as it's not needed for close up.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Its just like any other manual lens you mount on a bellows, I have an Schneider Componon, that I used with my movie camera and a bellows, it sure has some awesome IQ! Have fun and good shooting!

User ID

Consider the long end and short end optically.

Visualize the EL lens doing its intended job as
it makes an 8x10 or 11x14 print.

If it's a 150mm, the film was 4x5, so the lens
was about 225mm from the film and about
450mm from the paper. Now you have the long
and short ends identified.

If it's a 50 or 80mm it was almost always much
closer to the film than to the paper, so again you
have the long and short ends identified.

When you put a lens on a bellows, long and short
refers to the lens-to-sensor and lens-to-subject
distances. One is usually longer than the other.
The long end of the lens should face the longer of
those two distances.

You will need various adapters, possibly including
male-to-male filter thread adapters to reverse the
mounting [reverse puts the M39 mount toward the
subject].

I've done this work for years and have accumulated
a zillion adapters. They were very common in the
past. Not so now :-(

BTW, altho most EL lenses are M39 mount, some are
Compur "0" and "00" as found on small leaf shutters.
Unless you have Compur-to-M39 adapters, avoid the
Compur mount .... visibly smaller than M39, easy to
spot those.

I wish you luck, but without ready access to adapters,
it may get frustrating.

.

User ID

BTW, if you find a Schneider Comparon, thaz a great
bellows/macro lens for working near 1:1. It was not
great for enlarging cuz enlarging, by definition, is a
long way off from 1:1.

Note the word "compare" is embedded in "Comparon"
refering to its 1:1 abilities. Not to be confused with
"Componar", Schneider's economy line of EL lenses.
Their top line was "Componon". Note the "non". You
can remember "non" is their best, as "No one" made
anything better :-)

Easy to confuse the three names :-(

.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Most enlarger lenses are 39mm leica thread mount. Most will come with a threaded mounting ring - some not. I just take an appropriate plastic body cap and make an appropriate hole in it with a hole saw and use the mounting ring , or make a press fit or glue it in place on the body cap. Then, mount the bodycap/lens to bellows or variable (helicoid) extension tube.


FWIW, componar are 3 element, comparon are 4 element, and companon are 6 element enlarging lenses. The more elements the better - in theory.

..

User ID

One thing some users will not like
about using EL lenses for macro is
that they often have only a few iris
blades and these are often straight
edged, IOW not for the Bokeh Cult.
Realize that these is no bokeh when
enlarging ... there is no out of focus
area. You have a flat neg focused on
a flat paper ... plane-to-plane ... so
there is no out-of-focus imaging.

OTOH some EL lenses have a zillion
blades cuz they're old and thaz how
old lenses were usually made :-) If
you find an old 135/4.5 with upteen
zillion blades, it's prolly a mediocre
EL lens [good ones were 5.6] but it
will prolly focus to portrait distance
range on most bellows ... so you've
got the FL and bokeh for portraits.
It doesn't need to be an f/2.8 cuz
it's a 135.

Most 135/4.5 are Wollensak [USA],
so they're not M39 but you can use
that body cap mod posted earlier.

.

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I just put a 39mm enlarger lens one one end and a T mount to fit my camera with epoxy on the other end of the bellows. I first did this with a minolta film body - worked great. Then exchanged for a Nikon Dslr mount. same results. - Dave

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

!35mm f4.5 enlarging Raptar mounted on Pentagon 6 bellows with adapter to Pentax 645.

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(Download)

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

The Nikon BR-15 ring adapts M39 to Nikon F and adds 6.8mm extension.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Sure, we’ll be happy to help. What enlarger lens do you have, and what mount does your bellows take?
Edit: Check this section: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-102-1.html
It’s mostly just people showing off their pictures, but there is a lot of useful information in the links on the first page.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Never heard of a Schneider Comparon!

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

I have one sitting on my desk now - 135 f/4.5 Schneider-Kreuznach Comparon, 39x0.75mm mount (standard filter thread). Takes 40.5x0.75mm filters and has 20 diaphragm leaves. Serial #11 302 475. Image quality is not quite as good as a Componon or Componon-S, but very good non the less.