What's the best 240mm and 300mm for my needs

[Noah A]

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I certainly agree that the G-clarons are nice and sharp but always wondered about their ability at infinity. The same goes for the Apo-Ronars. Obviously these are designed for optimal performance at 1:1. However, I could go for one of these if I end up doing portraiture if there is sufficient lack of depth-of-field wide open although the Nikkor-M 300 will do that job I would guess!...

I've been using a 300 Apo-Ronar, albeit on 4x5 not 5x7, and the results are very good. I can't say for sure how much movement it would give you on 5x7 (though you can find out easily enough) but I've used it with fairly extreme rise on 4x5 and it's still sharp at the edges, at infinity. I have the later blue-stripe version. Some have said these later ones have a spacer or something to make them more suited towards shooting at infinity, but Bob S. has said that's not the case.

I normally use the Apo-Ronar at F/22.5 or so and near infinity. I drum-scan my negs at 4000dpi and make large exhibition prints, and in practice the 300 Apo-Ronar looks as sharp as my 210 Apo-Sironar-S in the final print. I'm using a Technika on a Gitzo 3-series CF tripod. It's a solid setup, but I have the feeling that stability is probably the weakest link in my chain, not the lens. And a huge plasmat in a copal 3 would only make the stability problem worse.

I think the Apo-Sironar-S range is really amazing. I use the 210 version now on 4x5 and it's my sharpest lens. It definitely outperforms the 210 Apo-Symmar (non-L) it replaced. Again, I often use it with pretty extreme rise and even the edges are tack sharp.

I also used the 240mm version with 8x10, and it was also an amazing lens, probably my favorite for that format. I'm sure the 300mm is also great, but it's big.

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

For what it is worth, there is a 240mm f/9 G-Claron in a barrel on "That Auction site". It is $143.95 Buy It Now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Schneider-Kr...item35b8cfaab5