Fantastic! Are they made as decoration items for rich collectors? Does Fine Art XXL stand for High Bucks $$$ ? That tells of where the future of large format photography stands...
The 1100mm in Copal is very dimm with f22 wide open! Ad that to the large size of the ground glass and you have an idea of how light tight the focussing cloth should be!
I knew I should have bought that 20x24 Wisner out of Dallas, These lenses would have been perfect for it. Oh well ce la vivre
"Funny how when the digital crowd is constantly pronouncing the imminent "death of film", we suddenly have more choices in large format and ULF cameras and lenses than anytime in recent memory."
It is funny how this happens. The same thing in audio ... vinyl records have been dead for twenty years now (not counting the d.j. scene) but at the moment there are more high end (and ridiculously high end) turntables available than any other time in history.
It's not by accident that the new lenses are in a category of "the unusual". There is certainly a logical trend. The more the digital can do "the usual" (P&S photography for ex.) the more the LF will be used for what the digital photography cannot do and the more this class of lenses will find its place in the photography. Specialized cameras have a bright future before them, I believe. And so have lenses for them.
As for the pricing of the XXL series, I assume they will sure cost several thousand $, but hopefully not "over the top". I would hope that Schneider learned a lesson with the 1st series of Apo-Tele-Xenar HM's (those with the white/grey front barrel) that were essentially priced out of the market. They corrected that mistake with the 2nd current "compact" series of Apo-Tele-Xenars.
Good news for the ULFers, but of course not for those on a budget...
I'm pretty sure Schneider will go above what is reasonable for the price, they already have positionned themselves in the loxury item category with the brass finish and engravings...
If they actually sell them at human prices, this is a time to rejoice for the ULFers, I now i really have a reason to swing by the Photokina in two weeks !
PJ VH
Some list price information is now given by Robert Hall in a thread on the APUG site:
http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9494
In addition he has a link to a pdf of the flyer on the XXL lenses with more technical information:
http://www.RobertHall.com/XXL.pdf
The lens diagrams show both lenses to be symmetric or at least close to symmetry and based on classical designs. The 550mm XXL is a 6/2 Angulon construction with 78° coverage and the 1100mm a 4/4 dialyte with 46° coverage.
Pricewise, unfortunately Doug and Jan were right. I had hoped that the prices would stay in the 4-figure range, but not so.
Correction to my previous post: the lens diagram of the 550mm XXL is not the Angulon design, but a Wide angle Dagor one (both are related).
So how do Schneider list prices compare to selling prices?
So how do Schneider list prices compare to selling prices?
Nick,
I don't have list prices on all Schneider lenses. Nor do I know if there is a linear relationship between list and street prices for all Schneider lenses. One example is the list price for the 110 Super Symmar XL is $3427. Badger Graphic currently sells the 110 XL for $1450 (42.3% of list) and B&H has it at $1669 (48.7% of list). So, for at least this one example selling price is less than 1/2 of the list price.
Kerry
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