Schneider G-claron 150mm

[jimpete]

<p> I often see this advertised on EBAY as an enlarging lens, which I guess it is, but am more aware of good performance for infinity landcsapes and close up nature photos from a lot of research on this site. Is this one and the same lens? Are there two different lenses for two different applications. I am thinking that it is one and the same. I am not familiar with enlarging lenses and not really interested in that, but more interested in a versatile light landscape lens that can do some close up as well. Thanks for any help. I am still learning large format. Jim </p>

[dave_s]

<p>Clarons are process lenses, which are slightly different in purpose from enlarging lenses. Kelly Flanigan (who is no longer on this site) used to stress this point. OTOH, they're similar to enlarging lenses in that they are both optimized for short object distances.</p>

<p>There are at least two different kinds of G-Clarons, both process lenses. Lenses from the 1960s may have dagor-type design, and later lenses are plasmat-type. Look around on photo.net, on apug, and on the large format site for lots of discussion about this. There are also a couple of old G-Claron brochures buried somewhere on the Schneider website-- if you can't find these, email me and I'll send them to you. </p>

<p>Schneider says the G-Clarons can be used at infinity at f/22, and Schneider tends to be conservative, so this may be fine for your purposes if you can focus at f/9. It will cover 4 x 5 at f/22. I bought a 150 to take backpacking. It seems like a good lens, but I haven't used it enough yet to be able to make comparisons. </p>

[leighb]

<p>Schneider's enlarging lenses are the Componar and Componon series, and their variants.</p>

<p>The G-Claron is described in the Schneider Large Format Lens literature as:<br /> "A symmetrical, six-element large format taking lens particularly corrected for 1:1 linear magnification."</p>

<p>Being a symmetrical design, it's well-suited to work at relatively small reproduction ratios, in the range 1:5 to 5:1.</p>

<p>Image circle diameter is 189mm at f/22, which is barely larger than the 166mm diagonal of 4"x5" film. This would permit virtually no movements. Schneider shows no shift values for 4"x5" in their literature for this lens, although they do show such for the longer FLs in the G-Claron series.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

[dave_s]

<p><em> Schneider shows no shift values for 4"x5" in their literature for this lens,</em></p>

<p>Yep, they do, just have to look in the right place. They say 25mm parallel to the short side, and 21 parallel to the long side-- at infinity, at f/22. This coverage will be fine for many purposes. It's about the same as a 150 Xenar. </p>

[leighb]

<blockquote>

<p>They say 25mm parallel to the short side, and 21 parallel to the long side-- at infinity, at f/22.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>OK. I was looking at the wrong line, across a two-page PDF. Sorry about that.</p>

<p>However, those numbers are wrong. They're for axial shift, i.e. where the image circle hits the edge of the film on the center line. The correct numbers are 19 and 16mm based on where the image circle hits the film corners.</p>

<p>- Leigh</p>

 

[leicaglow]

<p>My sample is not impressive at infinity, though not bad (see attachment). It is VERY good for closer up, and holds its sharpness across the field. It is also very affordable. I shot this earlier last year with a Sinar X, 150mm f/9 G-Claron, on Adox 25 CHS in XTol. It sort of fell out of favor in my kit, but its so small that it fits into a side pocket of my bag. In this case, I only had a 210mm with me because I was shooting a product shot, and I needed my 90mm. I realized I had the 150mm G-Claron tucked away, and it saved the shot.</p><div></div>

[larry h-l]

<p>Plenty of coverage stopped down, 189mm image circle is very conservative. I use one on 5x7 frequently.</p>

[geoffrey_poulton]

<p>Hi Michael,<br>

I wonder if your lens not focussing too well at infinity might have something to do with the spacing of the element groups in the shutter.<br>

I see that my G Clarons have shims, so someone at some time must have made a measurement to implement those shims.</p>