I've accumulated a large number of good lenses over some time and also
recently got about 20 more in a purchase of a pro lab /business odd
lot. I decided to test the most desirable ones for my own duty and
took time with a Versalign rig to get all planes in proper alignment
for a run through.

The 40HM, 45HM and Rodagon APO 50 were judged about equal and all were
only slightly ahead of the standard Rodagons and Componon-S but only
discernible at higher magnifications. The single Nikkor 50 2.8 was
slightly less sharp than the others mentioned but this could easily be
a single sample variation as these enjoy a good reputation. An odd
Fujinon 49.9 EFS did very well and was nipping at the APO heels and I
believe anyone would be happy with it. A 63mm Nikkor was also in this
same class as was a 40WA Rodagon.

The Rodagon 80 APO and Componon HM 90 seemed equal to each other and
in practice these show a very slight advantage for the Rodagon as
there is something about how it renders mid tone/skin tones that is
especially nice, at least with my materials and practices. Again, the
standard Rodagons and Comp-S did well against these until more extreme
enlargement sizes. A Nikkor 80 showed poorly but it had a bit of dust
internally and may not have been a good sample. A single Componon S
100 did nicely and did slightly better than a pair of 105 Nikkors.

It was fun to have all of these nice chunks of glass all in one place
for some comparisons. I learned that I could likely be happy with
most any of them but use the APOs in general use for little more
reason than the psychology of having the best glass on the machine. I
would describe myself as "fussy" regarding optics and I'll admit that
this entire exercise had me conclude that it is truly hair-splitting
to discern any real world difference in any of these good quality
choices. Perhaps if I worked in color, I would find characteristics
that would favor one over another. In black and white, my best tools
for quality in darkroom projection has turned out to be my alignment
tool and grain focuser! Any of the differences I've highlighted were
very, very slight and had me pondering long and hard to tell any
difference.

On Thu, 8 May 2008 01:19:35 +1000, "otzi" wrote:

I am well aware that probably all modern enlarger lenses are pretty good.
The question arises, is the Componon HM series any advantage for black &
white printing
over the Componon -S
I am pretty thick about reading any graph curves but the Componon - S curves
seem flatter than the HM ones.

Craig Schroeder
craig nospam craigschroeder com