Which lens would you choose?

[Dugan]

For general photography, such as landscape, rocks, trees, water, abandoned places/junk, and all things considered such as shutter, condition, etc. being equal, which lens would you choose?

Goerz 10" f8 Gotar
Goerz 10 3/4" f9.5 Apo Artar (non-RD.)
Wolly 10 1/4" f10 Apo Raptar.

Collecting opinions...those folks with first-hand experience please don't hold back.
Thanks!

[Jody_S]

The lightest one. Or the one with the best shutter, but in both cases it's probably the Wolly.

[Luis-F-S]

For what format? For 4x5 I'd find a 9 1/2" Dagor or get the 10 3/4" Artar, though its movements will be more limited than with the Dagor. Both of these lenses fit in a Copal1; the shutter is more important than the actual lens. L

[mdarnton]

I have the Wollensak lens. I bought it initially for a job I was doing, in the 80s, then in the 90s I bought a new Sironar-N to replace it. I did not get better or worse results with either, except the Sironar, at f/5.6, was brighter and easier to compose and focus. I was usually shooting both at around f/16. So given the three you mention, why not something like a more recent 240mm or 250mm plasmat? If you're stuck on an ancient Apo, maybe the Artar.

[jp]

Whatever has the better functioning shutter, and whichever has the roundest aperture as it stops down.

[Bernice Loui]

Ask yourself, what are your image goals..
All three are going to do fine given they are not optically-mechanically ruined in some way.


Bernice





For general photography, such as landscape, rocks, trees, water, abandoned places/junk, and all things considered such as shutter, condition, etc. being equal, which lens would you choose?

Goerz 10" f8 Gotar
Goerz 10 3/4" f9.5 Apo Artar (non-RD.)
Wolly 10 1/4" f10 Apo Raptar.

Collecting opinions...those folks with first-hand experience please don't hold back.
Thanks!

[LabRat]

All great lenses, but currently using (heavily) the Wollensak (in barrel) on my 4x5 Graflex Super D RB as one of my go-to main lenses... For an f10 lens, it is bright focusing through it, has good DOF even wide open, great color saturation and contrast,very low flare, very small/light, and have even used it at f90 when max DOF was needed (not bad)... Interesting it has a new world and older world signature "look" at the same time... And mine was only 5 bucks!!!

But the FL is a little long when doing broad scenes, but great getting up close and personal...

Never used one in shutter, but note the shutter choice your listed lenses come in (some better than others)... But a good CLA on any makes them much closer...

I'm off to shoot mine this afternoon (with a 6x6 RF back) as a Tele camera of pieces of billboards etc in the (hot) Cali sun... This lens usually stays on the camera...

Steve K

[Mark Sawyer]

Whichever one is coated. All are Dialyts with six interior air-glass surfaces, and uncoated versions will have lots of flare. Especially bad for a landscape lens.

The Raptar will be coated. The "non-RD Artar" and Gotar, probably not.

There ya go...

[Dugan]

Thank you, everybody, for your advice and recommendations! I love this site, such a wealth of info!

[Bruce Watson]

...which lens would you choose?

Goerz 10" f8 Gotar
Goerz 10 3/4" f9.5 Apo Artar (non-RD.)
Wolly 10 1/4" f10 Apo Raptar.

If it had to be one of these, the Apo Artar.

When I was faced with this choice, I bought a coated Fujinon-A 240mm f/9 (inside writing?). The second lens I ever bought, and it remains one of my favorites. That's because I like landscapes that are contrasty and razor sharp. Clearly, YMMV.

[aphcl84]

The Gotar and Artar are both dialytes of the same design but the Gotar is likely not Apo, I'd avoid it. The Raptar on the other hand is a 4 element double gauss design and unlike other similar process lenses is optimized for 1:2 rather than the usual 1:1, the one that I own is a spectacular performer out resolving every other lens I have tested it against from f11 to f22. I also have a 19" Apo-Raptar which shows similar performance.

[Greg]

The more I use my 250mm f/6.7 Fujinon-W (inside writing) the more I love it. If I had only one lens for my whole plate, it would certainly be this optic.

[Bob Salomon]

The Gotar and Artar are both dialytes of the same design but the Gotar is likely not Apo, I'd avoid it. The Raptar on the other hand is a 4 element double gauss design and unlike other similar process lenses is optimized for 1:2 rather than the usual 1:1, the one that I own is a spectacular performer out resolving every other lens I have tested it against from f11 to f22. I also have a 19" Apo-Raptar which shows similar performance.

Why not list which lenses you have tested them against?
And, were they all tested on the same subject under the same lighting with the same film and development?

[aphcl84]

Why not list which lenses you have tested them against?
And, were they all tested on the same subject under the same lighting with the same film and development?

I tested it against a Fujinon NW 180mm, Symmar-S 210mm, Fujinar 25cm f4.5, Ilex Paragon 254mm f6.3, Yamasaki Congo 360mm f6.7 and Apo-Ronar 360mm. All tests were done midday at about 60 feet from the subject with a digital camera on the back of my monorail. Some of the lenses were fairly close in performance, the two plasmats and the Apo-Ronar nearly matched the Raptar, and the plasmats with multicoating had higher contrast.