fair prices for schneider super angulon XL?

I am eager to get a wide angle lense and im looking at the schneider S/A XL's. THere is not a lot of these on the used market and i was wondering if some of you guys could help me figure out weather some of the prices im seeing are to be axpected or if i should wait longer for a better deal. Currently i am interested in either the 47mm or the 72mm, The best i can find right now is $1100 for a used 47mm xl and $1295 for a used 72mm XL. Are these fair prices? they are not too far below the b and h price, atleast not the 72mm. Do any of you guys have one of these for sale? I know these are pretty rare and im willing to spend the money to get one i just dont want to be taken advantage of. Tahnks in advance.

I recently saw a 72mm XL, which looked to be in great shape, go for a little less than $1200 on ebay. They seem to show up SO infrequently over there, though, it's basically not a real option. These days the 72s seem to be going for about $1600 new.

They are a fairly new series of lenses, so I would imagine the price would be a bit higher. I bought a new 80mm XL a few months ago from B&H, about $1600 if I remember right.

If you are willing to spend $1200, why not make a little sacrifice and buy new for $1400. Check Badger graphics, their prices are great and the lenses you want are not much more expensive than what you are willing to pay.

http://www.badgergraphic.com/store/cart.php?m=product_list&pageNumber=2&c=31&search=

Bought my 47 mm Schneider for $1050 on ebay. Took a couple of months for a pristine one to show up, so be patient. Mine came with a helical focusing attachment which I set aside when I had the lens mounted in a recessed lens board. More importantly, it came with the center filter, that is, a neutral density filter that is dark in the center to balance the light coming through the center of the lens with that along the perimeter. This is pretty much a necessity to even out the exposure across the film sheet and, I think is an additional $200.-

Have used this lens in a limited capacity (Arches in Utah) and my first impression is that it is a little bit of a PITB in that the image is dark (because of the center filter), there is little movement as the image circle is relatively small (barely large enough to cover the 4 x 5 format that I am shooting), and, I keep getting part of the front rail in the photo as the view is so wide. I will press on, hopefully my skills with this lens will improve with practice, I find myself thinking that this might be a great lens for extremely confined spaces or for broad landscapes in which the final printed image is cropped to a "panoramic" view. Definitely a specialty lens.

Charlie

pharquarx said:

Bought my 47 mm Schneider .....

Have used this lens in a limited capacity (Arches in Utah) and my first impression is that it is a little bit of a PITB in that the image is dark (because of the center filter), .....

Charlie

Click to expand...

Are you composing and focusing with the center filter on the lens? The typical procedure is to view through the lens without the center filter, then add the center filter for making the exposure. This gets tedious and one can forget to add the center filter, but gives a brighter image for composing and focusing. The center filter does increase the exposure time.

Why didn't I think of that?????? Thanks for the tip. Glad I joined up with this group, I learned something today.
Charlie

Robert White in the UK currently has a second hand one for sale for 549 pounds - that's a pretty good deal and they are excellent to deal with. Not sure why you want to buy "either" the 72 or the 47 - I see both of these as highly specialised optics for very specific application (both architectural). Unless you're shooting very tall buildings in restricted space you will never need the image circle of the 72 - you'd do a lot better with the 80XL.

Meant to add - they have a second hand 47mm XL for 549....