Schneider Lenses for Enlargers
The COMPONAR-C lenses are particularly low-priced three-lens lenses, the COMPARON lenses are somewhat more sophisticated four-lens lenses, and the COMPONON and COMPONON-S lenses are high-performance lenses with five or six lenses, which are to be regarded as absolute top products.
Each additional lens, but also each additional special glass used, naturally makes a lens more expensive, but also increases its performance.
A single simple lens also produces an image, but this image is subject to numerous aberrations. Additional optical elements have the task of correcting these errors in such a way that the image becomes as similar as possible to the object. The more lenses or special glasses are used, the better optical errors can be corrected.
To prevent misunderstandings; SCHNEIDER’s three-lens lenses are also powerful lenses capable of performing the limited range of tasks for which they are designed.
When buying a lens, it is important to find the optimum between cost and achievable performance. Exactly this depends on the following circumstances:
a) on the performance of the taking lens. Even a COMPONON-S cannot get more sharpness, detail and color contrast out of an original taken with a simple camera than it contains. So, if you want to enlarge average quality originals, an average lens is just fine with a three-lens. Conversely, the photographer who spends a lot of money on the taking lens but saves on the enlarging lens at the wrong end is ill-advised. What good is the sharpest original if the enlarging lens cannot transfer its detail drawing to the enlarging material!
The COMPONON or COMPONON-S is the right enlarger accessory for a high-end camera. An enlarging lens means for the image the same as a drinking vessel for the wine. Simple consumer wine can also taste good from a paper cup, for a noble drop e.g. a Nahe wine you need a real glass!
b) The magnification scale.
COMPONAR lenses are designed for a magnification of 4:1 and should be stopped down to 8 if possible.
The COMPARON lenses, on the other hand, when stopped down by 1 to 2 f-stops, allow a magnification scale of 2:1 to 6 :1 (color) or 10:1 (black and white).
The COMPONON and COMPONON-S enlarging lenses allow color and black and white enlargements between 2:1 and 20:1 (and more!).
c) from the versatility of the enlarging tasks. When simpler lenses are used for enlarging tasks at a scale other than that for which they are intended, a noticeable drop in performance is to be expected.
In contrast, the performance of top-of-the-line lenses is less affected by the magnification scale.
If you only want to enlarge postcards and 13 X 18 cm pictures based on 35 mm originals, you can take full advantage of the performance of the COMPONAR-C 1:3’5/50 mm three- lens, which is in itself quite sensitive to scale, in this range.
Incidentally, the drop in performance in downward and upward deviating scale ranges becomes apparent much more quickly with color photographs than with black-and-white photographs.
d) the care taken in taking the picture.
Sharp originals are created, for example
- if the exposure time is not less than 1/250 sec for freehand shots
- if the person taking the picture leans up to release the shutter or if a tripod is used
- if the subject is mainly illuminated with an electronic flash.
Such carefully taken pictures with a good lens should also be carefully enlarged with a SCHNEIDER COMPONON-S. For “slightly torn” or “just sharp” originals, but also for incorrectly developed negatives or slides, even a simple lens can be completely sufficient.
Conclusion: There is a chain of transmission between the image and the subject. The quality of the image is determined by the weakest link in this chain.