Schn 150mm f4 enlarging lens as a taking lens. Opinions/Experience

JMC1969 · Sep 16, 2010

After attempting to sell this lens with no luck, I have decided to keep it for myself.

Schneider 150mm f4 Apo-Componon HM. I really don't need it for an enlarging lens as I already have a suitable 150mm lens for that area. Because I can't let well enough alone, I took it upon myself to unscrew the elements to see if they would screw into a shutter. They do (copal #1) and I took a couple quick type 55 polaroid shots. My Copal #1 has a scale from F5.6 to F45 so I just used F5.6 marker as though it was F4. My Type 55 is old as dirt, kept in a no a/c room of varying temperatures in Florida and passed to me from another photographer as though it was not good at all. To my amazement, I got a couple of decent shots at asa 25. I will try to get these scanned a little later today, but for now, I would like to hear any opinions of what this lens can do for me as my primary 150mm LF lens. Or, any negative things that might come about besides having a $1200 150mm lens. I may be that you need to see the images I took to form an opinion, if so, I will try to be quick about it, but I don't have a 4x5 scanner and will need to go to the ex-employer to do so.

Thank You,
Jody

ic-racer · Sep 16, 2010

Image circle will be limited compared to the 'usual' 150mm lenses for 4x5. Since it is a HM lens it should be reasonably flat field for use as a taking lens, especially at distances around 15 feet or so.

JMC1969 · Sep 16, 2010

Interesting. I think I need to go scan these in a few minutes to find out what I really have here.

Shot#1

Approx. 5ft from subject
1" rise on rear standard
asa 25
1/30 sec exposure
f4

Shot#2
approx. 18" from subject
2" rise on rear standard
asa25
9 sec exposure
f4

I need to go see about a studio stand they want me to have anyway. Don't know where I am going to put it, but can't pass it up.

Thanks for the reply

Ian Grant · Sep 16, 2010

The issue of using enlarger & repro lenses is the flat field design. Somewhere I have some examples in an advanced photography book which illustrate how a round object towards the edge of an image can be distorted by a repro lens focused near infinity while the equivalent LF lens is fine. A similar problem happens with retro-telephoto wide angle lenses, a compromise to allow room for an SLR mirror, which is why a pure WA design like the Seiss Biogon on the Hasselblads SW is better, also the Leica & Cosina designed Ultra WA 21mm & less RF lenses.

With a few Repro lenses there's a spacer ring which is designed to be removed for normal camera use, on some late CZJ/Docter Optics lenses this is quite thick, removing it helps correct the distortion issues at longer focus distances.

Schneider sold LF Componon's as camera lenses in a shutter for macro use and the cells from my 135mm Componon & Componon S will fit straight into a Compur or Copal 0 shutter, coverage & image circle seems quite good surprisingly close to a Symmar.

Got side tracked should have posted this earlier

Ian

ic-racer · Sep 16, 2010

After checking the MTF curves for that lens it looks like it performs best with a subject distance around 1.5 meters, though at 3.3 meters it is still quite good. So a little better for non-macro work than a Componon-s. If you used that lens on a 6x6cm camera with a 1.5 meter subject distance, the across-field resolution would be near perfect, with almost no degradation at the corners.
https://www.schneideroptics.com/pdfs/photo/datasheets/apo-componon/apo-componon_40_150_2.pdf

Richard Wasserman · Sep 16, 2010

I've been using a 150mm Componon in shutter, that Ian referenced, for macro photos where it performs very well. I haven't tried it at infinity yet, but am now curious about what it will do.

JMC1969 · Sep 16, 2010

2 shots

Well, in my haste I have come up with the understanding that 2 quick shots w/ very old Polaroid probably isn't going to give me any definitive answers. But, here they are anyway.

Again, shot#1

5ft from subject, asa 25, f4, 1/30 sec

shot#2
18" from subject, asa 25, f4, 8 sec

darinwc · Sep 17, 2010

As long as you can get the lens in a shutter, i think it will be perfectly adequate. The only issue will be extra coverage for movements. I think the polaroids you did turned out great.

I have a 135mm componon (the older chrome barrel) that i like better than the tessar types (raptar, optar, etc).
I think I have a pic of some womans legs around here taken with the componon that you can easily make out the texture of the nylons.

JMC1969 · Sep 17, 2010

Darinwc! The provider of my first LF lens, long time, and thanks for the input. Hope all is well. If things go my way, I should have my darkroom completed by the end of the weekend and then maybe I will have a chance to shoot a regular piece of (fresh) film. I also have a Caltar 210mm I have not yet had the chance to shoot. I guess I am going to be in the market for another copal#1. I have scales to go with the Caltar, but they fit the newer version of Copal#1's and mine is older. I do have a few of those Polaroid press shutters if I just can't wait, but that just puts a bunch of math on top of me already teetering on the edge of messing something up while shooting. The 150mm in the copal I have isn't a big deal, because it is basically an equal stop. 5.6 = 4, 8 = 5.6, 11 = 8, etc.... or at least that is what I am going on.

Wade D · Sep 18, 2010

I wonder where you got those Polaroid shutters from. I hope your experiments with them turned out well.

Ian Grant · Sep 18, 2010

When I'm back in the UK next month I'll do some tests with a 150mm Tessar, Sironar, G Claron and Componon, also my 135mm Compon & Componon S.

The 150mm Componon is actually a Vivitar VHE, however the front lens cell clearly say made in Germany (It was common knowledge at the time as well), My main problem is making an aperture scale for the Prontor Press shutter, they work the opposite direction to Copal's & Compur's. The current scale is f1.9-f16 it was fitted to an 80mm high speed oscilloscope lens, this covers 35mm at Infinity, probably 5x4 at 1:1.

I'm particularly interested to test the spherical distortion, so the Sironar / G Claron test will be the first.

Ian

phil_marcus · Oct 2, 2010

I too have a Schneider Componon in a Prontor shutter. I haven't shot it in years, but I will soon, as I need a 150mm lens. When I shot it years ago, it was at a subject distance of around 10 meters. The image looked uneventfully sharp.

wiltw · Oct 2, 2010

Enlarger lenses are optimized for a certain 'magnification' range. Some lenses might be great up to 10:1 while one for making huge enlargements might be optimized for 20:1, for example. The Rodenstock APO-N 150mm f/4 enlarging lens has its optimimum performace at 6x (to enlarge a 4" x 5" neg to 24" x 30"). So use of this lens as a shooting lens, where a 10' tall object at 1000' away occupies 1/67 of the film's frame height, would not be as great as one might hope.

Schn 150mm f4 enlarging lens as a taking lens. Opinions/Experience

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