300 mm (40 yr old Symmar) on 45 Alpina, what can I expect?

[harlequin]

Hello Team,

I have an Alpina 45 camera with about 21” bellows draw, with 300mm Lens is this useable, I think the image circle is in the 300mm plus range but if doing portraits am I looking at huge bellows draw? What would be equivalent mm focal length in 35mm? Good bokeh? Just interested on your feedback/input on this I have the ubiquitous 210mm lens but wanted to try something different.

Thank you for your opinions.

Zach has a zemyat.....
This land is my land, in Ukrainian,,use to sing this as young child in Western Canada some 50 years ago...
God Bless them.

Vincent/Harlequin

 

[Ian Grant]

It's useable, but the 300mm Symmar is quite heavy and makes 5x4 cameras quite unstable. It's equivalent to a 100mm lens on a 35mm camera. Personally I prefer a 240mm or a 360mm telephoto, un my case a Tele Xenar.

Ian

 

[MARTIE]

It's a great set up. Just give it a try.

You'll be able to get quite tight shots, head and shoulders without too much trouble and fairly narrow dof.
Just remember to have a good, solid tripod and to compensate exposure for bellows extension.

 

[abruzzi]

you would need about 24 inches of bellows draw to get to 1:1 with a 300mm lens. So with 21 inches, you should be able to focus pretty close. On 4x5 thats going to be way tighter than you probably need for portraits. Weight is a challenge, and I don't know how rigid the rail is on the Alpina, but the rest of the fron't standard is similar (identical?) to the Sinar F standards that were used on 8x10 cameras, so I would think it would be up to the task.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

The Nikkor M/Q 300mm f/9 Tessar-clone is very sharp and very light. Unfortunately you can't get the shallow portrait DOF you can get with an f5.6 lens. There is also the 300mm f/9 Rodenstock Geronar triplet. Probably equivalent lenses from Fuji, Congo, Computar et al..

 

[Ian Grant]

It's useable, but the 300mm Symmar is quite heavy and makes 5x4 cameras quite unstable. It's equivalent to a 100mm lens on a 35mm camera. Personally I prefer a 240mm or a 360mm telephoto, un my case a Tele Xenar.

Ian

A slight correction, I was assuming the Alpina was a field camera, it's not, it's a Sinar monorail camera I've never come across before, So stability is less of an issue.

Ian

 

[abruzzi]

there are a number of smaller lighter 300mm lenses if you decide the weight is more than you want to deal with. I have a 12" Dagor in a compound that isn't too heavy. The 12 inch Commercial Ektar is a great lens too and lighter than a 5.6 plasmat. Or, if you can find one, a 305mm G-Claron, and well as the ones than Nicholas mentioned. Plenty of others too like the Nikkor-M, Fujinon-A, and others.

 

[MarkS]

Actually the f.l. comparison is more like 85mm. The 300/5.6 Symmar-S is a superb lens, with more resolution than you'll ever be able to use. (I used one on the job for over 20 years in scientific and engineering applications.) It's big and heavy but it's meant for 8x10 after all... The Alpina should hold it without any issues. (For personal work I've used a Nikkor-M 300/9 for 30 years.) Bokeh, never worried about that.; out-of-focus is not my thing.

 

[lobitar]

In my experience you shouldn't expect edge sharpness like a modern lens
(edit: that is - if used on 8x10)

 

[jimgalli]

I prefer the look of a Tessar for portraits. A 12" Commercial Ektar perhaps. Or go all in on a Wollensak 12" Velostigmat with diffusion softening. The de-lovely bokeh. Symmar's do everything well and nothing great.

 

[Nokton48]

It's a great lens, I like the chrome 300mm Symmars, I have a couple for my Norma TLR's. In my experience the Schneider Componons in 300mm and 360mm are incredibly similar to the old chrome Symmars in performance. And of course the f4.5 Xenars are outstanding for portraits. I'm doing an 18x24cm XRay Mammo right now in the studio, with the 300 Xenar. In good condition these old Schneiders are worth every pound! Expect acute sharpness if you like that kind of thing. I do

5x7 TLR Norma 300mm Symmar matched pair by Nokton48, on Flickr

Here's my pair of 300mm Symmars on my 5x7 TLR Norma (downsized to 4x5). Bellows extension not too bad, prolly work with Alpina. Shown here in portrait distance mode. New canvas background by David Maheu "Gold Plaster"