90mm Angulon vs. 90mm Super Angulon vs. caltar 90mm

[walter23]

How are the 90mm caltars? They look remarkably similar to a super angulon. Coincidence or no?

I think the older caltar 90's are super angulons. The newer Caltar-II N 90mm f/4.5 and f/6.8 are the same as the Rodenstock Grandagon N's of the same specs. I have the 90 f/6.8 Caltar-II N (Rodenstock Grandagon N) and it's a very nice lens, I'd highly recommend it. The movement range is very generous; you can get a lot of shift. I can't remember the specs exactly (they're on the front page of LFinfo somewhere), but I think the image circle is around 210mm. Enough to almost shift the horizon to the ground on 4x5 in portrait orientation - ie, perfectly fine for shooting architecture from ground level.

I paid about $400 for mine on ebay, I've seen them go for between $300 and $500 depending on the mood of the zeitgeist.

[stompyq]

I have a SA 90mm f/8. The images are sharp but focusung is difficult due to the small apeture. i haven't run accross the light falloff problems that michael mentions in my chromes. Mine is a relativly new SA (the gentlemen i bought it from said he bought it new a few years ago) so i don't know if the older SA's suffer more from falloff. If you want we could meet up and you could take a look at it.

[Ted Harris]

I assume you've done the research in older threads here and on APUG but the 90 Angulon's were rather variable in the quality and the newer lenses are more consistent.

[Dan Fromm]

Dan, next time you don't have anything onstructive to say, please say nothing. That was a very rude post.
.

Chris, I gave you the reply I thought you deserved. Your questions have been asked many times and the answers are all over the web, including on this site.

You owe it to other people to try to find answers to your questions before asking them to type the same old stuff yet again.

By my standards your questions as posted, i.e., with no indication that you'd looked for answers to them and found none, are extremely rude. They bring to mind evil thoughts about laziness and lack of consideration for others.

Sorry, but that's how I see 'em. If you don't like being told this, well, sorry too.

[Dan Fromm]

I think the older caltar 90's are super angulons.

Close, but if you're thinking of the Ilex Caltars they were designed in Rochester by Manuel Kiner and were made in Rochester too. But I do wonder how Ilex managed to avoid infringing the original SA patents, the Ilexes certainly are very much like SAs.

Cheers,

Dan

[roteague]

How about an 80 XL Schneider?

[naturephoto1]

Hi Robert,

As wonderful as the Schneider 80mm Super Symmar XL may be, I would presume it is well beyond the budget.

Rich

[Ole Tjugen]

The Super Symmar XL also has just about as much fall-off as the old 90/6.8 Angulon. Considering the price difference, I'll stick to my to old 90's - the 6.8 and the 8.

[Jack Flesher]

The Super Symmar XL also has just about as much fall-off as the old 90/6.8 Angulon. Considering the price difference, I'll stick to my to old 90's - the 6.8 and the 8.

What Ole said... I've owned and used them all, and money aside, I'd personally take either 90 over the 80SSXL...

[Jim Noel]

If my memory is correct, the Super Angulons have a 2 degree larger circle of sharp focus.

Also, the Angulons are convertible with the rear element focusing at just less than twice the focal length of the pair. This helps lighten the load in the field.