Apo nikkor 760/11 at infinity

[hiend61]

I was offered an Apo Nikkor 760/11 in very nice condition. I have never used Apo Nikkors. Most of my shots are at infinity or near. Any advice from users?. Thanks.

[Drew Wiley]

A big lens. Should work superbly at infinity. I have one of these too.

[hiend61]

It´s big!!!, but fits in the same board of my Apo Sinaron 600/9. The problem is that the seller lives at 500 miles from my home and does not accept
returns, so I can´t try before buy. I suspect it will be a good performer. Ken Lee has an Apo nikkor 610/9 and it seems he gets good results at infinity.

[Carsten Wolff]

I had the 480mm version which was very nice at infinity, so I'd think you'd be happy with it.
(I ended up getting a fujinon-c 450 quite cheap and added a teleconverter to get to 765mm, as I liked the size, bellows-draw and copal shutter conveniences.)

[James E Galvin]

I have one of those. Got it put into an ilex #5 shutter by Grimes. Superb performer. On pics of a large tree, I can see the veins of the leaves with a 10X magnifier. I use it on a Calumet C-1 8X10. I picked 760mm as about the longest lens the C-1 bellows will reach. F/11 might worry you about ground glass brightness, it is not a problem even at sunrise. Seems long lenses light up the ground glass better than expected.

[Ken Lee]

Here's a test of a 610mm APO Nikkor at infinity. I presume the 760 will be similar in performance, which to my reckoning leaves little to be desired.

[Dave Wooten]

Do we know definitely what is the largest format covered at infinity?

[Dan Fromm]

Dave, this link http://sdrv.ms/1i4czGa will take you to a page of links that includes one to what Nikon says about Apo-Nikkors. Coverage is given in degrees, you'll have to calculate -- that's what Excel and such programs are for -- to convert to the circle's diameter. Apo-Nikkors are like Apo-Ronars, MTFs go to zero outside the coverage the manufacturer claims.

[Dave Wooten]

Thanks, I do have that lens and know it covers 14 x 17, I was hoping it might work on 20 x 24, but sounds like that might be stretching it.

[Drew Wiley]

This is a process lens, so the image circle would be rated at f/22 typically toward infinity, then a much large image circle rating at 1:1. Neither published image circle applies to conventional photography. What a legit process lens has to do is apochromatically retain precise dot shape within the full field - a far more stringent standard than we apply to taking lenses. We also tend to use smaller f-stops. And I'm assuming the intended application is contact printing rather than enlargement.
So in effect, the usable image circle will be much much bigger than the published one. How big? You have to ask someone who uses the same lens for an analogous
purpose. I'd imagine 16x20, comfortably... but beyond this, would probably depend on what kinds of front tilts you anticipate using.