300mm for Landscape

[Pere Casals]

You got an excellent field glass, sure you won't regret, as Vaughn points that (usually) smaller aperture from field glasses may make harder to focus in low light conditions. This has to be addressed with a well light-tight dark cloth, in special if we are under sunlight but the subject is in the shadow. To focus at infinite we can use bright spots in the scene, even the moon itself it's quite useful to focus at infinite for night photography. With low light, for a near subject I place the smartphone on it with the screen on, also we can leave a flashlight on the ground illuminating it while focusing...

I use old convertible symmars that (when converted) should be focussed at the taking aperture (because focus shift), but with those tricks I get perfect focus even when focusing at f/32.

[Greg]

To me a lot depends on what film you are shooting to some degree and how will you be printing up your final prints to a major degree. In the 1970s started shooting 8x10 to learn the Zone System. Final prints were silver FB. Used a 12" f/4.5 Wollensak Velostigmat with the variable soft focus adjustment. Never did use that adjustment in my landscape and nature photography. When I started to shoot chromes in the 1980s, switched to a 12" Symmar-S. I dare say that the Velostigmat was never made for shooting 8x10 chromes of course. Was also making Lith prints from my B&W negatives at the time. For me the images made with the Symmar-S far superior for Lith printing when compared to the Velostigmat. Several years ago started to make digital negatives from the B&W images I had shot with the Velostigmat in the 1970s... printed on Platinum/Palladium. Made a some digital negatives from the B&W film negatives I had shot with the Symmar-S (or my 300mm G-Claron), and personally found the final Platinum/Palladium prints to be not to my liking when compared to the negatives that I shot with the Velostigmat. So now when I shoot B&W with my 8x10, my choice of lenses is based on how I am going to final print the negatives. Mostly shoot with the 12" Velostigmat, scan the negs, make digital negatives, and finally print on Platinum/Palladium. Would really love to shoot some scenes to be printed as Lith prints and would definitely use a modern formulated optic, but have been very disappointed with the current papers available for Lith printing. Over the years had accumulated modern optics for shooting commercial 8x10 work from 120mm to 508mm. But for 95% of my shooting choose the 12" f/4.5 Wollensak Velostigmat ... just love its Boken when final prints are Platinum/Palladium.

[Cor]

Just for future reference:not metioned is the "lowly" 300mm f/9 Geronar, it's multi coated, and said to be a good performer when stopped down to f22 or more..

I have it, but haven't used it a lot yet, let alone comapaired it to other 300mm lenses. Thusfar it performed well to my eyes, and it is light and compact..

Best,

Cor

[Drew Wiley]

The 300 Nikkor M is quite usable on 8X10 provided you don't need aggressive movements; the image circle is really a bit skimpy for that format. It's wonderful for 4x5. With such lenses on full 8x10 film one learns to use more rear tilt than front tilt, and to expose with well stopped down apertures. It's superbly color corrected.