Schneider Symmar 360mm f/6.8 vs Nikon Nikkor-W 360mm f/6.5 vs Fujinon CM-W f/6.5

[Neal Chaves]

I worked extensively with the 355mm f9 G-Claron starting in the early 1980s when pundits claimed it was a process lens and not corrected for infinity. Maybe it is but the results looked good to me so I was happy to use it. It replaced the 375mm Caltar (Commercial Ektar) I had been using and was definitely superior, in a modern Copal 3 shutter and more convenient. I was doing some commercial work in color and also making my own Cibachromes and found that the color rendition of German lenses was quite different to that of Japanese glass so I standardized my lens set on Japanese lenses and replaced the G-Claron with a 360mm 6.3 Fujinon W. I have Nikkors and Fujinons in other focal lengths and I am sure I could not exceed the performance capabilities of any of them. Now I am not so concerned with critical color matching between lenses and use the German Super Angulon, Tele Arton and Imagon as well.

[John Kasaian]

I'd consider 12" to 14" normal on an 8x10.
However I've no experience with the lenses you're considering.
IMHO, for 1:1 table top photography you'll need honkin' long bellows if you want to go with a 360mm lens.

[Bernice Loui]

What is a "Normal" lens?

Common photographic definition is a lens used for a particular film-imager format that produces a perspective with near to far objects similar to identical to how the naked human eye renders these near to far objects. The other common metric is using the diagonal of the film-imager format. Normal lens equivalents across film-imager formats is often mixed. One better way would be to view the given lens for a given film-imager format and consider it's rendition of near to far object rendition on the ground glass then resulting print image produced.


As for color rendition of lenses, there are differences in how lenses render color. German lenses are different than French lenses are different from Japanese lenses are different from US of A made lenses. Back in the days when LF color could be done and common, it was common practice to purchase a set of color matched lenses from one brand. Then apply color correction ( cc filters) to adjust and fine tune the overall color rendition for film production lot, processing lab, lighting, printing and more..

Those days are essentially gone now.


There are also differences in contrast rendition, out of focus behavior and a LOT more making the idea-belief there is one lens that is better than the rest... kind of irrelevant. There is only the lens that works well for an Artist-Photographer's image making needs, nothing more, nothing less.



Bernice

[Pfsor]

Once again, simple means can answer the OP better than anything else. Make yourself a viewing frame for the film format you're interested in and you will be able to compare and find seamlessly any lens FL you're interested in. You can then decide for yourself what angle of view of what a FL is more "normal" than the other ones. Chances are you will find that the normality you're looking for cannot be defined down to millimetres as it is usually discussed about.
Also, a good lens shade can change a lens flare performance in such a dramatical way that the usual experience with them shadeless can be thrown out of the window right away. Fortunately, at least some of us know it (Bernice).

[Peter De Smidt]

Or a viewfinder app for your phone.

[chassis]

Normal is subjective. Human vision is binocular so the scene captured is more than what is calculated from the optical design of the human eye. A practical experiment for this is to mount a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera and sit across the breakfast table from a companion. Then do the same with a 35mm lens mounted. For me the 35mm lens on a 35mm camera is the natural or “normal” focal length for that format. 50mm on 6x7 and 100-120mm on 4x5 appeal to me as well.

“Normal” as used by photographic equipment manufacturers is code for a middle focal length lens that is not quite wide and not quite long, and generates a fair a pint of lens sales.

[Bob Salomon]

Normal is subjective. Human vision is binocular so the scene captured is more than what is calculated from the optical design of the human eye. A practical experiment for this is to mount a 50mm lens on a 35mm camera and sit across the breakfast table from a companion. Then do the same with a 35mm lens mounted. For me the 35mm lens on a 35mm camera is the natural or “normal” focal length for that format. 50mm on 6x7 and 100-120mm on 4x5 appeal to me as well.

“Normal” as used by photographic equipment manufacturers is code for a middle focal length lens that is not quite wide and not quite long, and generates a fair a pint of lens sales.

What about all of those 35mm cameras that did not accept interchangeable lenses? They outsold ones with interchangeable lenses!

[Pere Casals]

Normal is subjective. For me the 35mm lens on a 35mm camera is the natural or “normal” focal length for that format.

IMHO, being it subjective, it is more around 50mm and than around 35mm.

We may consider that the we have a good resolving power in the center, because of the Fovea, but a way worse resolving power in the periphery.

We may also feel that our field of view is determined by the movement of the eye exploring the scene with our fovea, without moving the head... Just consider how you explore an image, ...and what happens when you have to move the head if being too close to a big image or object...

As many other things YMMV...

[Bernice Loui]

Errrr, not quite. While human vision is stereoscopic (binocular) which grants depth perception, that is NOT what happens when the stereoscopic (3D) image is flatted on to a flat image (2D).

Lens choice is much about perspective and size of objects perceived front -vs- back irrelevant to human stereoscopic vision and learning how to see what once was stereoscopic then flattened on to a 2D image. This is also where many image makers fail to understand why lens focal length have the resulting image they produce as a 2D print image.

Film and video directors use a Directors View finder that has constant variable effective focal length and variable format ratios to set up how the image will be recorded, lens focal lengths to be used, camera and lighting position, camera moves and more.

For still image making, the visual skill becomes learning how to see in 2D with a given lens focal length and camera position in ways that the flat 2D print might be.


Bernice

Normal is subjective. Human vision is binocular so the scene captured is more than what is calculated from the optical design of the human eye.