Schneider Apo-Tele-Xenar 600 for 8x10

[jens peter]

Anyone who have experience with this lens for 8x10 landscape, architecture, portrait ??

[Walter Glover]

Sorry Jens,

I do not have direct experience with the Apo-Tele Xenars other than the fact that I was on the brink of purchasing one and decided against it based on size, weight and cost and instead bought the Fujinon 600m C lens which has proven to be an absolute cracker. One can learn of the Fujinons on the badger site.

[Ralph Barker]

I don't have any direct experience with the Schneider APO Tele-Xenar HM lens either, Jens. But, I have a couple of questions for you. What are you looking for with respect to portrait use? How much bellows do you have?

I've been tinkering with various options for an "ideal" portrait lens to use on my double-extension 8x10 Tachihara, which has only about 550mm of bellows. What I wanted was something with which I could do tight head shots, while still maintaining reasonable perspective. My tentative conclusion is to use the Nikkor 360T I have for tight headshots, and switch to a conventional lens for not-so-close work. Although the 360T is really a 4x5 lens, at the extension needed for tight headshots, it appears to cover 8x10 nicely.

Using a telephoto design for anything involving movements, however, can be "challenging", as they say, because of the nodal point being out in front of the lens.

[jens peter]

Ralph. I have a Phillips compact II with just enough bellows for a non-tele 600 mm lens such as the above mentioned fuji 600C . I recently purchased a Rodenstock Sironar-S 240 mm and a Rodenstock Sironar-S 360 mm - both excellent glas, but slightly short for certain landscape and portrait applications.
After examining the spectrum of contemporary longer lenses, the Schneider 600 mm just appeared (on the paper) as the best "long lens" supplement I could get ? However, I havent meet anyone who have actually tryed it......that whas my reason for asking :-)
I can mention that I have been satisfyed with the optic performance of the 400 mm Apo-Tele Xenar for my 4x5 work.