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Thread: What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

  1. #1

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Hi guys, I'm wondering what you would all suggest as the highest-quality lens made for 8x10, in the range of 360-450mm. With the new Fuji films and amazing scanners and printers, it seems that the current limitation on image detail and sharpness (for huge prints) is the lenses. So what's the end-all LF lens, cost being no object for purposes of this discussion?

    ~cj

    www.chrisjordan.com

  2. #2
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    While I don't have any numerical data to back this up (meaning take it or leave it), about the sharpest LF lenses I have come across are the Nikkor process lenses. My 240mm makes negatives that almost hurt to look at they're so sharp. There were a variety made in longer focal lengths as well.

  3. #3

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Assuming perfectly flat film, perfectly parallel standards, no camera shake etc…I agree that the lens seems to be the source for the current limitation on image detail and sharpness in a modern photographic system. However, the lens limitation is not a function of material or design, but of physics. Most modern lenses are diffraction limited at their optimal apertures (the aperture designed to minimize lens aberrations). I haven’t looked at an MTF chart lately so I could be completely wrong on this!

  4. #4

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Chris,

    In this range, I'm partial to my Fujinon 450mm C.

    Steve

  5. #5

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    A number of 8x10 negatives, scanned separately and then joined.



    If you follow the methodology used by Max Lyons at http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/gigapixel.htm, you can do the same thing that he does, but use 8x10 negatives instead of a dinky digital camera



    Then, you can create an image much larger than a mere Gigapixel.



    Humor aside, this is one way to increase the resolution of any image, with any format, as long as there is some kind of digital step along the way.

  6. #6

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    David, isn't film limiting? It certainly is in smaller formats.

    Cheers,

    Dan

  7. #7

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Dan,

    Not if the film is Tech Pan.

  8. #8

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Forget all the above philosophy:

    455mm SCHEIDER Gold Dot MC

    Assisted a NYC photographer for a while - he had top quality glass. But nothing was sharper then the 455mm SCHEIDER.

    I sold it for him on eBay - now I regret that I didn't buy it myself!
    John V.
    ScanHi-End Moderator

  9. #9

    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Dan:

    How are you finding film limiting?

    I can get over 80 lp/mm on Tmax and have reproduced legiable type 1/10th of a mm tall near the edge of a 4x5 color transparancy with a single coated lens. The sign was over a mile away. (If you assume that it takes 6 to 10 rows of pixels to reproduce legable type, it would take over 100 meg pixel to reproduce that much detail.)

    Once I capture that much detail, it seems to me that my wet and digital darkroom possibilities are endless.

    However, back to the origional question. God willing and the creek don't rise, I am going to buy a 150 Symmar XL near the end of the year, on the theory that the shorter the lens, the greater detail that I can capture. It seems to me to be the state of the art for 8x10.

  10. #10

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    What's the end-all sharpest LF lens?

    Hi

    For distante shoots Rodenstock APO Sironar N 360mm a true killer lens for near shoots and far shoots APO Ronar MC 360mm or 480mm But im very sure sometimes it will get limited by the filmflatness and right position of the film in the holder! If your groundglass is very exactly at the right position, is even more important! Good luck!

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