Schneider Symmar-S 210/5.6

[Dvenosa]

Hi,

Im just starting in LF and shopping for my first lenses. I found a really nice Symmar-S 210 5.6 for a reasonable price. Is this a good lense? I plan to do art repro and portraits with it. It is going to be suitable?


Thanks for helping,

Daniel Venosa

[Mark Sampson]

Assuming you want to work in 4x5 or 5x7, you can hardly do any better. I doubt it would cover 8x10, but check Schneider's website for the specs.

[Dvenosa]

Yep, Im only going to use it in 4x5 ( Toyo 45A).

Thanks for the info!

[Marko]

It won't cover 8x10, I checked when I was buying it. :) It is a very nice lens indeed, and also great focal length to begin LF.

There are two things you should pay attention, though:

1. Make sure it is multicoated. Schneider began multicoating their lenses while the Symmar-S series lenses were already in production, so some of them are and some of them are not multicoated. If it is, it should say so on the lens, either "Multicoated" or "MC".

2. Schneideritis - some of the lenses from this period had an issue of the inner barrel paint coating flaking inside the lens, creating tiny silver dots. Many people say that it would have to be pretty severe to affect the performance, but it surely would affect the resale price should you ever decide to sell it again. And besides, why settle for something with a known defect?

[Dvenosa]

Thanks to all of you for the information.
I ended up buying the lenses. And yes, it is multicoated and doesnt suffer from schneiderittis, hehe. But I was misinformed, it isn't a 210 but a 150. This is not a problem for me, actually it is a bonus, because I need to photograph REALLY large canvas work, so, Im happy with my acquisition!
There is anything I should know about it?

thanks


D