90mm Super Angulon Schneider

What are the downs falls of a 90mm Super Angulon Schneider lens for

4x5? light fall off, bad coverage etc. Also is a center filter

needed?

 

Also what are the key questions I should ask regarding the lens on

ebay?

 

Also any thoughts on the Fuji 300mm lens?

 

 

Thanks Dave

I've got an older, Chrome rim Linhof Select 90mm f/8 SA and it is one of the sharpest lenses I have. Compares favorably with my Nikor 300M Apo lens. I don't do a lot of big sky stuff [too many pine trees here] so haven't noticed a need for a center filter.

 

Be careful, there are a lot of these lenses out there, and their quality really varies. Try and get a test before you buy one.

I too have a Linhoff 90mm SA f5.6. I bought mine used in Tokyo for about $200, which I'm sure is far, far less than the cost of a new center filter these days. So I'd feel guilty buying one, whether I needed it or not.

 

The only problem I have with the lens is that it's huge and heavy. It actually interferes with the bellows on my field camera when I use a lot of front movements. But it performs so well that I just deal with it.

I think there are four 90 mm Super Angulon models: f5.6, f6.8, f8 and f5.6 XL. And some were made for many years -- the oldest will be single coated, recent ones multicoated. The different models are spec by Schneider to have different coverages. The figures are on Schneider's website. Did you have a specfic one in mind?

 

Probably few photographers use a center filter with 90 mm lenses and 4x5. The best approach is to try the lens and see if you need one. Perhaps if you use chrome film, extreme movements and have some demanding needs, you might need a center filter. Otherwise, probably not. All of the Super Angulons use the tilting pupils method to improve the uniformity of the off-axis illumination.

 

Your question on a 300 mm Fuji lens is even less specific. The current Fuji lineup includes 300 mm Fuji-C and CM-W lenses. There are more choices in out of productions lenses, e.g., NWS, A.

All the 90mm SA's cover 5x7", so coverage is not a problem.

 

Light fall off is well controlled, which was the whole reason for making the SA's in the first place - they replaced the earlier Angulon.

Some photographers prefer to use a center filter - I shoot B&W and get by without one, even on 5x7" film.

 

As someone else wrote there are four main versions, so checl which one it is.

 

Some of the first f:8 SA's were mounted in #00 shutters, which are tiny, weak and impossible to replace. #0 shutters are much to be preferred.

This is one of my favorite lens. Coverage isn't as wide as I'd like but for the most part cuts away the extraneous stuff on the scene anyways. I've never have a need of center filter, light fall-off is hardly noticeable if there at all.

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Here's some sample shots using this lens:

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<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/3886898">90mm Super Angulon Schneider 1</a><br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4021799">90mm Super Angulon Schneider 2</a><br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4021779">90mm Super Angulon Schneider 3</a><br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/4023942">90mm Super Angulon Schneider 4</a>

Adonis, those are four damn fine shots. I think I'll have to pay a visit to your portfolio.

Hi David,

 

If your lens is theoretically prfect, you will lose about 1.5 stops in the corners. This is called the cosign of the 4th failure. The wider the angle of view, the more loss in the corders. A center spot filter will correct it and you will lose 2 f stops of exposure.

 

This failure is caused by the reduction of the aperture from circular to elliptical (look at your lens from an angle and it won't look round).

 

Second, the distance from the center of the lens to the corner is a lot farther away in wide angle optics which will also reduce the light by virtue of the inverse square law.

 

The loss is even greater with my 65mm on 4x5, but I wouldn't trade either one of them for anything.

 

Lynn

I`m with you Jeffrey, those 4 shots by Adonis are simply marvellous! I would like to see more. I use Super Angulon 90mm f8`s on 6x17 with excellent results, but I`m about to try a f5.6 to see if the bigger glass improves the corners? I have found that light falloff only occurs now and then, with it being less noticeable when using longer exposure times. I would love to know exactly when and when not to use a center filter!

Normal lenses have off-axis illumination that goes as cosine to the fourth power. One of the powers arises because the pupils become elliptical off-axis. As my first answer alluded to, the Super-Angulons have improved off-axis illumination compared to most lens designs. In fact, their pupils stay approximately round as you view them off-axis. This improves the uniformity of illumination to approx. cosine to the third.

 

Schneider publishes graphs of the Relative Illumination of their currentl lenses, including several Super Angulons, on their website: http://www.schneideroptics.com/photography/large_format_lenses/. By analyzing these graphs can see that the Super-Angulons have improved illumation compared to the predictions of the cosine to the fourth law, and approx. follow a cosine to the third law. The Grandagons, Nikkor-SW and similar Fuji lenses use similar designs.

 

Longer discussions: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005gK2 and

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003DPP

 

The big four (now down to the Big Three) offer wide-coverage lenses of similar design: Super-Angulon, Grandagon, Nikkor-SW, Fuji-SW. Wide-open, these lenses have some mechanical vignetting. Once you stop down a few stops, the non-uniformity of the illumination is based on these simple optical principles. The illumination from these lenses are more similar than they are different. Buying a faster lens won't make do much to brighten up the corners, within the common area of coverage of a slow and fast lens of this design type (i.e., both using the tilting pupils method). There are some small differences, and for lenses made by Rodenstock and Schneider, you can examine the datasheets to compare the lenses.

I am thinking about the F8 Version. Thanks for your responses. what should I pay on ebay for one in nice condition?

 

 

dave

For prices, you can search completed auctions on the eBay search page. Or aim to pay somewhat less than charged by used dealers such as KEH or Midwest Photo.

Is this lens, the F8, hard to focus since the image is dim?

You ask if the lens, being an f8 is hard to focus due to its maximum aperture. I use the lens to shoot a variety of subjects, both outdoors and in a studio setting and don't find it difficult to focus. Keep in mind that if you are shooting a landscape, if you set your front standard at the hyperfocal distance and close down to f16 at least, then your scene is almost guaranteed to be sharp. Of course it depends on what you want to be sharp and where the important parts are in your scene as far as depth of field is concerned. You could also pick up a screen brightener of some sort to help you. If you are using filters that absorb light, focus and compose before attaching the filters.

Hope this help.<div></div>