Super Angulon 120 vs 121

[John Hurlock]

Neil Miller above says that the shutter for the 121mm Super Angulon is "far larger" than the shutter for the 120mm Super Angulon. I recently purchased a 121mm SA on a Sinar board and am interested in mounting it in a Copal shutter. The Schneider website lists the only the 120mm SA. The 120mm Super Angulon takes a copal 0 shutter. What size Copal shutter does the 121mm SA fit?

Thanks John

[Mark Sawyer]

I have a 121mm Technica-select SA, and can confirm it illuminates the whole 8x10 area, but has considerable "stretching" effects at the corners. This may be why Schneider quoted 290mm of coverage, as opposed to the 312 needed for 8x10. (While I like very wide angle lenses, this one sees little use as I also have a $40, 19th century brass-barrel Neuhring 125mm that covers better w/ less distortion and close-enough to the contrast and definition performance. The Neuring is also the smallest and lightest of my dozen-or-so 8x10 lenses, while the 121mm SA is the largest and heaviest.)

"The 121mm was one of Ansel Adams favorite lenses, and he used it on many well-known images. A.A. comments in his books that the 121 will indeed cover 8x10 on-axis."
--neil poulsen

Neil, was this on a 4x5 or 5x7? I can't remember any of the Ansel's images made with such a wide angle lens as the 121mm would be on an 8x10. Would love to see some if he did, as it would be far outside his usual moderate lens choices.

[Struan Gray]

I have a 121 mm Super Angulon that I have used a fair bit on 4x5. It's almost exactly the same size and weight as an f4.5 90 mm SA, so although large and heavy, it's still practical for field use if you need the coverage. I never found it lacking in sharpness, but then I wasn't looking in the corners of 8x10.

The 121s seems to have been offered in various shutter configurations. Mine is in a '0' shutter, but the lens elements do not mount directly into the shutter. Instead, they screw into a barrel, and the shutter is mounted inside the barrel, with a cut out to access the controls. I assume this was done to prevent the large elements putting undue torque onto the shutter housing. If you get one of these with a dead shutter, you cannot use the elements with a new shutter. Later 121s I have seen on eBay screw directly into a Copal '0'.

[André Thomas]

I have tested both lenses with my 13x18cm (5x7") camera. I got tack sharp images with these lenses but the colours of the SA 121 are warmer - and the colours of the SA 120 are more realistic. On the transparencies I could see light fall off in the corners. I deceided for the SA 120 MC with center filter and I'm very happy with my decision! I couldn't detect any differences in sharpnes or colour between this lens and lenses e.g. SA 72 XL or SS 150 HM!

Before I brought the SA 120 I talked to a mechanic by Schneider-Kreuznach they recommanded the SA 120 for architecture photography over the "new" SS 110 XL. But the SS 110 XL should be more universal because it delivers better results in near distances.

At the moment I havn't used the SA 120 on my 8x10" camera so I can not say if it covers this format. But I remeber an impressiv image in the Sinar largeformat book taken with the SA 121 on 8x10".

Best wishes,
André