210 apo symmar on 8x10

[adam friedberg]

has anyone on this forum used this 210 for 8x10 and if so what are your impressions? i know the specs say it won't cover but i have heard schneider underrates its lenses i.c.'s. i assume it will just cover at infinity but the corners may be soft. a previous thread mentions people succesfully using 210 g-clarons which have significantly less coverage (at least on paper).

[Brian Ellis]

I have an 8x10 camera and the Schneider 210 Apo Symmar lens (for my 4x5 camera) but I've never tried using it on the 8x10 camera because I doubt very much that it would work. The G Claron is kind of an unusual situation. If you enter the Wisner web site (www.wisner.com), click on the questions and answers section, click on the older questions and answers subsection, and finally scroll down to the very last or next to last question in the older questions and answers, you'll see Ron Wisner's explanation of why the 210 G Claron will work on 8x10 despite it's relatively small nominal image circle. I'm not technically oriented and all I cared about was that it works (since I was getting ready to order the lens for my 8x10), not why it works, so I can't repeat his explanation. Basically, it had to do with the design and purpose of the G Claron series of lenses and seemed peculiar to that particular lens design. Someone with whom I was corresponding on the internet about the 210 G Claron lens before I bought mine was kind enough to measure the image circle of his for me. Stopped down to F 45, it was 355 mm, more than enough to cover 8x10 with some small amount of movement.

[Dick Deimel]

A few years ago I bought a 210 Apo Symmar (which I used on 4x5) from a man who had used it on 8x10 and said he was perfectly happy with it. I saw a couple of transparencies he had done with it, and they were quite satisfactory,with no fall-off. I don't know if he had used any movements.