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genesis111989
16-Oct-2008, 09:57
I was wondering if any of you would take the time to share some photos taken with this lens. I'm having a hard time finding any images on this forum and I was only able to find a couple on flickr. I'm going to be doing a shoot at the end of this month and I will need to rent several lenses and I think this one will be one of them. I've never used this wide of a lens before on a view camera so I just wanted to get an idea of just how wide this puppy is. If any of you have architectural images taken with this lens, even better!

Also, the same for the 45mm f 4.5 Rodenstock APO

Thanks!
AR

Aender Brepsom
16-Oct-2008, 10:30
I can't share any photos taken with the 55mm on 4x5" as I have only used it once, for landscape work (and the result was not good enough to post it here). It was just too wide for my taste. However, I have used it a lot on 6x9cm and liked it very much.

Dave Aharonian
16-Oct-2008, 10:49
I took this photo with the 55mm Rodenstock a few years ago. On 4x5 film the corners will darken a bit and its a pain to focus because of the fall-off on the ground glass. Its also very sharp and I found it performed slightly better than the Schneider 58mm. In this shot I've done a fair bit of burning around the edges. This lens can work for architecture, but you won't really get any movements out of it due to the small image circle.

Hope this helps!

GPS
16-Oct-2008, 10:51
...
I've never used this wide of a lens before on a view camera so I just wanted to get an idea of just how wide this puppy is. If any of you have architectural images taken with this lens, even better!

Also, the same for the 45mm f 4.5 Rodenstock APO

Thanks!
AR

You don't need to see any pictures to see "how wide the puppy is". All you need is a frame put at the distance of the focal length from your eye. You can then see all the world around you as the puppy sees it - with the advantage of looking at the scenes you want to take pictures of...

Emmanuel BIGLER
16-Oct-2008, 11:21
I just wanted to get an idea of just how wide this puppy is.

Hello from France
Two images taken with the Rodenstock apo grandagon 55mm on 6 x12, 120 slide film Fuji Provia 100F.
The actual image size is 56x112 mm, exactly like two 6x6 frames side by side.
I'm using a Horseman-Arca 6 x12 rollfilm back and an Arca Swiss F-field 6x9-4x5".
Both images were taken at Noirlac Abbey, Dept. Du Cher, France early November 2006.

Horizontal, the cloister : (low-web-resolution, sorry)
http://www.cijoint.fr/cj200810/cijLMcNRj1.jpg
The lens is very easy to ise for horizontal panoramic shots on 6x12.

Vertical, the church's nave : (slightly more pixels)
http://www.cijoint.fr/cj200810/cijfX1v4tQ.jpg

but you won't really get any movements ..
No problem in 6x9 and even in 6x12 (56x112), with the apo grandagon 55.
The manufacturer's specs list a circle of 163mm @f/22.
With 163 mm of total allowed image circle, you can in theory shift vertically a 56x112 format in vertical format by plus or minus 20 mm.
For horizontal shots with the same lens the amount of vertical shift is generous in 6x12, about plus or minus 30 mm.

In full 4x5" (94x120mm), agreed, you have little room for real movements even@f/22.
Since the best performance however is obtained at f/11, if you want to enjoy all the sharpness you have to sacrifice some image circle. The lens, for a 110°, is incredibly sharp at the centre at f/11.

For this image I have used an "ANSI-standard" vertical shift as usual !! I think that I shifted by about 10 mm only.
No centre filter was used. I think I could have shifted up a little more, I would then have reached the edges of the image circle very gradually.

Following the classical Western esthetique, vertical 6x12 shots are often hard to justify, this one could easily be severly cropped at the top & bottom.
Chinese and Japanese traditions, as far as I know, seem to differ on the use of stretched vertical images for landscapes.
(the poorly cropped right edge of the scan is visible there only to prove that this vertical image was actually recorded on film ;))

This last image shows how good the apo grandagon performs when submitted to stray ligth from an overexposed source in the field. The multi-coating is superb, you can shoot directly into a bright light source without too much trouble.

This lens is of course wide-angle but when you keep your camera back vertical, verticals on the subject stay vertical ! ;);) (this is why we love large format cameras : they excel in wide angle architecture shots !)

David A. Goldfarb
16-Oct-2008, 11:34
Just looking to see what I have conveniently scanned, there's this test shot from a few years ago, attached. That's at f:16 with the Schneider III center filter on Efke PL100 at EI 200 in Acufine.