8x10" lens: Sironar S 300 or Nikkor W 360?

[Eric Leppanen]

I second the nomination of the 300mm Sironar-S for 8x10. I too got frustrated with lack of coverage and soft edges with the smaller lenses, and am oh so happy I moved up. Superb color rendition and contrast, and very sharp even at the edges. Check out this recent thread: largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/501943.html#550907

There is also a used lens currently listed on the auction site, with a buy-it-now price even less than at Badger.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

What's the stigma against just saying E-bay?

[Gregory Gomez]

My vote is for the G-Claron 305. If you can't find one, I have a 300mm Nikkor W, new and unused, that I could sell you.

[Dan_4341]

When I was shooting 8x10, and I only shot color transparency films and inspected the results with high power magnifiers (not that I needed to print at 7x or more, but what the heck ..), I tried many lenses.

I too found the Nikkor 300M not sharp anywhere near the edges even w/o movements (again, when the transparencies were inspected at high power. The Fuji 300 F8.5C was better than the Nikkor by far, however for me it seemed to have what I'd call a hard contrast, which, although subtle perhaps, I didn't care for that much. The 305 G-claron was very impressive - sharp (although not as sharp everywhere as the ApoSironar S, mentioned later), smooth tones, slightly warm color balance. Didn't have a problem with flare. Nikkor 300m W - good, but I preferred the 305.

The 300mm Apo-Sironar S gave the best results of all lenses - smooth tones, sharp, even illumination, etc. If you don't mind the weight and expense, it might be the one to go for. My second choice, and first if weight / expense was a consideration, would be the 305 G claron

The 360mm f6.5 (or whatever the plasmat focal ratio is) lenses (I rented a Schneider once), are HUGE and HEAVY, even more so that the f5.6 300mm. I hear the Nikkor is very good in performance, and better than the Nikkor 300mm f5.6.

[Marco Frigerio]

First of all I'd like to thank you all for the useful advices!!!!

Antonio, I was referring to Sironar S and yes Ted, I know that I'm mixing different things, but I don't want to wait too much because I need to shoot and I that's what I found on the used market now ...

I don't mind about weight because I usually shoot very close to the care and I have a Calumet C1 that's very rigid, what I'm looking for is sharpness because I have to enlarge, I don't make contact printing...sadly price is a concern, but when we come to ultimate quality I can't resist ))))...

After reading what you wrote it seems that the right choice could be a G Claron 305 (there's one on ebay in a barrel right now but the seller ship only in the Usa, and I'm from Italy), or a Sironar 300 S (yes Eric, I saw the one on ebay but same problem, the seller doesn't ship to Italy), and in fact the one I mentioned is the Badger one, but in this case I have to decide very very fast...

Gregory, thank you for the offering, if I don't find a 305 G Claron, or don't decide for the Sironar S, I will contact you in private...

UHUH, it will be a loooooooooooong saturday of hard thinking!! )))

Thank you again, the guys in this forum are GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao
Marco

[jonathan smith]

You know, I have never noticed image fall off with my Nikkor M 300, although I don't push the movements with it. I prefer to make adjustments with the tripod and placement before resorting to movements.

It's very sharp and easy to carry and use.

I do have a Nikkor W 240 that is the only lens I experience image fall-off with. Sometimes the corners are a little dark if I'm not careful (or even if I AM). This is a huge lens, and I imagine the 360 W must be gigantic. Not to mention the filter size makes for more expensive filters.

I find that with my subjects, the corners not being sharp is more a matter of depth of field rather than the lens. They're usually sky or foreground grass.