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View Full Version : schneider lens for sinar f2



gukyman
18-May-2010, 14:21
Im a student hoping to start using a large format camera.
I was looking to buy a sinar f2 camera which was in my priceline.
Also i heard that the schneider 150mm symmor is one of the sharpest lens, but when i searched on ebay..i found out that there is more than few types of model.
For instance the DB mount. then the ex with aperture control and etc..
what one shall i get?! I need a lens that very sharp, for portrait+fine art photography.
Thanks!

rdenney
18-May-2010, 15:20
Im a student hoping to start using a large format camera.
I was looking to buy a sinar f2 camera which was in my priceline.
Also i heard that the schneider 150mm symmor is one of the sharpest lens, but when i searched on ebay..i found out that there is more than few types of model.
For instance the DB mount. then the ex with aperture control and etc..
what one shall i get?! I need a lens that very sharp, for portrait+fine art photography.
Thanks!

The DB mount is for use ONLY with the Sinar Auto Aperture or Expolux shutters.
Lenses in a Sinar DB mount do not have a shutter. Instead, you should buy lenses mounted in conventional shutters, and mount them on standard Sinar or Horseman lens boards with the appropriate hole. Sinar supplied them both ways--they certainly did not expect all their customers to use their camera-mounted shutters.

The Symmar is one of the first widely available plasmat-design lenses on the market, and Schneider has been making them for a large fraction of a century. The Symmars in common use start with the Symmar Convertible (which is coated), which was replaced by the Symmar-S, then the Symmar-N, and then by newer models that I've lost track of. All of them are excellent lenses. The Symmar Convertibles are old, but they are often very well priced. The difference in image quality between an older Symmar and the latest Symmar would require considerable skill to even explore.

Other lens manufacturers have made plasmats of equal quality, including the Rodenstock Sironar, the Nikkor-W, and the Fujinon. The Rodenstocks (and the Schneiders) may be branded Caltar, and Sinar has also branded both Schneider and Rodenstock lenses, called Sinaron. All are excellent, and all would be a completely appropriate match for your Sinar.

I've paid as little as about $150 for an old Symmar convertible in a Compur shutter. But even a much newer Sinaron-S (Rodenstock APO-Sironar-N) at 210mm only cost a coupla hundred, though I was patient in waiting for a deal like that. $300 is not uncommon, however. These are newer and are multicoated, and they are mounted in newer Copal shutters.

Plasmats are the "normal" lenses of large-format photography, largely replacing tessar designs, and in focal lengths of 150mm through 210mm are outstanding without being really expensive. Lenses get costlier when you wander outside this "normal" range, as with other formats.

Rick "large format means not having to obsess over lens micro-performance" Denney