Which 65mm for 4x5 Landscape

[Mark Stahlke]

Greetings,

I'm thinking about revising my lens kit for 4x5 color landscape shooting. I'm looking at a 65/90/135/210/300 kit and I'm trying to choose a 65mm lens.

For wide angles I prefer modern multi-coated glass with large maximum apertures so I whittled down the list of candidates to Nikon SW 65/4, Fuji SWD 65/5.6, and Super Angulon 65/5.6. All three of these lenses take 67mm filters and weigh within a couple ounces of each other. They also have similar coverage.

Is there any reason, in terms of sharpness or light fall-off characteristics, to choose one over the other two?

Would the difference in maximum apertures from f/4 to f/5.6 be noticable in actual field use including twilight shooting?

I eliminated the Grandagon-N 65/4.5 because of its 58mm filter size. I already own a Schnieder IIIb (67mm) center filter that should be adequate for any of the other three lenses. Is there a compelling reason to reconsider this lens?

Thanks for your input.

[Jack Flesher]

I use 65, 90, 120, 150, 210, 300 and my 65 is a Schneider Multicoated SA. That said, I also do not feel I need the center filter, though YMMV. I think any of the lenses you mentioned will be fine. As far as performance, I think you'll find as much variability between lenses from the same manufacturer as you will between the manufacturers themselves. However, I believe you do maintain some of the more subtle imaging characterisitics -- like color and oof rendering qualities -- by staying with one manufacturer for your different focals. I would not go out of my way to make this happen, but think it is something worth keeping in mind when considering a new/replacement lens.

In a super-wide, I doubt you'll even notice the difference between f4 (.5) and f5.6 for focusing.

Cheers,