135mm, the Fuji or Sironar S?

[Ben R]

I may be looking for a 135mm. Both the Sironar S and Fujinon CMW have an impressive image circle for the architectural use that it will be put to. The Fuji is larger though that doesn't actually bother me so much as my expensive filters are all in 77mm size which is a heck of a lot easier to step up to from 67mm than from the tiny size of the Sironar. I'm looking for the highest resolution, the lens will be used on a LF camera with a DSLR stitching adaptor stuck on the back so I need to be more anal about sharpness and resolution than I would be for film use.

Any opinions?

[Brian K]

I own the 135mm Sironar-S, it's a great lens. Sharp, contrasty, lightweight. It uses ED glass. I have not tested it directly against the Fuji, but from my experience with fuji And Sironar lenses I think in this case the sironar-s would out perform the Fuji

[Ben R]

My wallet mourns that you have confirmed what I had already surmised from my search though older posts on the subject of the Sironar on this board!

[Scott Rosenberg]

i think you will find greater sample-to-sample variation than difference between the two brands. both the sironar-s and cmw lenses are excellent. i have found some cmw lenses that were sharper than sironar-s equivalents and some sironar-s lenses that were sharper than cmw's. the intra-group differences were far greater than those across brands. if you really want to be sure your lens is stellar, buy 3 or 4, test them all, and sell the weakest of the bunch. if you bought 2 sironar's and 2 cmw's and tested them, i think you'd find that they were not grouped by brand once rank ordered. i have found this to be the case with every group of lenses i have ever bought and tested.

[Ed Richards]

Rodenstock 135mm f/5.6 Digital APO Sironar Lens - this is going to be the best for what you want to do.

[Matus Kalisky]

Both are the latest generation. I have the Fuji 125 CMW as I wanted to get closer to 35mm lens in small format (and could not afford 110XL). I do like it very much and it is sharp wide open. You may also want to look at the filter size. Fujinon is 67mm, Sironar S only 49mm. On the other hand the with the fuji the front element is better shielded. Cheaper way to get the Sironar S may be to find one in Sinar DB mount and than just screw it to Copal #0 shutter (should be no problem I guess).

[Ben R]

The digital version doesn't offer enough image circle I'm afraid.