I would like to buy my first lens for my 4x5 camera (Chamonix C45F-2). I want it to be somewhere around 180mm (which should be 50 in 35mm equiv.) and it should be a „no-compromise“ lens in terms of quality and speed even if that would mean it is a bit pricier - within reason. I don’t need rare, much sought-after, legendary lens, I want a reliable, high quality „work horse“ that will join me on my photographic journeys for the rest of my life.
I'd prefer a Symmar S, a Srironar N or a Nikon W or a Fujinon CM-W. Multicoated but not latest APO models, made around early 1980's. IMO this would give a top performance vs cost.
Being your first lens a choice would be a single coated Symmar convertible, it would be cheap, you have two focals, but the secondary 315mm one has some limitations, min aperture is f/12 and corners are a bit soft until well stopped, still the 315mm conversion would be an excellent portraiture lens, that would be equivalent to around 105mm for portraiture.
If you plan to try some (head and shoulders) portraiture that convertible would be a choice, the conversion may require a compendium shade to keep constrast low.
See those offers:
You may get a Convertible lens with shutter and pair of Symmar S cells for the half an APO version may cost.
The APO Symmar version is quite expensive, but I frankly doubt that the APO Symmar version is much optically better than the bare Symmar S version. LF lenses were APO before APO commercial letering was stamped in the lenses, for example the APO Sironar N was mostly the same design than the non APO stamped, with time the "APO" version received some minor incremental refinements that made them slightly better in average, but sure many Non APO stamped Sironar N lenses are better than many APO stamped, as in production some variability happens in the peak performance, anyway this is very, very dificult to be noticed in practice.
Sironars and others may have a shim to adjust the inter-cell optimal distance for each particular lens. With used lenses it may happen that those shims are lost or wrong ones are in place, some sellers around may assembele a lens from to broken lenses, not the general case but it may happen.
An important factor is shutter, take one that it is in shape, and ideally get a (cheap) shutter tester to check speeds, in special if you are to shot slides.
If you can find a Caltar IIN, it will be the exact lens one of the big guys make (Rodenstock) -- just rebranded. That will save you a few bucks...my 4x5 lens is a Caltar IIN 150/5.6.
A Caltar can be perfect, but lenses were eveluated before shipped to a commercial destination. A question is if different crops of different quality were stamped differently, Technika and Sinar stamped glass passed additional QC of suposed higher standards, and it's quite difficult to find a Technika stamped dog glass. Caltar stamped glass had better discounts than Rodenstock or the german camera stamps... some difference may be there... Who knows?
Still, IMO it would be hard to see the difference outside an optical lab.