Rapid Rectilinear Thread

[Neil Purling]

Thanks for the quick reply Bill. What was the focal length and widest f stop?

[william linne]

275mm f6

[Jan_6568]

Jan: The time it takes me to set up a shot I ought to stick to shooting either landscapes or roadkill. What on earth was it when it last drew breath?

Neil, it was not a road kill. It was a young sea bird which fall off the nest on a cliff. It was taken on a beach at the Island of Kauai. I am not good enough to recognize the species of the birds when they are so young.
Anyhow, I am also pretty slow and tend to shoot stones, they are even slower then road kills . Sometimes sand, but this much more tricky, I tend to use hendheld camera for shooting sand

very best,

Jan

[Neil Purling]

If the lens was a 275mm f6 are we talking about 5x7 format?
Your lens showed some unusual effects. Was Suter a especially well regarded maker?
I just thought that if the lens was a poor example it might exhibit some unusually strong aberrations that should be better controlled.

[william linne]

8x10. I don't know anything about the lens except that I liked how things looked through it.

[Ole Tjugen]

Suter Aplanats are among the very best!

But: This is an f:6 "Serie A" Rapid Aplanat, which sacrifices some corrections for increased aperture. The "standard" Aplanat was f:7.2 to f:7.7, my own Suter is a Sere B No.6, 660mm at f:8. That one is almost disappointingly sharp all over - though I haven't tried it on 12x16" film (yet).

[Ole Tjugen]

275mm f6

Are you sure of that? I find a Suter Rapidaplanat
f:5 in 200, 270, 380 etc focal lengths, and a Serie A f:6 in 130, 210, 240, 300mm and so on. No Suter Aplanat 275mm f:6 at all in my books.

BTW, my favorite reference states sharp coverage of a wide-open Aplanat f:6 as "no more than 20 degrees", increasing to 50 degrees at very small stops!

[william linne]

Hi Ole,

Well, I don't have the lens anymore. I remember that it was a Suter Rapidaplanat, and that I eyeballed the focal length to be around 275mm. All the pictures I posted at that time, I said the maximum aperture was f6, but that doesn't really mean anything as I am often drunk, both while posting and shooting. The lens made some really pretty pictures for me.

W.

[Jan Pedersen]

This one is taken with a 11" TTH at f11 on 4x5 Not really any signs of a 110 year old lens

[Jim Galli]

This one is taken with a 11" TTH at f11 on 4x5 Not really any signs of a 110 year old lens

A near perfect example of using the lens well within it's sweet area, approx. double normal for 4X5) stopping down just enough that it was probably resolving 60+ line pairs for you. Gorgeous. Symmar's, look out. A quality (spelled Cooke) RR used this way is sharper than any Dagor.