Quote Originally Posted by tor kviljo View Post
to have responses from others before wasting film testing it.
Are you joking ? Having a 210 xenar and not wanting to know what this jewel is ?

It is a really good lens, with great bokeh.


See Xenar section in this review:
https://www.largeformatphotography.i...rtrait-lenses/

You are not the first one in this situation, se what Ken says in a similar situation:
https://kenrockwell.com/schneider/150.htm



It would be single coated, but as having 3 groups only this has less impact, and flare can be anyway be controlled with a compendium shade that you will need anyway if wanting to control well flare even with a multicoated lens.

The xenar is crazy sharp in the center-mid, but the tessar desing is less perfect than a plasmat in the corners, anyway the 210 has a circle that is larger than you need, so with 4x5 you can take the center of the circle. The 150mm xenar needs to be stopped to f/22 to get sharp corners, but as said, with the 210 you can take the center-mid of the circle that's crazy good even at f/16 or f/11.

Then you have the Linhof selected stamp, this is a nice stamp. In the production run of LF lenses of the era there was a sample to sample variability, that stamp tells that this glass is not a dog at all.

I've tested the xenar 135, and I'd like to have a 210.

IMHO for portraiture it's a remarkable excellent choice, for landscape it depends a bit on flare control and the YMMV.