Stan's suggestion of the APO Symmar L joggled my memory: Schneider specs the APO Symmar L series down to 1:3, where the Sironar-S spec is 1:5 according to Bob above. How much of this difference is specsmanship who knows, but I have been very happy with my 480mm APO Symmar L (enormous beast that it is), which compares very favorably with my 300 and 360mm Sironar-S's. The L has a bit more of the Schneider "smooth" look (compared to the Sironars' more dramatic, contrasty tendencies), but it is extremely sharp both close up (although I have never tried it as close as three feet) and at infinity.
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