Mine's about 8-10 years old. I bought it new, and it has the lighted aperture ring. Sharpness is really, really good. It's just the light falloff that's a problem. With the cold light tube that snakes all around, and the diffuser under that, it looks very even at the source. Of course, it's also possible that the light just passing through the enlarger opening causes some diffraction at the edges which reduces the light to the corners. I recently adjust the bellows to the lowest position (for med format neg - since it makes no difference with the cold light). That moved the light source closer to the film and seems to have helped quite a bit. So maybe the problem is not the lens at all, but the design of the 23CII. Overall, the problem was it it's worst with the condensers, and got better with cold light, and now is better still with the bellows collapsed.
Thanks, Ed http://lightandsilver.com > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of William Johnson > Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 12:08 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Enlarging Lenses > > > I think that Nikon enlarging lens quality is all over the > place. I briefly had a EL-Nikkor 50/4 which had resolution > so bad that it wouldn't resolve the grain from a HP5+ > negative under a grain focuser. > > Of course, it's possible that I'm not looking for falloff > critically enough either. Out of curiosity, do you have the > newer version (I think with lighted aperture ring) or the old > one? I have the old one. > > William in Utah. > > > Ed wrote: > > > > My has light falloff all the way up through the range to > F16, but it > > does get progressively better as you stop down. It's most > noticeable > > when making contact sheets. > > > > Thanks, > > Ed > > http://lightandsilver.com > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of > William Johnson > > > Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 11:09 PM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: Re: Enlarging Lenses > > > > > > > > > Hi Jeff, > > > > > > Welcome to the list. I have a EL-Nikkor 50/2.8 that I like well > > > enough, except it suffers from falloff above about f/8. > > <snip> > > - > > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To > unsubscribe, go > > to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To > unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the > directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery > at http://pug.komkon.org . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
