75mm Schneider Super Angulon, F/8, single coated?

[Phil Kaminski]

Hi, I was given an old Schneider 75mm, F/8, Super Angulon a few years ago. It is and older design, probably single coated, from the 1960's, Serial # 6807880. I was wondering if this was considered a "Sharp" lense? I probably could only use it for B&W, color would look funny? I bought a 72mm Schneider XL Super Angulon a few years back, but, the damn rear flange is huge and cannot be racked up very much.! I have an old 4x5 Deardorf Special and the 75mm, F/8 has a lot less rear flange. I like to photograph interior spaces of old, abandoned buildings, and the 75 would be give me a little more over my SA 90. Besides, the old 75 is also quite compact! Always a bonus! Anyone out there familiar with this lense and its specs? Thanks, Phil

Note; my old Deardorf is now, my wide Angle Camera, as I tore out the 48" inch bellows, leather at that, and "Kitbashed" a bag bellows from Calumet onto it. I still don't know why anyone would want such a long bellows! It now works very well! but, not much room for that rear flange. It will expand to easily accept a 210mm lense with lots of movements. It seems as though there are quite a few woodworkers and machinists in the Large Format family. I thought you would appreciate the Deardorf story. Also, I have used the 360 degree rotatating back for some strange night photography. It will stop at any point in a 360 degree circle. Phil

[D. Bryant]

Hi, I was given an old Schneider 75mm, F/8, Super Angulon a few years ago. It is and older design, probably single coated, from the 1960's, Serial # 6807880. I was wondering if this was considered a "Sharp" lense? I probably could only use it for B&W, color would look funny? I bought a 72mm Schneider XL Super Angulon a few years back, but, the damn rear flange is huge and cannot be racked up very much.! I have an old 4x5 Deardorf Special and the 75mm, F/8 has a lot less rear flange. I like to photograph interior spaces of old, abandoned buildings, and the 75 would be give me a little more over my SA 90. Besides, the old 75 is also quite compact! Always a bonus! Anyone out there familiar with this lense and its specs? Thanks, Phil

Note; my old Deardorf is now, my wide Angle Camera, as I tore out the 48" inch bellows, leather at that, and "Kitbashed" a bag bellows from Calumet onto it. I still don't know why anyone would want such a long bellows! It now works very well! but, not much room for that rear flange. It will expand to easily accept a 210mm lense with lots of movements. It seems as though there are quite a few woodworkers and machinists in the Large Format family. I thought you would appreciate the Deardorf story. Also, I have used the 360 degree rotatating back for some strange night photography. It will stop at any point in a 360 degree circle. Phil

The SC (single coated) 75mm SA is a sharp lens and as you say quite small. It will work fine for color or B&W but care must be taken to prevent veiling flare and flare in general with certain lighting situations.

I have one in excellent conditon for sale if anyone is interested.

Don Bryant

[raindogz]

I have one and have used this lens for 30 years , both for color and B/W. It's a sharp lens and very compact which is why I use it for my field view. I'm sure there are better 75mm out there, but for the money , weight and use it gets it works for me. I use a 90mm much more. I would not get rid of the SA 75 f8

[IanG]

The 75mm f 8 SA is a superb lens, extremely sharp, the coatings are good and mine seems quite resistant to flare. I use mine for 6x17 work get no flare or veiling even shooting into the sun in situations where the Multi-coated Zoom lenses on my Canon flare badly.

If shooting E6 you may need to use a filter, my 65mm f8 SA (same age as your 75mm) is a touch blue but a Skylight filter is enough to compensate, my 75mm is much newer (1978) and closer to my other lenses.

Ian

[Phil Kaminski]

Thanks for the info, but I forgot one other item about the 75mm lense, it has that older style shutter, where the cable release has to hold open the iris for focusing. Does this degrade the shutter speed accuracy over time, or cause any other problems associated with it? As I 'm sure most of you know, getting a new shutter for one of these lenses requires it to be sent back to Schneider, negating my cost savings! Thanks again, Phil

[IanG]

Sounds like it's in a Compur 00, a small, fiddly, awkward shutter, my 65mm f8 SA is in the same, as were the early 90mm f8 SA's.

You can get Compur 00 shutters in the US for about $145 from LensN2Shutter, alternatively adaptors are made to allow them to be used in a Copal/Prontor/Compur 0

But if you get you shutter serviced it should be fine for quite a few more years. Using the B setting for focusing doen't particularly affect the lifespan of the shutter

Ian

[rdenney]

Thanks for the info, but I forgot one other item about the 75mm lense, it has that older style shutter, where the cable release has to hold open the iris for focusing. Does this degrade the shutter speed accuracy over time, or cause any other problems associated with it? As I 'm sure most of you know, getting a new shutter for one of these lenses requires it to be sent back to Schneider, negating my cost savings! Thanks again, Phil

You may be describing a Compur #00 shutter, which is a tiny little thing that has mounting threads about an inch in diameter. The early f/8 Super Angulons up to about 90mm came in #00 shutters, and the shortest lenses came in these small shutters well into the 70's. Compur stopped making the shutter at some point and it went obsolete. Mounting a lens from one of these into a modern #0 shutter will be an expensive undertaking because of the separation distance. S. K. Grimes is one source of such services; Schneider might not be.

But if the #00 works, then use it. I still have a couple of shutters that size that I use regularly, and they work fine. The controls are tiny and fiddly, and yes there is no T or press-focus control, so the only way to focus with this shutter is to open it on B and lock the cable release. That will not hurt anything, but don't store it open.

Any of the usual repair services can perform a CLA on this shutter with no problem, but there are no parts available so if it breaks you'll have a decision to make. But if you take reasonable care of it you might never face that issue. If the repair service needs to replace a part to get it within spec, you might have to live with it a bit out of spec. The slow speeds on mine are a bit slow, but I'm using mine with extremely narrow Velvia and so far haven't had any real issues.

Rick "whose fat fingers would prefer something bigger, but a deal's a deal" Denney

[Phil Kaminski]

To all who replied, thanks,
The 75mm, F/8, SA definitely has the Compur-Synchro #00. The lense I have had for some time, and could never really use it on my old Deardorff, due to bellows compression. Since I stripped off the old bellows and put a Bag bellows on it, I can now focus down to 75mm. Now, I remember why I never used this Lense! It is in very good shape, and very clean. Thanks for all the info and Advice. Phil

[Ian Leith]

From my experience a fine lens,however not near the movements allowed as the Komura 75.. ( with the rear lens guard removed) imho THE SAME SHARPNESS (resolution) for B/W
In

[Don Dudenbostel]

I bought a 75 f8 SA back in the mid 70's. It was mounted in 0 copal and had a 90 f8 mounted in the 00 compur. No question the 0 copal is a better shutter but the 00 is fine if taken care of and not abused. I used the 75 SA regularly until four or five years ago when I replaced it with a 72 XL SA. The 75 f8 is a very fine lens and single coating should make no difference for color or B&W. Remember millions of great images have been made with lenses without even single coatings and single coatings are a major improvement over no coating. In my view the difference in single and multi coatings under average shooting conditions I see little to no advantage in multi coatings. I haven hesitation to buy older lenses with single coatings. Generally I would say internal bellows flare is more of an issue than lens flare. One thing about the 75 f8 vs the 72XL is the much smaller image circle of the 75. The 75 is going to be very limited in movements.

[Daniel Unkefer]

Here's my new 75mm F8 Super Angulon, barrel-mounted for Sinar Norma Shutter. Purchased from the UK, just before the holidays. It's the first one I've ever seen.