150mm Large Format Lenses - Some Advice Please

[DREW WILEY]

There are different legitimate reasons to coat or multicoat. One is to reduce flare. But since certain special types of optical glass have become rare or extinct due to either exorbitant cost or proscribed toxic ingredients, multicoating has become an important method of fine-tuning optical performance. This doesn't mean that single
coated lenses are inferior. I've used single-coated lenses which were better in almost every category than later multicoated equivalents; but they also employed
glass no longer available. So it all depends. Likewise, with reference to "apo". Among German manufacturers, Rodenstock beat Schneider to the finish line with
respect to a noticeable improvement in general plasmat view camera lenses, so highlighted this with an Apo marketing designation on the Apo Sironar N series.
Now you've got the Apo Sironar S series which is equally corrected a stop or more wider open. But neither meet the Apo standard for true reproduction lenses like
4-element Apo Nikkors, which might be cheap now on the used market, but originally were quite expensive. And all along, both Schneider with its Apo Artar series,
and Rodenstock, with Apo Ronar, had been making lenses closer to true apo designation.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Drew, don't forget coating's importance for transmission. This isn't as significant for LF as for smaller formats, where fixed focal length lenses often have more elements and air-glass interfaces than LF lenses and where zoom lenses are common. I've had a couple of S8 cine cameras whose zooms t/stopped much slower than they f/stopped. The wretched things were best suited for use outdoors at high noon on bright days. Not so much a problem with LF lenses, but real nevertheless.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I'm certainly not an optical engineer, but have listened to a few of them enough to understand that coatings are themselves part of an extensive tool kit when designing lenses. For several years I worked side-by-side with an ex-NASA optical engineer. The highest contrast and most accurate color transmission lens I've ever used in any format was a 14 inch multicoated Kern Dagor. Although some people consider this particular lens to be the holy grail of large format lenses, it was frankly just too much contrast for me, especially for color chromes. So I sold it and replaced it with the previous Kern single-coated Dagor, which still has high contrast, but not so over the top. Neither are "apo" despite their superb color characteristics - that would be the related Goerz Trigor graphics lens, which I've never my got my hands on, and probably never will. No need for it, really. I could simply go into the darkroom and grab a 360 Apo Nikkor. At a certain point, getting nitpicky about such things is a waste of time. You'd need one huuuuge print to tell the difference in resolution.

 

[Alan Gales]

If you were shooting landscape then I would tell you that there is no real difference that matters between the 180mm that you own and a 150mm. With portraiture I feel different about it though. Ari and I discussed 300mm versus 360mm lenses for 8x10 which is the same as 150mm versus 180mm for 4x5. I like the little little extra reach of the my 14" (358mm) lens and Ari says that he has always done better with a 300mm. Who is right? I guess we both are. You can try a 150mm lens compared to your 180mm. I doubt you will keep both focal lengths though.

As far as Schneider versus other brands of 4x5 lenses. If you want sharp and contrasty then any modern lens will do. If you are happy with your Schneider then buy another. Besides the modern Cooke soft focus portrait lens, it's with the older 4x5 lenses where you really find a lot of differences. Think Ektar, Dagor, Heliar, Petzval, etcetera.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Apples to apples relative to lens design, 180's will have a bigger image circle than 150's and distinctly less illumination falloff towards the corners. Just double that
for 8x10. I distinctly prefer 360 to 300 for 8x10 (used a 360 on 8x10 today for an image that need that extra bit of usable circle).

 

[M. Axel Wikstrom]

Most lens manufacturers don't mark their lenses as "multicoated" anymore, much the same as hotels no longer advertising, "COLOR TV", or car manufacturers saying, "Fuel Injected".

 

[Ai Print]

I have a 180mm Apo Sironar S and because of that I won’t use a 150 but I do use a 135mm Apo Sironar S to bridge between my 90 and the 180.

If I were really set on using a 150 I would punt the 180 and get a 210 in working towards portraits.

 

[jimgalli]

Fujinon 125mm f5.6 with lettering inside rim, single coated. 150 is too close to 180.

 

[alexanderjmarkow]

Someone else mentioned the Computar Symmetrigon 150 6.3. I have one and love it. No complaints about image quality.