Rodenstock 210 mm Apo Sironar W

[jeroldharter]

I picked up one of these lenses somewhat by chance recently. I have not received it yet. I plan to use it my widest lens for an 8x10 camera (or maybe 5x7 in the future). I can't find much talk about it other than image circle, weight, etc.

Any practical experience with this lens in 8x10? Looks like it should have ample coverage - what about sharpness, etc? Thanks.

[Oren Grad]

It's a perfectly fine late-model plasmat, with everything that that implies about image quality and character. I have one which I haven't yet tried on 8x10, but I have used it on 5x12 with excellent results, as expected.

I tend to want a lot of front rise available when I use a wide lens on a squarish format like 8x10. Extrapolating from my experience on 8x10 with the 240 Apo-Sironar-N, which is a bit longer but has a nearly identical image circle, coverage will certainly be plenty enough to be practical, but it is likely that occasionally there would be a picture opportunity that would leave me wishing I had a bit more. YMMV.

[8x10 user]

Sharpness is very high with the Apo-W. Under a 10x loupe my chromes look just a sharp as the ones done with an Apo-S...

The design is supposed to be sharper at the corners then the 6-element plasmat's. Like the Apo-S it uses real E.D. glass.

[jeroldharter]

Thanks for the info. I will be eager to use it. Quite a chunk of glass too.

[Mike1234]

Nice find, Gerold. I finally settled for a Graphic-Kowa.