When looking at the work of many readers of my magazines I saw three main problem areas where the quality of their work fell down. Although the negatives used had good tonal range and contrast, even-illumination across the entire frame and all important sharpness, the prints had often been printed on a higher contrast paper than would be judged normal. This of course disguised the struggle encountered in their darkrooms... high-contrast prints will always look sharper to the eye than they really are.

Admittedly whilst print contrast is largely a matter of personal taste, print sharpness isn’t. It is not unusual to see prints with a soft edge and two corners going slightly fuzzy, or the other way around... in fact I label such prints "lemon drops" after the well-known sweets... soft in the center and sharp at the edges. Because I knew these printers were working with good negatives and was told that both the rigidity of their enlargers was good and their working methods were technically and practically competent, one had to reconsider that usual weak link in the photo chain... the enlarging lens.

In the 1990s I tested five enlarging lenses for my own use; I had already used El-Nikkors in various darkrooms for the best part of 25 years previously but wanted to evaluate some of the more recent offerings. At the time they ranged in price from £34 to £250 (the 5Omm f/2.8 N El-Nikkor was about £100 in those days); four were of f/2.8 maximum aperture and the most expensive three examples were six-element lenses.