apo nikkor lens data

I have been through the google searches for several days and don't find an answer to this:

Is there data on the various Apo Nikkor lenses on the web or elsewhere? I have several of them in barrel, got a 455 mounted in a shutter and am very happy with it, but before I make Grimes's rich by having some more mounted, I want to see about image circles and the like.

I have read a thread from one member who said that mounting these lenses in a shutter hurts the sharpness. I must say my 455 is
as sharp as any I own, old or new, so if they indeed are sharper in barrel, it would be an education to see how that happens.

The lenses I have are NOT the "process" lenses, at least they are not labeled as such, just Apo Nikkor f9, and the various focal lengths.

thanks a ton

My process lens isn't labeled either. Some one has a website with the offical numbers if you use the lens the way it was designed for. But I don't know if anybody has numbers for view camera use at infinity.

http://homepage2.nifty.com/akiyanroom/redbook-e/index.html

Scroll down to APO Nikkor and EL Nikkor

thanks Nick, I see where they list the 455 at 770mm image circle and the 240 at 440mm. Since my largest is 8x10, that should give a ton of room for movements.

I think that takes care of my coverage question, although the comment about sharper without a shutter is still interesting.

Hi,

I believe that you should verify that the image diameters are at infinity and not at 1:1, because that would translate to about half the diameter at infinity. May be you are right, just to check.

Best

Joerg

Read in context, the stated image diameters at that web site appear to be for 1:1.

Joerg beat me to mentioning that the numbers given may me for 1:1. On the other hand the specs given for these lenses would probably be for super critical process work, and the useful image circle for landscape and other pictorial work would be alot bigger than for process work, just to confuse things.
Brook

Yup those numbers are if you use the lenses the way Nikkor intended.

There have been previous discussions of these lenses, but google doesn't seem to be searching the forum threads anymore, only the titles.





One complication is that there seem to be two generations of Apo-Nikkors, with different designs. See www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004O81.





The more recent Apo-Nikkors use the dialyte design, which is the same design as used in the Apo-Artars and Apo-Ronars. As a symmetrical design, it is optimized for 1:1 imaging, which matched the needs of the original market. Consequently coverage diameters given by Nikon were for 1:1. By simple (but approximate) optical arguments, the diameter of the circle of coverage at infinity will be about half the 1:1 value.





For the dialyte Apo-Nikkors, Nikon mostly specified the coverage as 46 degrees. The longest focal lengths had smaller angular coverage. Using 46 degrees and simple trignometry, at 1:1 the diameter of coverage is 1.70 times the focal length. At 1:infinity the diameter of coverage is about 0.85 times the focal length.





My source for the design type and coverage is an original Nikon brochure for the Apo-Nikkor.





Mounting a barrel lens in a shutter shouldn't change the sharpness, unless either the spacing between the cells or from the cells to the aperture, is changed. S.K. Grimes, Inc. knows the importance of maintaining the spacing.





Apo-Nikkors are process lenses with a small "P", meaning they were intended for use on process cameras in the graphics arts / printing industries. Nikon also made a series of lenses called "Process-Nikkors", so large "P" for a proper name, which have larger angular coverage than the Apo-Nikkors. They were intended for setups to use less space, such as vertical process cameras. The Process-Nikkors are easily recognized by their highly curved elements and f/10 aperture.

Thanks again to you guys, Michael Briggs this time-the threads were voluminous, and since my main question was coverage for what I have, I will conduct some experiments and report on the 240 and 300 on 8x10 at various aperatures. I have nothing larger than 8x10 so0 I will assume the 360, 450 and 600 will certainly cover 8x10. And I have plenty of experince with the 455 already and can attest it will do anything asked of it regarding coverage.