Rodensock APO Macro 120mm Performance for Non-Macro Work

[Fragomeni]

Hi all. Just wonderign if anyone can speak to the performance of the Rodensock APO Macro 120mm for non-macro work. I am well aware that lenses are optmized and such but I am just curious about how well this particular lens does in non-macro situations i.e portrait, landscape, architectural, etc. Thank you.

[Bob Salomon]

Not nearly as well as an Apo Sironar N or S. Rodenstock did make a 120 N for a short while but never made an Apo Sironar S version.

[Wally]

120mm macros typically don't conver 4x5 well. Their image circles are expected to be big enough when used on close-in subjects because of bellows factor.

Focusing on a distant subject shrinks the circle.


// Wally

[Fragomeni]

Thanks guys. The lens looks like it covers 4x5 and doesn't appear to be vignetting. I was just curious. I'm predominantly an 8x10 and larger guy when it comes to LF. I just picked up a wonderful little 4x5 field camera and the lens is the only one I have at the moment with the appropriate focal length for how I want to use it. Just wanted to see if I could realistically use it for non-macro. I'll probably play around with it while I save up for another lens. Thanks for the help!

[Armin Seeholzer]

Yes the the Rodenstock APO Macro 120 mm does easy covering at infinity. I tried mine some years ago and up to around 10m it works quite well. But at infinity it gets a bit tricky to find the sharpest fokus!
At 1:5 it has still 201mm covering power stated in my German Rodi Brochure!

Cheers Armin

[Ken Lee]

I owned one briefly this summer, and while I found it a bit short for my way of seeing, I had a look at the ground glass with a loupe at infinity, and found it to be impressively sharp and evenly illuminated. It is not like the Nikkor 120mm Macro: it covers 4x5 quite well at infinity.

No doubt, a non-macro Sironar will be better, but it all depends on how large you plan to print and/or the resolution of your scanner.

[Steve Goldstein]

FWIW, I believe the specified f/22 image circle is around 170mm.

[Oren Grad]

Rodenstock's specification is as follows:

image scale 1:5 working stop 8-11 image angle 70° image circle diameter 201 mm
image scale 1:1 working stop 8-11 image angle 60° image circle diameter 277 mm
image scale 2:1 working stop 8-11 image angle 55° image circle diameter 374 mm

It's not obvious how to extrapolate from that to smaller magnifications and smaller working apertures. I guess you just need to try it.