[LargeFormat] 90mm Schneider Super Angulon f8 (was Re: On Location)

[Clive Warren]

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Clive Warren"
>Subject: [LargeFormat] On Location
>
>>  The entertaining part of the first day was maxing out front rise on
>>  the trusty MPP using a 90mm SA and watching the front standard and
>>  lens pop off the rear rails when focusing much to the amusement of my
>>  partner in crime that day.
>
>Clive,
>
>I'm glad someone is getting out and making photographs!
>Which 90mm Super Angulon do you have?  I have the
>regular f/8 lens, and for some reason I've never liked it
>very much.  It does the job and has okay coverage, but
>it never seems to have the crispness of, say, my 150mm
>Rodenstock or 210mm Symmar.  I'm curious to hear
>your thoughts.
>
>-Charlie


Charlie,

Mine is the 90mm f8 SA - I have a couple of them, one intended for 
use as a wide 120 format lens for a camera under construction, the 
other is a Linhof select lens that I use with the MPP. I also have 
the 150 Sironar N and a Symmar S 210 so have the same set of lenses 
to make the comparison.

I would say that your lens is not performing as it should do for some 
reason. One of the images taken with the 90mm f8 is posted in the 
Forum at:

http://www.f32.net/cgi-local/discus/show.cgi?18/159

The lens has always surpassed my expectations and generally I prefer 
the images from that lens in terms of apparent sharpness, contrast 
and colour rendition to those from the 150 Sironar N. Really there 
should not be a lot of difference in the performance of the lenses as 
they are all of relatively recent manufacture (in LF terms anyway) 
and all should perform well.

There is always variability in performance from the same lens model 
across those manufactured. Take a look at Christopher Perez & Kerry 
Thalmann's lens tests to see examples of this at 
http://www.hevanet.com/cperez/testing.html Maybe your 90mm is not 
performing to par - has it been taken apart in its lifetime that you 
know about? Could be that a collimation is in order but probably 
unlikely.

If you can borrow a similar lens it would be interesting to make a comparison.

Cheers,
        Clive