Nikkor 120 SW f8

[Tony McLean]

Has anyone any experience of using a Nikkor 120 SW lens for 8x10? I am aware of the tight coverage but what about fall off at the corners. Is this particularly noticeable? Any other tips would be greatly appreciat

[Simon_443]

You might talk to the folks at www.bostick-sullivan.com; their Hobo 8x10 camera can be configured with the 120 SW....

[Shigehiro Ishii]

Hi, Tony

I've used the lens for my 8x10 and light fall off was really noticeable patrticulary when sky was included in the composition.

[Dave Anton]

Tony, I've seen guys with a 90 XL on an 8x10 using the fall off as an aesthetic element and it looked quite awesome.

dave.

[Michael S. Briggs]

The Nikkor-SW series will have light falloff with a dependence on angle theta between lens center and position on the film between cos theta to the power of 3 and cos theta to the power of 4. This falloff is a fairly fundamental property and will not have much, if any, dependence on brand of wide-field lens (as long as the lens actually covers 8x10). If you want to use a 120 mm lens on 8x10 and find the falloff objectionable, the solution is to use a center filter. Nikon doesn't make center filters, but one from another manufacturer (Heliopan, Rodenstock, Schneider) should work. Before buying a center filter, use the lens and see if you need a center filter for the type of photographs you do.

[Patrick Chase]

Regarding Michael Biggs' comments about light falloff: The cos^4 rule is derived from thin-lens theory, and isn't necessarily a very good predictor of the behavior of real lenses. The Nikkor SW designs in particular seem to "swing" the entrance pupil around a bit, which reduces the light falloff to below what the cos^4 rule would predict. I measure between 1.5 and 2 stops of falloff at the edge of my SW 90/8, whilee cos^4 would predict a bit over 3.

-- Patrick