Nikon 80mm f/5.6 El Nikkor enlarging lens

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:23 am

Recently bought this lens on ebay; used in reverse.
Major advantage over the 50mm El Nikkor is the increase in working distance between lens and subject.
Allows for me to use a lens shade and still have enough working distance to be able to effectively use a single flash for illumination.
The lens shade is a tube of Protostar flocked light trap material fitted to the inside of an empty spool from a roll of sticky tape.

For this syrphid fly (ex freezer) I had a WD between lens and fly of 9cm; to get the same image size with the 50mm would have reduced the WD by half.

Full frame image is 6.4mm wide which is a 3.7x mag. on the sensor.
29 frames @ 0.1mm, f/5.6. HF stack of jpegs showing the typical halos around edges.
Resolution is adequate for an image of the whole fly; lower image is a 800 px selection of wing base and scutellum.

Graham Stabler · Post by **Graham Stabler** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 4:05 am

The lens looks great!

Something else that fits nicely over the back end of those lenses is a 35mm film canister. I made a lens cap with one. I just cut off the base and then applied a flame to the cut edge until it began to melt, this leaves a smooth bead which grips the lens nicely. With more time I might vac form a shade but I only have the 50mm at the moment.

Graham

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:25 am

The use of a 35mm canister is a good idea - now to find one!

In my setup, the inner ring of the plastic spool of a roll of Scotch brand Magic Tape has an outer diameter (yellow arrow on top left image) that exactly fits the inside diameter at the rear end of my 80mm lens. I lined the plastic ring with the Protostar material for a perfect non-reflective surface.

elf · Post by **elf** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 7:49 pm

A friend gave me one of these. It appears to be in pristine shape, but the images were decidely poor. I'll have to try it with a shade to see if that helps.

augusthouse · Post by **augusthouse** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:14 pm

NU,

Your post has encouraged me to take some images using an EL-Nikkor 5.6/80mm that I have on-hand.
The one I have is the earlier version of the 5.6/80mm (lots of chrome and glass). I did have the 'N' version, but sold it to buy something else. I'll buy another 'N' when it comes along.

I did a brief experiment a while back:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... t=elnikkor

I recently picked up 'N' versions of the 2.8/50mm and the elusive 2.8/63mm.

NU wrote:

Allows for me to use a lens shade and still have enough working distance to be able to effectively use a single flash for illumination

That has me puzzled. What is hindering you from effectively using a single flash at lower working distances - diffuser/reflector arrangement?

Craig

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:57 am

The closer the lens, or lens shade, gets to the subject the more difficult to get even lighting over the background with my single large Nikon SB800 flash.
The oblique lighting is OK for the subject, most often a fly, but it casts an unwelcome shadow on the background.
With a long working distance the shadow problem doesn't occur.
At short WD's, relectors don't eliminate shadows for 3 dimensional objects.

Actually I have just solved the lighting problem. The SB800 has a "connection port" that allows me to connect, via cable, another flash to it. So now with 2 flashes, one each side of the fly, I can get shadow-free lighting. The SB800 supplies most of the light and the 2nd flash acts as a fill light for the background.