Looking for opinions on the 150mm f9 and 210mm f9. Coverage? Sharpness? Working with 5x7 contacts. I've heard plenty about how some process lenses are pretty good but I've not heard much about the Agfa Repromaster. Anyone care to comment? Thanks.

-- Tad Cornwell (zmountaingoat@yahoo.com), February 22, 2002

Answers

These lenses are extremely sharp, plenty of contrast and have an unusual diaphram. Am sure that a call/mail to that nice Mr.Grimes will give you what you need about shutter requirements/costs.

-- Brian Colin (fzmreels@hotmail.com), February 22, 2002.

The very small 150mm will almost cover 8x10 - it just darkens the very corners of the image. For 5x7 it would be fine (and probably for 4x10). The 210mm f9 has something like a 370mm image circle. Both are very sharp and with little light falloff - no center filter is likely needed even for the most critical work. The lenses originally came off $10,000 stat cameras. I have a 185mm Repromaster f9.0 that Steve Grimes mounted in a Copal 1 and it is a great moderate wideangle for 8x10. Eskofot Ultragon is another of several names for these lenses - thus I think Agfa contracted with a German lensmaker for the "Repromasters" rather than creating in-house. They come in a number of other focal lenghts and speeds and as the image circle seems to become larger with the focal length, I really wonder just what sort of circle their 305mm puts out.

-- John Burnley (oreamnos1@fnol.net), February 22, 2002.

Thanks for the posts. I've come across a 150mm and a 210mm not mounted in a shutter and without visible aperture scales. Anyone know what the click-stop f-stop progressions (minimum and maximum aperture) of these lenses are? Greatly appreciate the help.

-- Tad Cornwell (zmountaingoat@yahoo.com), February 22, 2002.

Most of these I've seen have "Schneideritis" Hmmmmmmmm......... I wonder? Too bad they don't go into shutter very easily at all. But I suppose if they did they wouldn't be selling in the $32 range. They have ALL the same characteristics of their cousins the G-Clarons.

-- Jim Galli (jimgalli@lnett.com), February 22, 2002.

The 210mm f9 I have sitting "in reserve" has click stops at f9, 11, 16, 22 (marked "22" on the barrel - none of the other stops are marked), 32, 45, 64. Hope this helps.

-- John Burnley (oreamnos1@fnol.net), February 22, 2002.

Hi Tad

In the older days some german lens maker did mark the sharpest opening in red or just an other color like the others. Thad means the lens is the sharpest on thad f stop all over.

Hope it helps.

-- Armin Seeholzer (armin.seeholzer@smile.ch), February 22, 2002.

FWIW, ages ago (late '60s? '70s) Agfa bought Staeble, a Munich lens manufacturer. The lenses you're talking about have been sold badged as Staeble Ultragon, Eskofot Ultragon, and Repromaster (Agfa's brand of stat camera). All the same. Opinions (great stress, opinion, not all backed by reports of experience) expressed about them on rec.photo.equipment.large-format have been all over the map.

Cheers,

Dan

-- Dan Fromm (76266.333@compuserve.com), February 23, 2002.

I have a Repromaster 213 f9.25 (this is exactly what it says on the barrel) on my vertical enlarger and it's a fantastic lens. I tested a lot of enlarger lenses before I came across this one and it beats them all. I shoot panoramas with a rotating camera on 120 film, a 360 degree pan gives me a 13 inch long neg. I modified my enlarger to take the 13 inch neg and tested all the 210's I could get hold of for cover. The Repromaster had much more cover than El Nikkor 5.6, Rodagon 5.6 and others, contrast is slightly less than El Nikkor and Schneiders but nothing to worry about. Sharpness is edge to edge, you wont have a problem with 5x7. I'm not sure if this Repromaster is the same as the others, it's a huge lens, much much bigger than a what you'd expect a f9 to be. I have some info about my enlarger on my web site www.bigshotz.co.nz I'll be adding some completed pics of it shortly

-- Clayton Tume (clayton@bigshotz.co.nz), February 24, 2002.

Can't speak about the 150 or 210, but I do have the 240 Repromaster. Sharp sharp sharp. I suspect the 150 and the 210 are also very sharp.

-- Roger Urban (roger_urban@yahoo.com), February 24, 2002.

Thanks for all that contributed a post!

-- Tad Cornwell (zmountaingoat@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.

See my answer on the 240mm enlarger lens thread - but I too have a couple of these (150 and 210, both f9) and they are really very sharp - despite a rather cloudy look to the glass. The 210 seems to cover 10x8 on my De Vere 5108, though I only use it for blowing up contacts from 35 and 6x6mm. The 150mm is perfect for 5x4. Mine came from a friends PMT camera - they had been in a damp cellar for ages, and he gave them to me when he threw the camera out.

-- Peter Hamilton (peter.hamilton@bardwell-press.co.uk), April 16, 2002.

I cant resist big chunks of glass so last week I picked up a Repromaster 270 f9.5 at a collectors fair and the owner quickly sold me the 270, plus a Repromaster 213 f9.25, plus a Repromaster 135 f8, plus a G-Claron 135 f5.6 (with no iris) all for £20 Pounds. The 2 big ones seem to be wide angle repro lenses so I guess they would happily cover 10x8 at infinity. I only go up to 5x7 so I guess they will easily manage that.

Now is the time to stock up on these repro lenses as the printing industry is discarding them fast as they switch to computers and scanning.

-- Tim Hicks (thickstp@aol.com), May 06, 2002.

I just found an old copy camera on the side of the road. It had the 210 and 150 mounted in it. It doesn't now. Both lenses are marked 1:9/210 and 1:9/150 and both are marked with f/9, 11, 16, 22, 32, 44 and 64. The rest of the camer is still on the side of the road. I had no need for it.

Nick

-- NicK Sherrouse (nds.photo@comcast.net), July 03, 2002.