135mm or 150mm macro?

[vinny]

the nikkor 135mm is very sharp and allows ample movements on 4x5. It's very small and light and will allow the shen hao to fold up if you flip it around. It's also my normal lens on the 4x5 format.
vinny

[ifer]

the 135mm nikkor is dirty. i dont think it's worth getting it only to send it for cleaning. the 150mm is, well... not so interested in f9 lenses... prefer something brighter.

thanks guys for all your advices. appreciate it alot.

[Mike Davis]

the 135mm nikkor is dirty. i dont think it's worth getting it only to send it for cleaning. the 150mm is, well... not so interested in f9 lenses... prefer something brighter.
...

I used to think this too. In the past three years I've shot exactly 1 photo more open than f16 in 4x5. Normally, I prefer to work at f32 or smaller. That's not to say that you might not want or even need to shoot something more open. But, I haven't.

The 150 G-Claron is very light and a nice lens. On the Shen Hoa it may not be the best choice for Macro because of the limited movements (but there are some work arounds).

As I said earlier, my normal 4x5 lens is the Nikon 135mm. But I would definitely take a G-Claron if the price was right.


Mike

[Carsten Wolff]

I've got a few 135 and 165 mm lenses, but no 150mm (not that this has been a problem). Anyway, whilst playing with options, I recently remounted (read: unscrewed the cells, cleaned them and screwed them directly into the shutter) a 150mm Componon in a spare Prontor-Press #1 shutter off an old MP-4 camera. Total cost: next to nix; I didn't expect that much, but the resulting negatives and slides (taken at near infinity to a few feet away) are very good! So perhaps one doesn't need to stretch one's budget too far, or look too hard to make headway in LF..... brightness can be an issue (sic: G-Claron), all the more: I'm happy with the 5.6 Componon (read: Symmar?).